Chapter 5

Picking Up the Pieces

There was nothing to say. Words, for once, had lost their meaning. Anything that Twilight could have said would have felt hollow. It was one thing to help somepony in need, but it was another thing entirely to lie to them.

For a few moments, the room was completely silent. A single drop of water splashed deafeningly on the window, immediately followed by a few more pinpricks of rain. Slowly, the world outside of the window became distorted by the sheet of water that clung to the glass, distorting the outside world into a senseless blur of dark colors.

There was a similar film over Nightowl’s eyes as he stared out the window. For the few seconds that he sat there, staring blindly at the blurry image of Everdale outside of the window, Twilight held her breath. Every passing second made her wonder if she could do something—anything—to help him.

Miraculously, Nightowl finally moved, turning to face Twilight with an unreadable expression. The darkness of the room around them seemed to settle over his stark features, but his eyes appeared to be glowing. There was a sadness in his stare, but it was accompanied by a grim determination. His bloodshot gaze preemptively refused all of the condolences that Twilight hadn’t been able to give.

“Search the room,” Nightowl spoke, his voice cracking despite his best efforts to put on a calm facade.

“But—”

“Just do it.” Nightowl’s heavy words slammed into Twilight like bricks. Without waiting for a response, he went to search the closet. As much as she wanted to protest, Twilight could only purse her lips as she watched him open the closet door and look inside, leaving her with no option than to start searching as well.

As Twilight began to slowly walk around the quiet room, the hiss of the rain snapped her out of her daze. Only then did she realize how cold it had become, but that bristling cold woke her up enough to realize something. Page had to be in this room. Three ponies had walked in, but only two had left! 3-2+2=3! Mathematically speaking, this was impossible.

As their search concluded, it became apparent that there were no other occupants in the room. Twilight had searched under the bed, behind the curtains, and even beneath the mattress, but she had found nothing but dust. Nightowl had covered the rest of the room, but there didn’t seem to be any spot large enough for a pony to hide.

“This... isn’t possible! This isn’t scientifically possible!” Twilight shouted in frustration, falling back on her rump in dismay. She had never been this confused, even during the time travel escapades that had nearly sent her off of the deep end. There had to be something she was missing!

Nightowl was still prowling around the room like a timberwolf, methodically checking every nook and cranny that he could find. “I don’t care,” he coldly responded. “You said that Red saw her in the window, right?”

A few moments passed before Twilight responded. Her thought process was in disarray. On her way upstairs, she had shouted instructions at everypony, but she couldn’t remember exactly what she had said to them. She did know that Red had seen Page in this room a few minutes ago. “Yeah. She saw Page in the window on the way in. Said she was arguing with somepony. I’m amazed you heard me over all that shouting.”

“I see.” There was something in his voice that made it sound like he was deep in thought.

As Twilight forced herself to focus her blurring vision, she caught Nightowl furrowing his brow and marching resolutely towards the door that he had broken down. Bits and pieces of wood crunched under his hooves. “Hey, where are you going?” Twilight asked, beginning to worry about the lifeless stallion.

“To find who is responsible for this. Maybe one of your friends found her on the other floor, but as it is, we’re just wasting our time here. We should go.”

Those words were spoken so coldly that Twilight found it difficult to refuse. Hesitantly, she stood up and trotted towards the broken door, feeling a disturbance in the barrier as Nightowl walked through it. The barrier was still working.

Before she could take a few steps outside of the doorway, she turned around and made one last sweep of the room and took a mental snapshot of how everything was arranged. It was difficult to see anything, considering how dark it was in there, but her eyes had already adjusted from being in the room for so long.

Once she had the image burned into her memory, Twilight sparked a small bit of her magic and let the barrier around room 201 dissolve. With their culprit on the loose, Twilight had the feeling that she would be needing her magic for other spells. As she turned away, the unicorn couldn’t help but notice how brightly the candles in the hallway shone. Their light didn’t seem to reach the darkness in room 201, but without those candles, she wouldn’t have been able to see anything in there.

