Chapter 6

Tanagrams

“... and that’s when AJ ran by me to check on Rarity.”

Twilight finished her story with a sigh, beginning to wonder if Luna would be able to keep up. Twilight had been there in person, so the odds of Luna being able to help were astronomically low.

After a long pause, Luna finally spoke. “Twilight, do not feel guilty,” she soothed. “If I were in your horseshoes, I would not have acted differently. Your plans were crafty and sensible. If you want to blame somepony, I ask that you place the blame on me. I was the one who made the false assumption that King Sombra was somehow involved.”

“Luna, it’s fine! Really, there’s no way you could have known, so don’t worry about it. I just wish I’d been able to stay conscious when the barrier acted up like that!”

“Do not worry, Twilight. It is quite easy to create a strong barrier, but to make one that is selectively permeable is quite a feat. I am actually quite impressed that you managed to remain conscious when so many ponies went through it at once. Most unicorns would be out cold if only five ponies simultaneously ran side by side! But of course, running through and walking through are different, because sudden disturbances in these barriers create a much heavier impact due to simple dispersion of—”

Twilight took the opportunity to speak up, keeping Luna from rambling. “I actually didn’t notice that before,” she mused, a few ideas beginning to take root. “I handled Caesura and the latecomers with ease, and there were 12 of them, including her. So does that mean the ones that exited the lobby were running?”

“It does, Twilight!” Luna exclaimed, overjoyed at the prospect of being able to discuss magical theories with a peer. “As you have realized, these disturbances in the barrier are actually the processes of your mind creating a memory imprint of the shapes that go through it. objects that travel through at higher speeds must be created more quickly, requiring more brain power, which is why you were so disoriented when you reached the stairs. Your brain simply wasn’t able to process all of those shapes while you were running, so you instinctively tried to stop, which likely resulted in your fall. Am I correct?”

Speechless, the bookish mare could only nod in response. It had taken weeks to figure out how that spell worked, even with direct assistance from her big brother.

Not seeming to notice that she had paralyzed Twilight with her words, Luna continued unabated. “I worry that your mental overload may have caused the shapes to become blurry. While barriers like that cannot keep track of whether or not the subject is entering or leaving, an extremely gifted unicorn such as yourself would normally be able to recognize the shapes and apply them to real objects. Would you please recite to me the shapes that entered the barrier around Page’s room?”

Struggling to keep up, Twilight nodded fervently, beginning to focus on the imprints that the barrier spell had left. In the back of her mind, she could see a large number of blurry shadows splayed out across a two-dimensional space. There were 8 distinct objects that she could see, but it would be impossible to match them to a specific pony. After filtering out the small wooden parts from the two doors, Twilight began to match these 8 figures.

Let’s see. I can split this into 4 groups. One shape is seen 3 times, two of them are seen twice, and the last one doesn’t match with any. Oh wait, I think I get it! That last one looks almost like a pony with a hunchback, so that would be Nightowl carrying Page through at the beginning. Okay, I can see that now. Good. So Nightowl has 4 shapes, and the two others, with 2 each, would belong to me and Rarity. That would make 1 imprint for each entrance or exit, meaning that Nightowl came in and left two times while me and Rarity entered and left only once. But how is that possible?

“Twilight?” Luna was still sitting across from her, looking worried. “How clear are the imprints?”

“Very unclear, sadly. It was clear enough that I could match shapes to each other with certainty, but that’s all.” Twilight hung her head. “And what I learned was what I already knew. Rarity came in with Nightowl, who was carrying Page on his back, then they both left without her. Me and Nightowl both entered... and then left.”

The corners of Luna’s lips curled downwards. “That is quite troubling. You realize that the only option remaining, considering that your judgment is correct, is that Page was magically teleported out of the room.”

“Caesura?! She was one of the ones that ran up the stairs with us! But wait, she would never have the opportunity to cast the spell. Even if she did, the bed is a few feet away from the door, making the range too difficult to successfully pull off a pinpoint teleportation like that. She would also have to have a direct line of sight to the pony she was trying to teleport, meaning that she would have had to be on the second floor with me and Nightowl! Uuuugh, I don’t get it! I just don’t get it!”

