Chapter 7

Two Steps Backward

It took all of Twilight’s control to keep herself from giggling. Luna had said that she had sent somepony a small signal, but apparently it had been large enough to get Shining Armor’s attention almost immediately.The Princess of the Night was anything but subtle.

Even though Twilight was ecstatic to see her big brother and Cadance again, there was a more important issue to deal with. Page was sprawled out over Shining’s back, entire body limp and snoring as loud as the raging storm, but at least she was safe.

Before the two siblings could enjoy their reunion, Red's booming voice cut them off. “Put her down this instant!” shouted Red, clutching her megaphone. Preston, who had been over with her, was covering his ears and wincing. “You think this is funny? I thought we had an—”

“Red!” A decisive shout cut through the pegasus’ amplified voice, making everypony turn towards the front desk where Caesura was sitting. This was the first time that she had raised her voice in the time that Twilight had been around her. “Put that megaphone down and use your head! They’re on our side. Do you really think they would foalnap a pony and bring her right back through the front door?”

Nopony in the room could answer the unicorn’s question. In the dim light of the candles, Twilight could see the orange pegasus try to turn her eyes away to hide the glistening twinkle in her eyes.

“Um, I'm really sorry, but did we come at a bad time?” Cadance asked, beginning to feel the heavy atmosphere in the room. “If so, we can just—”

“I don’t think there would have been a good time,” Rarity quipped as she gracefully trotted over towards Cadance so that they could commiserate over the unfortunate condition of their ruined manes. “I cannot speak for anypony else, but I, for one, am so glad to see you two again!”

Caesura snorted rudely as she giggled at Rarity and Cadance, but the only other pony that joined in was Shining Armor. He snickered behind a hoof when he saw Rarity’s ruined mane, but a sly look from Cadance had him standing back at attention in an instant.

“C’mon Shining, set her down,” Twilight urged, itching to get to the heart of the matter. The large stallion did as he was told, kneeling down and gently levitating Page onto the wooden floor. In an instant, both Nightowl and Red rushed over to check on the sleeping pegasus. From what Twilight could see, she was perfectly fine aside from the fact that she was soaked to the bone.

The fact that Page had been rescued from two suspicious ponies confirmed a few hunches that Twilight had discussed with Luna. She had been tempted to state her theory out loud, but that would create an undue amount of tension in the group.

“So, uh,” Shining stammered, glancing around the dimly lit lobby. “What’s going on here? Anypony care to fill me in?”

“I got you covered,” Twilight assured, looking back and forth between Shining and Cadance with a grin of mock confidence. She had a few hunches, but none of them were solid enough to bring up yet without causing trouble. If she wanted to outwit the culprit, she would have to play her cards carefully.

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It had only taken about half an hour for Twilight to explain their situation from start to finish, but she was already starting to feel exhausted. In the middle of her story, Rainbow had gotten everypony up to date with what had happened while Twilight was unconscious. Apparently Rarity had started their hide and seek game early, but there was no reason to blame her for that. Twilight imagined that she might have done the same thing is she was in the other unicorn’s situation.

“And that’s when you two showed up,” Twilight concluded.

Shining Armor, who had been listening intently, immediately began to ask questions. “Uh, Twily, there’s a few problems here,” he started. “Why are you freaking out so much? I feel kind of silly asking this, but couldn’t a pegasus just fly in through the window and snatch Page after Red saw her and before you and what’s-his-name arrived?”

“His name is Nightowl,” Twilight quickly responded. Upon hearing this, the gray watchpony snapped up to his hooves, looking alarmed. Much to Twilight’s surprise, he looked to be in good spirits. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you like that!”

“Don’t apologize,” the earth pony said, nodding to Red before making his way over towards the rest of the group. “I should have been listening, anyway. Page is going to be okay, so I should probably help out how I can over here. But first!” He paused and turned towards Shining and Cadance, who just stared blankly back. “I want to thank you two. You saved Page’s life. So thanks. I’m really glad you two showed up.”

“As am I!” Rarity echoed, giving Cadance a little nudge with her hoof.

“Hehe, me too,” Caesura snorted, still giggling to herself for some reason. Twilight didn't get what was so funny, aside from Rarity and Cadance's manes.

“Well, thanks,” Shining chuckled, apparently missing the joke as well. “We kind of had to rush down here. We got a chariot to take us most of the way here, but they couldn’t go on through this wicked storm. I guess we made it just in time, eh?”

“You did,” Nightowl replied contently. “And Twilight... I trust you. I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to help this little town. I mean, you are the Elements of Harmony after all!”

“Okay, seriously!” came Rainbow Dash’s frustrated call from the back row. “Can we get back to solving this? I swear, if everypony starts getting all mushy one more time, I’m gonna kick somepony!”