As she neared the stairs, she felt something odd. There was another disturbance in the barrier. Just one. Whipping around, Twilight turned to the dark room, but it was still empty. It was then that she realized her mistake.

The barrier around room 201 was gone.

“No, not now! Why now?!” Twilight suddenly shouted, shoving a surprised Nightowl out of the way as she charged into the stairwell. The disturbance had come from the barrier around the hotel, meaning that somepony had entered or left the premises! Rarity wouldn’t have let anypony leave the hotel, which only left one option. Twilight had been waiting for this to happen, but it couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time.

Before Twilight could announce that the culprit had arrived, she felt another disturbance. And another. In a sudden flurry of sensory overload, Twilight lost her balance, causing the stairwell to suddenly spin around and send her careening down to the first floor. With every second, shocks of pain punctuated the disorienting fall.

The stairwell stopped moving. Or was it the other way around? Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes, trying to identify the dark colors and shapes that ran together as she tried to find the ground again. Even gravity itself defied her until she came to the slow realization that she was upside down.

Twilight’s thoughts began to return as she floated around in a topsy turvy daze. Her vision reminded her of how blurry the window was upstairs.

Her train of thought was interrupted by an insistent throbbing in her head, keeping her from forming any kind of coherent sentence. It was a good thing that it was so quiet, otherwise the pain would have been unbearable.

As soon as Twilight noticed the silence... she realized what it meant. The lobby shouldn’t be silent. There was a party. There should have been a party. She should be able to hear movement, conversation, and even laughter!

Where did everypony go?

Even with Twilight’s vision as blurred as it was, she still couldn’t see anything in the lobby. All of the candles had been blown out and everything was bathed in darkness, just like room 201. All of the colorful streamers and balloons, which had seemed lively before, now appeared lifeless as they blew lazily in the wind.

As if on cue, a bolt of lightning pierced the air, illuminating the lobby in intense monochromatic contrast. Twilight had to shut her eyes to keep the pain from overwhelming her senses, but it was too late to look away. She had already seen it. The front door was swinging open on its hinges, letting the wind and rain mercilessly pelt down on the wooden floor.

In front of the door laid three unmoving forms, scattered in different places throughout the lobby. Shock overrode the pain as Twilight forced herself up on her hooves, wobbling drunkenly. She somehow managed to put one hoof in front of the other, but each step was a trial. She had to figure out what had happened!

“Wh-what the hay...?” A startled voice from behind Twilight caught her off guard. She would have turned around, but doing so would have caused her head to explode from pressure. But even without looking, she could still pick out Applejack’s thick southern drawl. “R-Rarity!”

Twilight was vaguely aware of an orange blur dashing past her as her wobbling legs finally gave out. In the distorted world around her, she could still hear Applejack’s relieved voice. “They’re...! They’re okay! Fluttershy, I could use a hoof here!”

Twilight finally allowed herself to rest. Rarity was okay. The others too. At least something had gone right. That one success was enough to allow Twilight to finally surrender to unconsciousness and let the world finally slip away. At least she wasn’t a complete failure.

As the hotel lobby began to fade, Twilight was barely conscious of somepony shouting her name.

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

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

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

“I am sorely disappointed in you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Celestia’s firm, chiding voice resonated throughout the princess’s royal hall. She sounded like a teacher admonishing her student for not doing her homework. Twilight knew that tone all too well from her days back in Magic Kindergarten, especially when the princess used her full name like that.

“But princess, I—”

“No buts. I sent you on a mission to save those ponies, but what did you do? You put them in danger. Why, Twilight Sparkle?”

The princess never raised her voice, making Twilight even more terrified. She had always been afraid that the princess wouldn’t approve of her work, but she had gotten over that fear a long time ago. The catastrophe with the Want It Need It spell had shown her that, no matter how badly she messed up, Princess Celestia would still forgive her. She would be forgiven, right?

“Twilight sparkle, are you listening to me?”

“Y-yes, princess!”

Celestia’s flat tone never wavered. “Good. I cannot always be there for you to fix your mistakes for you. I thought you learned that lesson already, but it seems you are not ready to be sent off on your own yet.”