Before Twilight could start pulling out her mane, Luna’s soothing voice calmed her down. “Remain calm, Twilight. Whatever happened was obviously possible, otherwise it would not have happened. Allow me ask you a simple question. What unicorn had close contact, a direct line of sight, and access to the room?”

“Don’t even think about it!” Twilight instinctively belted out, the entire library shaking from her outburst. In this world of the subconscious, actions were unfiltered, leaving Twilight to stare ashamedly at a shocked Luna. “Oh no, I’m sorry Luna! I’m really sorry! I didn’t....” As she trailed off, she realized that Luna’s question had been a valid one. “Whatever you say, I’m not going to suspect my friends. Ever.”

The silence grated on Twilight’s ears, but it was a necessary pain. She had to let Luna realize how much her friends meant to her. Why didn’t she understand? The alicorn was already forcing her to keep a secret about her dreamwalking, but now it was obvious that Luna did not trust the other Elements of Harmony as much as she trusted Twilight.

After letting the message sink in for a few moments, Luna sighed. “One thousand and five apologies. I should not have encouraged you to doubt your friends. What about the barrier around the entire hotel?”

Thinking out loud, Twilight began to arrange the shapes in her mind. They were much more blurred than the ones from the other barrier, which backed up the fact that the ponies had been running as they left. “At the start, when I put up the barrier, the 6 of us were in the hotel with the desk clerk, making 7. Preston arrived with 5 friends, bringing the total to 13. Nightowl came with Page next. Okay, that’s the same shape as the one that entered room 201. There is a total of 15 in the hotel, now. Those shapes must belong to Caesura and her 11 friends, making 27. Red’s entrance makes 28 ponies as the final count. Now, when I try and match them up.... Wait a second. Huh?”

“What is the problem?” Luna asked worriedly.

“They’re blurry, but I can still match them up! Hold on, let me try and count these. Okay, subtract Preston, Red, Caesura, and the Nightowl-Page combination, which have no match in the blurry section, and we have 17 clear images. Perfect! There were 17 ponies at the party that I didn’t recognize. Everything lines up. Now for blurry images, let me start pairing. Wait, there’s 18 of them? 18?!”

“Twilight, calm down! Let me confirm something. Would you be able to tell if one of the blurred shapes was carrying Page?”

“Yes... I am absolutely confident of it. There’s 17 matching pairs of clear and blurry... with one left over.”

“Then it is sensible that numbers do not match up!” Luna declared excitedly, raising a hoof in the air. “That 18th shape confirms that Page passed through the outer barrier! Huzzah!”

As much as Twilight appreciated the alicorn’s enthusiasm, she could not share it with her. How could Luna be treating this like a game? Those 17 shapes were not just shapes, they were real ponies! Ponies that had been abducted! As Twilight calmed herself again, she sighed and nodded. “Okay, I guess that makes sense.”

“Actually, no. It doesn’t,” Luna sighed, her posture slackening in disappointment. “Page should still be stuck in that room. But I believe that we should address other issues before tackling that one.”

Twilight agreed wholeheartedly. “Please Luna, we need your help here. If you and Princess Celestia would just fly over here we could have this sorted out in no time!”

“No,” came the alicorn’s firm response. “I had already considered the idea, but it will not work. Consider this, Twilight: if you were the culprit, how would you feel if my Sister and I arrived to punish you?”

The question caught Twilight off guard, but the answer was simple. “I would be afraid.”

“Correct. You would be cornered. I can guarantee you that your culprit fears us a great deal. Please, think back to the note that you recited to me.”

Doing as she was told, Twilight imagined the note in her head. In small flash, the pink note appeared on the table in front of the Luna, who gave an encouraging nod before reading over it one more time.

“I see my memory did not fail me,” Luna announced with a heavy sigh. With astounding precision, she levitated the ransom note and turned it around so Twilight could read it again.