Twilight had to agree, so she ignored Rainbow’s interjection and focused on getting back to the topic at hoof. “I appreciate your trust, Nightowl. Now, Shining, what was your question again?”

Shining asked his question again, seeming a bit more confident this time. “Well, I was just saying that anypony could’ve just gone in through the window and taken Page.”

With a grin, Twilight waited patiently. Sure enough, somepony took the bait.

“What, didn’t she just explain it?” Nightowl asked, earning a few confused stares from most of the ponies in the room. “She put up a barrier around the room that would tell her when somepony entered or left, so if anypony went through the window, we’d have known immediately.”

Awestruck silence filled the room, making the watchpony begin to fidget under the spotlight he’d unwittingly placed on himself in. This wasn’t what Twilight had expected, but it was still a valuable clue.

“Funny that you should mention that,” Twilight giggled mysteriously, trying to play up her confidence as the detective. Nightowl had taken the bait. She just had to reel in her catch of the day. “But how did you know about the barrier, hm?”

“H-huh?” The large earth pony faltered. “I just—”

Twilight wasn’t going to let him finish. “Everypony, please raise your hooves if you knew about the barrier around room 201!”

There was no reason to look at everypony else. Twilight hadn’t spoken a single word about her barriers, meaning that she was the only pony who could know about it. She narrowed her eyes at Nightowl, who was beginning to inch his way backwards, but before she could push even further, a sudden movement caught Twilight’s attention.

Turning, she saw Rarity sitting beside Cadance with her hoof held high. Her sheepish grin turned to a guilty frown as she shriveled under Twilight’s incredulous stare.

“Wh-what?” the prim unicorn stammered, immediately lowering her hoof when she realized that the spotlight had been shifted in her direction.

A little off balance, Twilight attempted to make sense of the situation. “Wait, Rarity? How did you—” Immediately, she realized her mistake.

Rarity scoffed. “How did you expect me to not notice that barrier of yours? Any unicorn that walked through it would have immediately known about it! I may not be as learned as you, Twilight, but I am not dumb. I just thought that poor Nightowl would have felt a little better about leaving Page up there if he knew his friend was protected by not just one, but two barriers.”

Twilight instantly wished that she could put her earlier words back in her mouth. She had laid that trap in the hope that Caesura would unwittingly mention it, but the mare was either too clever or too innocent. While it would have been convenient if Caesura had known about the barrier, she had an alibi for nearly every moment that she had been in the hotel.

“I’m sorry!” Nightowl apologized, still looking unduly anxious. “I just thought everypony knew! Sorry, uh, Rarity.”

“Not a problem, dear.”

Feeling like she should say something, Twilight nodded to Nightowl. “Sorry,” she sighed as well, backtracking through her deductions. “If it’s any consolation, I’m fairly confident that you’re innocent right now.”

Twilight could hear a few ponies mumbling, but Nightowl was sighing with relief. Luna had been the one to convince Twilight of this hunch, but with all things considered it wouldn’t make sense if Nightowl was the culprit, given the current evidence. Regardless, she wasn't going to give away her deductions, just in case she sparked some unnecessary argument.

As she prepared to shift topics, since Twilight really wanted to move away from the subject of the barrier, Shining spoke up from the group with a proud shout. “Twily! That’s amazing! You managed two barriers at once? Guess you’ve really been practicing, eh?”

“Well,” the unicorn sighed, wishing that she didn’t have to deal with the subject of her colossal failure again. “I did, but I lost consciousness when all of the ponies in the lobby ran out.”

“Woah! They were sensor barriers? Twily, that’s awesome! I’ve never even tried to do two at once. How did you pull that off?”

“Shining!” Twilight groaned, forcing herself to take deep breaths. He had always underestimated her magical talent when they were little, but in truth, they were nearly equal. “Look, we need to stay on topic. I had one around the entire hotel and one around that room. Now, these barriers leave imprints of whatever enters or exits, so I’ve had a little time to sort them out and figure out who went where. Please pay close attention.”

The lobby was absolutely silent. One of the ponies that she was speaking to right now was probably starting to get anxious, especially if they hadn't known about the barrier. “For the barrier around room 201, the shapes matched what we already knew. The only ponies that entered the room were Nightowl, Rarity, Page, and myself. Page’s shape was never sensed again after she entered. This barrier was raised right before Page was taken up and lowered as soon as Nightowl and I finished searching the room.

"Okay, on to the barrier around the hotel. That was raised when the six of us arrived and informed the desk clerk that we would be throwing a party, but I kept it up until I passed out in the lobby. Even after I passed out, it should have remained for a short time. Either way, I’ve sorted the shapes out between entrances and exits, which told me the following: there were 4 entrances that did not match with an exit. These would belong to Red, Preston, Caesura, and Nightowl, who was carrying Page. Now, there were 17 other entrances that matched with 17 exits, which accounts for the 17 ponies that vanished. That would have made sense... but there was one more exit that had no corresponding entrance.”