“But—”

“Twilight Sparkle, you shall not talk back to me. I am your teacher. Because of your poor decisions, you are to remain here and study with me until I feel you are ready. Is that clear?”

“But my friends—”

“You are to stay here, Twilight Sparkle. The other Elements of Harmony will return to Ponyville until further notice. Clearly, you are not ready to assist me.”

Twilight’s heart sank. She knew that she had messed up, but that didn’t mean she had to abandon her friends! Deep down, she knew that she deserved this punishment, but a part of her still wanted to stay in Ponyville. She couldn’t begin to imagine what life would be like without them! Those five ponies had been her entire life ever since she went to Ponyville, but now she was going to have to go back to the way she had done things before. For once in her life, Twilight dreaded the prospect of being left alone to read.

Before she could descend any further into her self-loathing, a piercing shout came from the other side of the royal hall.

“Sister, you may take your leave!” came Princess Luna’s royal voice as she began to regally stride down the carpet in the middle of the floor.

Twilight looked back and forth between the two princesses as they locked eyes. Luna had never ordered her sister around under any circumstances from what Twilight could remember. The Princess of the Night had been walking on eggshells around Celestia ever since she had been saved from Nightmare Moon, so this brazen attitude seemed remarkably out of character.

“As you wish, dear sister,” Celestia calmly acquiesced, bowing and turning to go, casting a disapproving glare at Twilight as she passed by.

“Twilight,” came Luna’s voice from behind. “Is that truly how you view my sister?”

“Huh?” the unicorn mumbled, not even bothering to turn around and face the majestic alicorn behind her. She had failed. She wasn’t worthy to even look at either of the princesses. “Are you here to punish me as well?”

“No, I am here for our nightly meeting. You are quite late.”

Twilight blinked. In an instant, she found herself sitting in her library back at Ponyville with Princess Luna, sharing two warm cups of tea. The princess gingerly levitated her cup and brought it to her lips, leaving Twilight to stare blankly at the scene in front of her. Wasn’t she back in Canterlot?

As Luna set the cup down again, she frowned. “Twilight, you never answered my question. Is that truly how you perceive my sister?”

Finally, a painfully obvious realization dawned on Twilight. “I was dreaming, wasn’t I?” she stated plainly to herself, almost as if she didn’t quite believe it.

“Indeed. And quite lucidly. You must have been quite ‘plum tucked in’ to sleep so soundly!”

The haze in Twilight’s mind immediately cleared when she heard Luna attempt to use one of Applejack’s incomprehensible sayings. Giggling, Twilight smiled and lifted her teacup as well. “Actually, that one is ‘plum tuckered out’, I believe. I wouldn’t recommend trying to talk like AJ, trust me on that one.”

“One thousand and three apologies, dear Twilight!”

The two ponies shared a few giggles as they sipped their tea. Everything was so peaceful, but Twilight knew that her good mood would not last much longer. This was nothing but an act to make Princess Luna feel like she was welcome. If she could just keep this up for a while longer, maybe she would forget about everything that had happened in the real world.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna stated plainly, making it clear that she was using the unicorn’s full name. “Please, do not feel that you need to hide anything from me. This is a dream. In truth, it is nothing but a reflection of your subconscious, meaning that I could force the information out of you if I truly desired it. As much as I enjoy spending time with you, Twilight, I must inquire about the status of your mission. From what I saw of your dream, I fear that you do not bear good news.”

The library’s ambient lighting darkened. There was no physical source to the light, but Twilight already knew that her state of mind would affect the appearance of her dream. The tea in their cups instantly became cold and odorless, making Luna cast a curious glance down at the table.

“Princess....”

“Luna, if you please. We have been over this.”

“Luna,” Twilight sighed heavily. She wished that her true emotions and feelings were not as visible as they were at the moment. It was like she was wearing all of her secrets on a tacky plaid sweater! “It’s bad. It’s very bad.”

Instead of the worried response that Twilight expected, Luna let out a foalish giggle. This was no laughing matter! How could the princess afford to be so leisurely if she knew how terribly things were going?