“This is a ransom note. I make my demands clear. The Elements of Harmony must abandon their mission and report their success to the princess. The entire town of Everdale is my hostage, so if you do not comply, Everdale’s population will drop to zero when Celestia raises the sun again.”

Luna waited until Twilight had finished reading before she began to explain herself. “Not only does the culprit fear our involvement, but he or she also makes it plain that there will be severe consequences if the agreement were to be broken.”

Twilight swallowed air in order to keep herself from saying something stupid, but Luna already knew what the unicorn was going to say and recited it word for word like she was reading from a script. “But you have already incurred the consequences, have you not? Please, use that smart brain of yours, Twilight! Foalnapping is not the main threat in this note. It is only a consequence.”

“Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked, pursing her lips. “By definition, a threat is—”

“I know the definition, Twilight, it is in your dictionary over there.” Luna pointed to one of the many thick tomes in the library. For a moment, Twilight wondered how she had known where the dictionaries were, but she forced herself to focus again.

Luna continued after a small pause. “The real threat is what comes after.”

“You mean right now? I don’t get it!”

“Twilight, you are smarter than this,” Luna kindly pointed out, almost like she was talking to a foal. It was humiliating. “The culprit now has the entire population of Everdale, minus a few, as hostages. It was plainly stated in the note. So, if the foalnapper feels cornered or pressured, what would they do?”

“Oh,” Twilight gasped, shifting around on her cushion. There was no need to state the obvious.

“Now you understand my hesitation to provide you with direct aid. Our culprit is remarkably cunning. With four simple sentences, he or she managed to force your movements and restrict mine while simultaneously creating mistrust between the only ponies who had the ability to solve this mystery. But nopony, brilliant or not, can make a move as overt as this without giving away precious amounts of information! This goes to show how terrified our culprit is of our direct intervention.”

“Slow down, slow down!” Twilight groaned, rubbing her temples with her hooves and trying to digest everything that the princess was saying. “I get why the culprit put the note there, but we were never able to figure out who placed it!”

“Twilight, I will not give you the answers. You need to stop wallowing in self-pity and use that impressive mind of yours! You have proven your brilliance many times before, so prove it to me now. What has the note told us so far?”

A small spark of anger ignited in Twilight’s gut, but she quelled it before it could spread. She had no right to be angry at Luna, even if the alicorn was forcing her to keep a secret from her friends. “Well, it told us that the culprit is somepony in our group.”

“Correct.”

“And you already told me that it showed how afraid they are of you and Princess Celestia.”

“Also correct.”

Twilight paused and began sorting through the facts before she spoke again. “It showed how powerful the enemy is! If they wanted us out, they would have threatened me directly, but they know that they can't take us in direct confrontation!”

“Brava, Twilight. Brava. But you are wrong on that last point, I believe. Threatening you directly would have no effect at all. It is easy to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others, but to have others sacrificed for you is... frightening.”

The graceful alicorn trailed off, making Twilight feel uncomfortable. Thankfully, the silence only lasted a moment before Luna spoke again. “Now, you will need to wake up soon so you can help the remaining ponies in Everdale, but let us quickly discuss possibilities. I may not be able to directly intervene, but I have just arranged for somepony to assist you in my stead. In the time we have, we may still attempt to find the truth of the matter, so let us waste no more time.”

The abrupt change in subject reminded Twilight that Rarity, Red, and Preston had been attacked in some way. Whoever Luna had sent would probably arrive too late to be of any assistance, but Twilight appreciated the sentiment. Before they could begin finding the truth, however, Twilight had one last question. “Wait, how did you know to send somepony? I just now showed you the note.”

“Oh, simple!” Luna exclaimed, beaming. “I can split myself between dreams, you see, otherwise I would be unable to make sure that everypony slept well. It is like Santa Hooves, only he does not really exist, but it is possible for me to inspect up to five dreams at once. You see, while you were explaining your situation to me, I simply found the dream I was looking for and sent a small signal to them. Do not worry about my lack of comprehension, dear Twilight, for according to the first principle of—”

Twilight interrupted the princess with a polite cough, giving her an awkward smile.