Twilight let her last statement sink in for a moment, making sure that everypony understood the implications of her deductions. Curiously, she opened her eyes again to see everypony’s reactions... and immediately wished she hadn’t.

Rainbow Dash was sitting anxiously in the back, nearly going cross-eyed as she tried to count on her hooves, but Pinkie was scribbling madly on a few pink sheets of paper. Everypony else looked positively clueless, either mumbling quietly to their neighbors or staring blankly into thin air. Frustrated, Twilight began to wonder how any of them had passed elementary mathematics.

“Look, it’s simple!” she exclaimed, wishing that she had a chalkboard to draw examples on. “Who would that 18th shape belong to? It’s not any of the townsponies! Ergo, it must belong to somepony who had not left a distinct shape upon entering. Meaning that it would have to belong to—”

“Page.”

All eyes turned to Caesura, who was nodding contently to herself after interrupting Twilight. “It would have to belong to Page. She was on Nightowl’s back when she entered, right? If we go with that assumption, then.... Wow. I’m impressed.”

“What? What is it?” Rainbow Dash interjected, apparently too lazy to figure it out for herself. Most of the other ponies didn’t seem to get it either, but the cyan pegasus was the only one who felt like confronting Caesura about it. “Can you stop being all creepy and vague for once?! Just spit it out!”

The unkempt unicorn scowled, the animosity in her gaze clear. “You’d think the Element of Loyalty would have learned a little patience,” she spat, leaning back against the wall and crossing her hooves over her chest. “All the other Elements reflect who they are, but all you’ve done so far is cause trouble. You sure showed your loyalty when you nearly drowned Preston in the fountain.”

Like a bolt of lightning, Rainbow Dash swooped in front of Caesura, landing so that their faces were mere inches apart. Even from where Twilight was standing, she could see that Rainbow was ready to beat the unicorn to a pulp, but there was no trace of fear on Caesura’s confident smile. Her condescending aura wasn’t lost on her aggressor.

“Girls!” Twilight shouted, starting to trot over and break up the fight.

Caesura held up an uncaring hoof to stop her, not even bothering to break eye contact with Rainbow. “She’s not going to hit me,” the unicorn confidently stated. “She’s just scared.”

“Don’t tempt me!” Dash snarled, snapping her teeth and flaring her wings.

“To do what? Not only are you afraid, but you’re also jealous. You wanted to solve this mystery first, didn’t you? You wanted to be the detective. You wanted to decide who was guilty. Am I correct?”

The acid that dripped off of Caesura’s taunting words made Twilight wince. When she had been idly taunting Dash before, there had been nothing but a small sense of sadistic humor in her voice, but those last words were completely different.

“I-if you say another word!” Rainbow stammered, obviously a little taken aback by the unicorn’s sudden change of tone.

“Sorry, but you’re too late. I’ve already solved it.”

Caesura’s spiteful words drew the attention of the entire room. Even Red, who had been listening intently from where Page was resting, appeared absolutely baffled.

“Did I stutter? I said that the jig is up. The cat’s out of the bag. Need I go on?”

Twilight didn’t get it. Had Caesura seen something that she hadn’t? Was it possible that she had missed a vital clue? Twilight didn’t know how Caesura had arrived at the answer already, but there was no way in Equestria that she was going to let her pick on Rainbow Dash like that!

“Rainbow, let her go,” Twilight said firmly, wanting to stop this before it got out of control. Rainbow was easy to antagonize, but there was something about the way that Caesura was acting that seemed dangerous. While the brash pegasus was reluctant to step back, she did it with as much hostility as she could manage without losing her pride. With a huff, Rainbow slowly backed away from her target, never once breaking eye contact with her.

“And you, Caesura, had better start explaining yourself,” Twilight commanded. In situations like this, words had more power than magic ever would. “I don’t know what’s going through your head right now, but nopony talks to my friends like that.”

Caesura’s haughty attitude vanished, rendering her speechless for a few moments before she found her voice again. “Fine, but you all better be listening,” she sneered. The disheveled mare pushed herself up to her hooves and began to saunter lazily towards the center of the room. “Pinkie, may I borrow your diagrams for a moment?”

“Sure!”

Caesura’s horn lit up as a few sheets of pink paper floated lazily towards her. “Here we are,” she mused, expertly setting all but one slip of paper in a neat stack on the floor. “So we’re assuming that Page never left her room while the barrier was up, which means that there was a small window of time where she could have left the room in time to still make an imprint on Twilight’s outer barrier. Am I correct?”