It wasn’t until the alicorn pointed at her chest that Twilight noticed the plaid sweater that had suddenly appeared on her. It was the kind of abomination that would make Rarity faint if she was within a ten mile radius of it, and emblazoned across the front were the words “I actually didn’t enjoy Old Mare and the Sea.”

“Gah!” Twilight shouted, and in an instant the terrible sweater had vanished into thin air. Luna was still laughing, apparently entertained that she knew one of Twilight’s biggest secrets. The unicorn’s face went bright red, which was enough to make Luna finally calm herself down.

“One thousand and four apologies, Twilight,” she managed to speak through a few stifled giggles. For a moment, Twilight missed the alicorn’s royal manners. “In dreams, your mind will speak for you, even if you do not say a single word.”

“So I noticed,” Twilight sighed, trying to keep a positive attitude so that Luna wouldn’t worry too much. “But I need your help, Prin—” Twilight paused, correcting herself. “Luna. I need your help, Luna.”

“I know. Please, tell me everything that has happened so far.”

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

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

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

“It was a dark and stormy night—”

“For Celestia’s sake, Nightowl, it is a dark and stormy night!”

“Rainbow, give that poor guy a break, would ya?!”

Nopony knew what to say. Anytime that any of them tried to say something to lighten the mood, the conversation would dissolve into awkward mumbles. It was difficult to pretend that everything was fine when there were four ponies lying unconscious on the cold floor.

Rainbow Dash, who had just been shushed by Applejack, stopped herself from saying anything else, but still stared daggers at Nightowl. She wasn’t about to let that suspicious pony out of her sight for a split second! Just to make sure that he knew that, the pegasus pointed her hoof at her eyes and then traced it over to where Nightowl was sitting. After mouthing a small threat, Rainbow crossed her hooves over her chest and leaned back against the front desk. The earth pony, instead of returning the gesture, simply turned away to face the front door.

To Rainbow Dash, it was Nightowl’s story that seemed the most suspicious. He claimed that he had gone upstairs with Twilight and investigated the room together, which lined up with everything they knew so far, but the fishy part of his story was his explanation about how Twilight had ended up unconscious in the lobby. According to him, she had pushed him out of the way and tumbled down the stairwell! Dash had the sneaking suspicion that he had clobbered Twilight in the back of the head to make sure that she couldn’t testify against him.

“Hey Dash!” came a hushed, excited voice from her left.

The pegasus already knew who it was, since it wasn’t hard to recognize that squeaky tone. “Hey Pinkie, what’s up?” she whispered back.

When Rainbow turned to look, she found that the pink pony had an uncharacteristically serious look on her face. Dash could have almost taken her seriously if it weren’t for the detective’s cap and bubble pipe she had.

Pinkie, with a completely straight face, blew a few bubbles. “Dashie, I shall require your assistance in this most confidential matter. Can you swear that you will speak of this to nopony?”

The colorful pegasus raised a skeptical eyebrow and leaned away. “Uh, yeah, about that. As much as I enjoy a laugh here and there, this isn’t the time.”

“Indubitably,” Pinkie mused as she playfully puffed from her pipe. “This is a serious matter, dear Dashie. Not only did all of the ponies at in the lobby disappear, but...!”

Dash waited for the inevitable explosion. Sure enough, the anger in Pinkie Pie’s eyes became red-hot and her mane poofed, sending the cap flying onto the front desk. “They ruined my party!” she exclaimed wildly, earning a few stares from the other ponies in the lobby. “Me and Rarity worked sooooo hard on it! And then they just left! We’re gonna make them pay, Dashie!”

As the pink pony let out a feral growl, Dash rolled her eyes and signaled for everypony else to go back about their business. “Look, Pinkie, here’s the deal. I think I’ve already got it, but we have to wait for everypony to wake up. I mean, what if one of them saw something? They could have seen the culprit in the act!”

"No way, silly!” Pinkie giggled quietly. “That would only work if the culprit was part of the crowd. I mean, duh! Everypony but Red, Preston, and Rarity had gone upstairs with a partner at the time! Not to mention the obvious fact that the culprit wouldn’t have left them here if they’d seen their face. It’s just totally elementary, my dear Dashie!”