“Oh, er, yes! Let us start with your arrival at Everdale, shall we?”

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The Everdale Hotel’s lobby had been lit up again, but the festive atmosphere had never returned. Candles lined the walls, but their warmth failed to reach any of the ponies that needed it. Colorful decorations still hung from every conceivable spot on the ceiling and the balloons had deflated, leaving them to lazily rest on the ground with what little air they had left. Some of the ponies in the room acted similarly.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to give up so easily! One of the ponies in this lobby was guilty! All of the suspects were assembled in the same room, meaning that they were about to have the big reveal! That was how it always worked in the Sherclop Holmes books, so why was everypony moping around? Something big was about to go down!

In a way, Rainbow felt slightly guilty for not being able to help out. She had gone up to the fourth floor with Applejack and Fluttershy, but there hadn’t been a single pony in any of those rooms. Rainbow had to check all of them herself, since her two friends had left her up there by herself while they went to go check on Twilight. And what was I doing while everypony was checking on Rarity and the others? Prowling around empty rooms, looking for a culprit that didn’t exist. Brilliant, Rainbow. Brilliant. Well, at least we can be sure that there was nopony hiding on the fourth floor

The only pony that hadn’t woken up up yet was Twilight, but nopony felt like waking her. In a way, Dash was almost grateful that the unicorn was still asleep, since that meant she had extra time to solve this mystery before Twilight did. She still had to pay Twilight back for showing her up! With a confident spring in her step, Rainbow trotted over towards the pair of ponies that sat by the front door.

Red and Preston were exchanging hushed whispers, but immediately stopped as soon as they heard Rainbow Dash trot over to meet them. Their icy glares gave the pegasus the distinct impression that she wasn’t welcome into their little cabal, but that only fueled her determination.

“You know, you two never told us what happened in the lobby,” Rainbow teased, taking the opportunity to sit down right in between them so that they couldn’t scheme up any more nefarious plots. “It’d probably be in your best interest to tell the truth, because you’re both looking pretty suspicious right now.”

The two ponies grimaced in nearly perfect unison, but understood Rainbow Dash’s message quite clearly. In a normal court, ponies were innocent until proven guilty, but this lobby was going to go by different rules. If those two ponies didn’t give their account of what happened in the lobby, they were guilty.

“You expect me to start blabbin’?” Preston challenged, his thick accent hiding the anger that stirred in his eyes. The olive pegasus adjusted his cap and gave a confident nod to Red. “You ain’t gettin’ nothin’ outta me. No matter what I say, you’re just gonna turn it against me like ya did back in the square!”

Just as Rainbow was about to make a cocky response, she suddenly felt a sharp tug at her tail, forcing her to immediately fall flat on her face. A snobbish voice accompanied the sharp pain from behind. “Rainbow, dear, show some manners. That is no way to treat these poor ponies!”

Rarity trotted out of the corner of the room, practically oozing charm. Since her dress and mane had both been ruined by the storm, she didn’t carry her usual pompous presence, but the way she carried herself had not changed. What was more impressive was that strong levitation maneuver she had just pulled! When had she gotten strong enough with her magic to pull off a stunt like that?! Hadn’t Twilight herself said that using levitation on a pony was extremely difficult? “Please excuse her, ruffians like her have no sense of tact.”

Preston, immediately backpedaling, took off his cap and held it a bit over his cheeks to hide the blush that had appeared there. “Ah, sorry miss,” he apologized. Rainbow couldn’t believe this! Rarity was complaining that Rainbow didn’t have any tact, but this kind of flattery was the most heavy-hoofed form of manipulation she had ever seen! Poor Preston was acting like an absolute doofus right now thanks to the prissy unicorn’s attention.

“Now be a dear and think nothing of it. As you very well know, I was down there as well. One wonders why she didn’t just ask me, hm?” Rarity’s leading tone of voice manifested itself in a suspicious look at Rainbow Dash. “If she thinks you two are the culprits, that would mean she is accusing me as well. Friends don’t accuse friends after all.”

“Rarity, what the hay are you doing?” Rainbow shouted as she got back to her hooves, wings flaring. “That doesn’t even make sense! You were down there with them, meaning that they could have easily ganged up to knock you out cold!”

“Now now, Rainbow, don’t get ahead of yourself. It was my fault that this happened after all. Maybe you should start suspecting me instead of those two.”

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, Rarity! Stop acting like you could have done it! We all know you wouldn’t want to get your hooves dirty by clobbering the both of them on the back of the head.”

“How dare you?! I will have you know that I have overcome my phobia of the uncouth. Getting dirty is nothing more than an inconvenience, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah, fancy shmancy and all that. I’ve got—”

“Hold on a tick, you two!” interrupted Preston, who gave a nod to Red before physically putting himself in between the arguing mares. “Your fighting is only making things easier for whoever’s behind this crazy caper. Why do you think I was framed for putting that nasty little note on good ‘ole Gemini?”

Rainbow blinked a few times, starting to feel really self conscious about her actions. All this time, she had been playing right into the culprit’s hooves. The thought angered her even more, but she bottled it up and tossed it aside. “Gah, you’re right,” Rainbow mumbled angrily. “Look, I’m sorry, Preston. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions back at.... Wait, Gemini? Is that what that statue’s called?”

For a moment, Preston looked like he was sweating under Rainbow and Rarity’s curious gaze. “Uh, that’s right. She was put up a few generations ago when Everdale was founded. Kind of like our town’s emblem, or something like that.”

There was something suspicious about the way he had answered, but Rainbow Dash decided not to push it this time. Man, I’m a terrible detective, aren’t I? Twilight’s probably just going to get up, point a hoof, and fix everything. Meanwhile I’m just making everything worse. Way to go, Dash.

Sighing, Rainbow nodded. As much as she hated to, she swallowed her pride and tried to be as genial as possible. “Cool, you’ll, uh, have to tell me more about it later, once we’ve got this all fixed up.”

Rarity, Red, and Preston all gave her the most skeptical of frowns. “Guys, I mean it,” Rainbow insisted, rolling her eyes. “Look, I’m sorry for being so pushy, but you know what, it’s no excuse for being a jerk. I know, I know, I’m usually not this sappy, but cut me some slack, okay? I want to solve this as much as everypony else.”

Just as Rainbow was about to turn away and hide her shame, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. “Ah, no problem, apology accepted,” Preston replied, pulling her back around to face him. “I’ll give ya the scoop on the statue later. But for now, I guess it’d be best if I tell ya what happened down in the lobby. And hey, if ya don’t believe me, Miss Rarity here can back me up.”

“Nah, I trust you,” the rainbow-maned pegasus sighed with relief, taking a seat. If she wanted to gain this pegasus’ trust, she was going to have to trust him first.

“Right then, I guess I should start with that spot where you and your chums all dashed upstairs. Twilight had said something about arguments and such, and—” He paused, flapping his wings anxiously as he looked back at Red, who was still sitting despondently in the corner with her megaphone. “Well, Nightowl already filled us in on what happened. Still, when you all started panicking like that, everypony in the lobby got real worried. We were all watching Pinkie’s bang-up comedy routine, but when she left, nopony knew what to do. Poor Miss Rarity over there was stuck in the spotlight, since she was the only Element of Harmony still down in the lobby, so she had to improvise a tad.

“So, of course, the first that comes to her mind is that big game of hide and seek ya mentioned on the invite. Everypony just assumed that you lot went upstairs to hide. So Rarity gets everypony to start blowing out the candles until it’s too dark to see clearly and gives out the instructions. A few of us close our eyes and start counting to 50, but then I get thwacked on the back of the head before I could count past 20!”