The words grated on the pegasus as she frowned disapprovingly at the inappropriately energetic pony. Not only was Twilight making fun her, but now Pinkie too? “Pinkie, you realize what you’re saying right? It’s like, the most cliche thing ever.”

“Well, duh. Seriously, what kind of mystery would this be if the culprit wasn’t one of us?”

“Rainbow! Pinkie!” Applejack shouted irritably from the other side of the lobby. When Dash looked over to see what she was doing, she saw farm pony trying to cheer up Fluttershy, who was sniffling in the corner.

Just as Dash turned to make sure that Pinkie didn’t upset Fluttershy any more, she found that Pinkie had already trotted over to the stairwell, a stack of matching pink flyers clenched between her teeth.

The rain and thunder grew louder, filling the uncomfortable silence and drowning out Fluttershy’s silent sobs from the other side of the room. Nightowl was sitting like a statue in the doorway, staring out into the torrential storm, but Caesura was resting over by the four sleeping ponies with a forlorn look on her face. As Dash began to think harder about their situation, she began to notice just how suspicious Caesura was. In fact, she was even more suspicious than Nightowl was! That shifty unicorn had stayed nearly silent this entire time, not even bothering to do anything outside of staring at the four unconscious ponies. She was probably plotting her next move!

This was as good of a time as any to try and get her to confess. “Hey, Chess, wh—”

Rainbow Dash’s words caught in her throat as the unicorn leapt up to meet her gaze. What was with everypony giving her the evil eye recently?

As the shivers subsided, the pegasus continued. “Right. Uh, Caesura, got it. My bad.” The unicorn’s spiteful expression slowly melted back into how it had been before. “I, just wanted to ask you something. I mean, why did your weather team decide to schedule a storm like this?”

Despite Dash’s awkward stammering, Caesura slowly began to make her way towards the cyan pegasus. “They didn’t, actually,” she whispered hoarsely, like she was afraid that the other ponies might hear her. “Red was in charge of that. But recently, the weather has been acting strange.”

Genuinely curious, Dash whispered back. “Strange? What, with clouds not having enough rain and all that? Pretty sure they’ve got enough now.”

“No, I mean that the weather has been acting on its own. Nopony planned this storm.”

The thought of not being able to control the weather make Rainbow Dash flinch, but she tried to cover it up by yawning and leaning back against the front desk. “Meh, weather shmeather, doesn’t scare me. I was just curious, that’s all.”

"If you insist.” The infuriatingly calm unicorn took a seat next to Rainbow.

Caesura turned to face Nightowl, who still had his back to them. “These flash storms seem rather normal for this crazy town. Despite all of the pegasi here, the clouds keep sweeping over from the Everfree Forest.” She paused and began to loom over Rainbow Dash with a menacing glare, her scraggly black mane creating a tangled web for her wide eyes to hide behind. “It’s almost like it’s reaching out to get us. Don’t you think...?”

A few beads of sweat dropped down the pegasus’ cheek as she backed up further against the wall. “W-wait, are you serious?” Dash gasped, her heart beginning to pound in her chest.

“Of course not.”

As Caesura stifled a creepy giggle, Rainbow Dash sent a few coughs over her shoulder to try and recover from the scare she’d gotten. Who did this pony think she was?! Dash had a sudden desire to deck her, but she just didn’t have the energy anymore. There were more important things to worry about.

After Caesura had calmed herself, she relaxed against the desk again. “But really, these storms are unnatural. They happen all by themselves. Apparently it’s normal around here.”

A response began to form on the pegasus’ harsh tongue, but it never came out. It stalled out because of something curious that the mare had said. In the back of her mind, Rainbow Dash was already tossing around theories that involved Caesura as the perpetrator, but they would only work if she could get this pompous little musician to crack! Caesura had just made her first slip, and Dash wasn’t about to let it pass.