Before Preston finished, Dash had turned to face Rarity, who was refusing to look her in the eyes. “Well,” the cyan pegasus sighed, having to consciously keep herself from getting angry at her friend. Hide and seek in the dark had been an absolutely terrible idea, but there was no use in starting another argument with Rarity. “It was a nice coverup, at least. You were kinda put on the spot, so don’t worry about it, okay?”

Rarity seemed absolutely stunned by the response, but quickly recovered and attempted to put on a regal act. “Well, thank you. I told you it was my fault, after all.”

“But hey, all three of you are okay, right?” Dash asked optimistically, trying to change the subject and make up for all of the trouble she had caused recently.

Preston gave a chipper grin. “Absolutely. Just a little headache a bruise, nothing a little rest won’t fix. Same thing happened to Red, but she’ll be okay. She just needs some space right now.”

“Poor thing,” Rarity cooed sympathetically. “I shouldn’t have closed my eyes to count either, especially with my back to the door like that. I was assaulted as soon as I started to think something was wrong!”

Immediately, Rainbow began to feel suspicious of Red and Preston, since they could have easily taken advantage of a bunch of blind ponies if they worked together, but it didn’t make much sense. If it was only the two of them, they wouldn’t have been able to knock out Rarity so quickly, not to mention how long it would take for both of them to drag a whole cartload of unconscious ponies out the front door without being seen.

“Well, let’s wait on Twilight for this one.” Rainbow didn’t want to jump to any more conclusions before she had somepony like Twilight to share her ideas with. As much as Rainbow hated to back out of a competition, she and Twilight were going to have to work together on this mystery. “Preston, you keep doing what you’re doing. Rarity and I are gonna go check on Fluttershy.”

Preston gave a little bow of his head and tipped his cap before thanking Rainbow and trotting back over to his motionless friend. Rarity, however, stayed where she was and looked at the front door with an unreadable frown.

Rainbow was about to say something, but Rarity finally spoke. “Fluttershy is taking this pretty hard. Even worse than Red. At least, I think she is.” Her tone had become low and serious. “You see, she thinks this is all her fault. She got this silly idea in her head that she was the one who convinced Twilight to come back. In fact, she was even telling Applejack that she would never assert herself again!”

“Seriously?” the pegasus groaned, ruffling her wings. “Ugh, I mean, I feel sorry for her, but...! I guess she just doesn’t understand the difference between being assertive and speaking her mind. Heck, if she hadn’t spoken up, I was gonna give Twilight a piece of my mind about coming back here! I feel kinda bad, but Fluttershy’s got no reason to be moping around right now.”

No response came from Rarity, who was still staring intently at the front door. The storm was still raging outside, but as soon as Rarity was woken up, she had insisted that they shut the front door and light up all of the candles again to lighten the atmosphere. There was no way to tell what the unicorn was thinking when she got into one of her moods, but it probably had something to do with her weird concept of ‘Fang Shway’, or whatever that crazy thing was. Maybe she was trying to crack this crazy case like everypony else was.

Having given up on trying to talk with Rarity, Rainbow turned to make her way over to Fluttershy and Applejack, who had been lying in the same corner ever since they’d arrived in the lobby. Initially, Dash had been insistent on giving Fluttershy a piece of her mind about moping around so much, but now the idea seemed despicable. It’d be like kicking somepony while they were down, or ‘beating a dead horse’, as Caesura had tactlessly put it back in town square. No, Fluttershy needed some help, not somepony to tell her that she was wrong. Dash had always been terrible at having ‘girl talks’ with her friends, since she was so quick at solving their problems. After getting the cold shoulder a few times for being so insensitive, she began to realize that sometimes ponies just want somepony to listen to them.

Taking a deep breath, the pegasus began to trot over towards the pair, half expecting them to give her the evil eye as well. But Applejack just nodded understandingly as Dash approached and continued to pet Fluttershy’s long, pink mane with her hoof. If Rarity saw the farm pony getting Fluttershy’s mane dirty like that, she would have thrown a fit, but little things like that were beginning to feel trivial in comparison to their bigger problems.

Taking a deep breath, Rainbow Dash tried to be as conversational as she could. “Hey, Fluttershy. What’s up?” she asked gently, lying down next to her fellow pegasus and trying to make eye contact through Fluttershy’s pink mane. “You feeling okay?”

“Y-yes, I’m fine, don’t worry,” came her soft, choked voice. Fluttershy was officially the worst liar in Equestria.

“Well hey, you know what?” Dash asked, starting to realize that she had become the unofficial mediator of their ragtag group. “I heard that you convinced Twilight to come back here. Is that right?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she could feel Applejack’s disapproving eyes drilling into her. Fluttershy, however, simply gave a whimpered response. “Y-yes....”

“I’m glad,” Dash responded with a cheery grin, trying to move some of Fluttershy’s mane out from in front of her eyes with little success. “No, I’m not just glad you did it. I’m proud of you.”

At those words, even Applejack stopped moving, staring blankly in Dash’s direction. Fluttershy even seemed to stop breathing for a moment before she squeaked out a response. “B-but why? I shouldn’t have asserted myself like that! I forced Twilight to go back and made all these ponies disappear and, and, and—”

“Oh, really now?” Dash giggled lightly, finally getting a good glimpse of Fluttershy’s bloodshot eyes. The poor mare must have been crying her eyes out for a while now. “You know, me and AJ were actually betting on whether or not we’d go back. Sure, I bet against it, thinking that Twilight had made up her mind, but as I stopped and thought about it some more, I realized how stupid I was.”

“Dash... you’re not stupid, don’t say that!”

“Nah, I totally was. But you know what? Somepony was brave enough to stand up and do the right thing. Somepony was kind enough to help a bunch of ponies who had been mean to her. Somepony was smart enough to know that the citizens of Everdale really needed her help. Now, do you happen to know who that somepony is?”

Even though Dash wasn’t touching her, she could still see the way that Fluttershy was shivering. For a moment, Rainbow began to wonder if she had accidentally made things worse! But then—

Oof!

The cyan pegasus suddenly felt the air rush out of her lungs as she was trapped in a rib-crushing bear hug. Fluttershy was still shaking and sobbing, but she still managed to get out a quiet “Thank you!” before emptying her tears onto Dash’s shoulders, which were starting to get a little sore. Regardless, she still managed to wrap a wing around the weeping pegasus to return the hug since her hooves were trapped at her sides.

“I’m just, hehe, telling the truth. No need to thank me. Right, AJ?” Dash squeezed out a nervous chuckle between gasps for air as she looked desperately to the orange pony for help. Applejack just smiled back and a gave a humorous wink, obviously trying not to laugh too noticeably at the two of them.

Laughter aside, it seemed that Applejack felt like she had to say something. “That’s right, sugarcube,” she laughed, tilting her hat back. “Ya did the right thing, even when everypony else had given up. Gosh, if we hadn’t come back, I reckon the ponies here would’ve kept disappearing, one by one until there were none. It may not be the best, but at least we’ve saved four of them. Ya know what? Lemme rephrase that. You saved four of them, Fluttershy.”

“Okay, okay!” Dash choked out, trying to pry Fluttershy off of her so that she could breathe again. “Sappy moment over, we’re done! Fluttershy’s awesome, end of story. Now—”

“What's this? I don’t get to have a sappy moment? That’s not fair, Rainbow.” A voice from behind them interrupted their reverie, making the three ponies freeze in their tracks. Even Fluttershy had stopped crying to see who the voice belonged to.

Rainbow Dash didn’t even have to turn around. “Of course you do, Twilight!” she exclaimed, slipping out of Fluttershy’s bear hug while she was distracted and dusting herself off. “She’s all yours!”

Twilight Sparkle stood proudly with her chest slightly puffed out, drawing the attention of nearly everypony in the lobby. While she looked a little worse for wear, there was no denying the presence in her voice and in her stature. This was a purple unicorn that meant business.