“Hey, Che—er, Caesura, you’re not from around here, are you?” Dash taunted, grinning from ear to ear. Just as she’d suspected, the mare jumped rather noticeably, giving away the answer before she actually said anything. “I’ve already figured you out, so don’t even try and weasel your way out of this one! You used your magic to put that note on the fountain back then, didn’t you? But you didn’t stop there. No, while you were on the third floor, you could have teleported Page out of her room from above!”

Not giving her victim any time to recover, Rainbow Dash shot up on her hooves, wings outstretched and nostrils flaring. She had it this time! Caesura’s speechless reaction proved it! Those eyes were the eyes of a foalnapper caught in the act! Heh, I don’t even need Twilight to solve this. She’ll wake up and everything will already be sorted out! I can’t wait to see the look on her face.

“So what do you have to say to that, Chess?” the cyan pegasus snarled, not even caring if she got the unicorn’s name wrong. In fact, the dishevelled mare was so stunned that she didn’t even try to defend herself. She looked absolutely terrified... and there was only one reason for that! “You’re absolutely, undeniably, 120%—”

“Innocent.”

The voice that cut her off hadn’t come from the paralyzed mare in front of her but from behind. Folding her wings so they were flush against her back again, Rainbow turned irritably towards the owner of that annoyingly squeaky voice. “Pinkie Pie!” she growled, screwing her face into a grimace. The pink killjoy returned the frown with a knowing smile.

“Nope, she’s totally innocent Dashie,” the pink detective giggled, having somehow gotten her hat back without anypony noticing. She was holding a pink slip of paper in her hoof that, in surprisingly neat hoofwriting, had various series of ordered lists and graphs regarding the different ponies and their  locations.

Pinkie wasn’t going to wait to let Rainbow Dash figure it out for herself. “Dashie, if I may draw your attention to figure 3.1, you’ll see the way we paired up when we went upstairs. You see, Preston, Red, and Rarity were down here on the first floor. Twilight and Nightowl were on the second, me and Chezzy were on the third, and you, AJ, and Fluttershy were on the fourth. So if you’re thinking that she teleported Page from the third floor, you’re assuming that I’m a culprit as well. And I don’t appreciate that! You can’t just go around blaming your friends, you know. It’s not very nice.”

It took Dash a moment to process the sudden, squeaky onslaught of deductions. She rubbed her head and groaned for a moment. “Pinkie, it’s magic. You can’t explain something crazy like that. That sneaky little mare could have teleported Page anywhere, even if you were looking right at her!”

The pink detective didn’t seem phased at all. “Chezzy, please levitate my hat.”

It took a few moments for the startled unicorn to respond, but she eventually snapped out of her stupor and quietly wrapped Pinkie’s hat in her sky-blue aura. The hat was gently plucked off of Pinkie’s head, resulting in a poof! sound as Pinkie’s hair molded itself back to its original shape. Rainbow, frowning, looked back to see that Caesura’s horn was glowing the same shade of blue, but it took her a few moments to realize what Pinkie was trying to demonstrate.

With a defeated sigh, Rainbow Dash lowered her head and gave a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, yeah, she couldn’t have done while you were around because of the glowing horn and blah blah blah, I get it. Aw, horsefeathers....”

Caesura finally spoke up, her worried frown still visible. “So I’m off the hook for now?” Her normally edgy voice had softened a little, but her tone was still dark.

Dash saw Pinkie nod sagely out of the corner of her vision before the levitating hat suddenly swooped over and forced itself onto her head and over her eyes. Even though she couldn’t see, Rainbow could still hear Pinkie Pie blow a few more bubbles out of her novelty pipe.

“Indubitably, my dear Dashie.”

As they laughed, Dash wished that she could join in with them. How could they act so calm? How could they still laugh? The only thing that kept Rainbow going at this point was the promise of catching the culprit and making them pay for this! They had foalnapped the entire town of Everdale, not counting Nightowl, Caesura, Preston, and Red. Dash had never gotten along with any of them, but it still hurt to know that she was partly responsible for everything that had happened. Everything that anypony did at this point was nothing more than an act.

Sadly, giggling at ghosts wasn’t going to make this situation go away.