“I’ll just have to make do with a simple ‘thanks’ this time around,” Twilight admitted, making sure that Fluttershy saw the proud smile she was wearing. “Because now that we’re all here, I think I’ve finally got a handle on his mystery. I guess I just needed a little time to sleep on it!”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped to the floor. “What?! You’ve gotta be kidding me! I even made a cheesy apology to Preston so I could help you out here and be your lame assistant! And you’re saying you don’t even need my help? Oh, come on!”

“Rainbow,” the unicorn sighed, rolling her eyes. “Of course I’m going to need your help. We would make a great team of detectives, you know! I haven’t solved everything myself, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few options, give or take a few details.”

“But how?” Dash didn’t understand how she could have solved something like this while sleeping. “And don’t even give me the whole ‘it came to me in a dream’ thing.”

“Well, a few clues are still missing, actually. I could use some other perspectives on this, after all. So how about I lay out the facts to my two loyal assistants?”

Dash blinked. “Two?”

“Oooh, ooh, am I the other assistant?” Pinkie shouted, popping up behind Twilight. “Pleeease, pick me! Pick me!”

“Of course,” the unicorn giggled, not even bothering to look behind her. “Now, it’d be best if we get everypony together so we can talk this over. Now—”

As Rainbow listened in, Twilight’s speech was interrupted by a gust of wind from the front door. Outside, the pouring rain and distant thunder became unbearably loud, framing the two dark silhouettes standing right in the threshold of the doorway. Dash couldn’t see who they were, but she was on her hooves in an instant, ready to fly over and tackle the both of them to the ground. Whoever they were, they were about to be in some serious trouble!

One of the figures stepped into the room, the light fading a little as some of the candles began to blow out from the blustering wind. “Hey,” the shrouded stallion spoke, grinning widely. His voice sounded awfully familiar. “You wouldn’t happen to have some room here for me and my wife, would you... Twily?”

Rainbow recognized the voice, but it was Twilight’s sudden reaction that made the pegasus realize who the two ponies were. “Cadance! Big brother!” the unicorn shouted joyously, bounding over towards the two drenched ponies as they made their way into the hotel and closed the door behind them. It was still hard to see them, because some of the candles had nearly gone out thanks to the wind.

But as Twilight ran up to them, she stopped dramatically and took a slow step backwards, making Dash jump a little bit. Something was wrong here. Something was very wrong with this situation. What were Shining Armor and Princess Cadance doing out here in the middle of nowhere?! Had Princess Celestia sent them as backup? That was an option, but how had they gotten here so quickly? The Friendship Express didn’t even stop at Everdale, not to mention that the town was too small to be listed on any map of Equestria.

“Yeah, looks like we showed up at a good time, too,” Shining remarked idly, only then starting to notice the incredulous stares that he was getting. “H-hey, no need to roll out the welcome wagon, but I was at least expecting a little ‘hello’.”

As the candles on the wall began to burn back to their original brightness, Dash noticed what had made Twilight stop dead in her tracks. There was an unconscious pony laying across Shining Armor’s back. A bright blue pegasus... with a white mane.

Twilight gasped. “Page?!”

Shining jumped a bit when her sister shouted, giving a confused look over his shoulder to Cadance, who was busy trying to shake herself dry. “I take it you know her?” he chuckled awkwardly, turning to give Twilight a look at the unconscious pegasus. “She’s pretty lucky, whoever she is. Through the rain, Cadance somehow managed to spot these two really shady ponies trying to drag her into the Everfree Forest. I gave a little battle cry and charged over, but the two of them vanished into the forest before I could get close enough to get a good look.”

Rainbow couldn’t believe it. In the midst of everything that had gone wrong recently, there was still a glimmer of hope. But there was something so inexplicably coincidental about their arrival. Something that Rainbow wasn’t going to ignore.

“Hey, hold it right there!” Rainbow Dash accusingly, flying over and skidding to a halt in front of the new arrivals. “What are you two even doing here, anyway?”

Cadance, her coat and mane an absolute mess, made her way up beside her husband. “Funny story,” she said sarcastically, giving Shining a playfully antagonistic glance. “Shining had this weird dream that he just wouldn’t shut up about.”