Hesitantly, Twilight nodded, starting to get a bad feeling about this. That was the point that she had been trying to lead everypony to. Somehow, in the time that it took for Twilight to fall down the stairs, Page had vanished from the building. But what Twilight didn’t know was where everypony else had gone after she and Nightowl had gone to the second floor.

Caesura didn't waste any time. “Good. Why don’t we check alibis, then? I was with Pinkie on the third floor. We heard some noise in the stairwell and went down to investigate immediately. Am I correct, Pinkie?”

“Absolutely!” the pink pony responded, sounding way too enthusiastic. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how Pinkie managed to keep smiling at a time like this.

“Perfect. Now, Pinkie’s diagram has the locations of everypony during the time in question.” Caesura calmly flipped the piece of paper around in the air, making sure that everypony could see it. “Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all went to the fourth floor. But according to Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy were the first ones down to find Twilight in the lobby. Nightowl was next, followed by Pinkie and myself. Twilight was unconscious by this point, but that does not mean that the barrier was down. An unconscious pony can still supply power to a barrier like that, but it won’t last for long. I would say 10 minutes, tops. Let me ask again. Am I correct?”

Twilight refused to answer, but Shining Armor stepped in and spoke for her. “That’s right,” he admitted, hesitant. “A barrier like that passively feeds off of magic until it runs dry. I know how they work, but if the pony is already out of energy when they collapse, the barrier will have nothing to draw on and fizzle out.”

“Good. And Applejack, you can confirm the order in which we came down?”

Applejack nodded. She was staring daggers at Caesura, but the Element of Honesty wasn’t going to lie, even to help her friends. “That’s right. Me and Fluttershy went back down to check on y’all on the second floor, but we heard Twi tumblin’ down the stairs. Then the rest of y’all showed up.”

“Thank you,” Caesura politely responded, “but not all of us. I distinctly remember spending about 7 minutes dragging Rarity out of the rainy doorway and making sure that everypony was okay before we had to go and fetch a certain pegasus from the fourth floor.”

The unicorn paused dramatically, her eyes aggressively boring into her target: Rainbow Dash. “So let me ask you this. What can you do with seven minutes? Why, you could bake some cupcakes. Maybe even curl up by the fire and read a chapter out of a nice book.

“Or you could throw an unconscious pony out of the window.”

What? What...?!

As the storm raged through the silence, Twilight began to desperately think of a way to counter Caesura’s wild theory. How was she supposed to know that Rainbow had stayed up on the fourth floor by herself for 7 minutes?!

Caesura, her scraggly black mane framing her confident grin, wasn’t going to wait for Twilight to think of a response. “The only time that Page could have left was while the inner barrier was down and the outer barrier was up. The only pony who doesn’t have an alibi for that time is Rainbow Dash. So let me ask you all one last time. Am. I. Correct?”

The words stung Twilight like a swarm of bees, sending shivers of dread through every fiber of her being. She had to stop this before it spiraled any further out of her control!

Quickly, Twilight began to mount whatever defense she could to protect her friend. “I’ll answer you,” she replied slowly, trying to buy as much time as she could. “But first, answer my question. Why?”

“That doesn’t matter,” came Caesura’s blunt reply. “Motives are only good for narrowing down the suspects. It doesn’t do you any good when there’s only one option.”

Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. She had hoped that she could make Caesura stop and think for a moment, but the unicorn had shot down her question before it could even spark a debate! In a panic, Twilight thought of another response. “But what about the body?” Twilight asked, her words going faster than her thoughts. “If Rainbow just threw her out of the window, shouldn’t she still be outside?”

“No.” Yet again, Caesura didn’t hesitate. “We already know she was taken into the forest.”

“But why?!”

“That doesn’t matter,” Caesura repeated, scowling. “The only thing that matters is that this supposed Element of Loyalty is the only one who could have forced Page through the outer barrier. Why she did it is irrelevant.”

Once again, Twilight was taken aback by the emotion in Caesura’s voice. It was only then that the unicorn noticed something that she should have noticed a while ago. Caesura was only focusing on Page's disappearance, meaning that she probably didn't have the time to think about the other mysteries as well.

“Well?” Caesura asked pointedly, tossing Pinkie’s sheet of paper off to the side. “I answered your questions, but you still haven’t answered mine. So let me ask you again. Am I correct?”

“Hold on!” Twilight insisted again, getting upset with how baseless the unicorn’s theory was. How could she justify all of this?! “You’re saying that Page was still in the room after me and Nightowl searched it? You can’t say that giant problem like that doesn’t matter!”

“Oh, it matters,” the vindictive mare mused. The way she spoke made Twilight wish that she hadn’t brought that up. “But I want to be absolutely sure. 100%. Twilight, detail your movements when you entered the room, and Nightowl will know if you’re lying.”

Lying? What reason would Twilight have to lie?! “Fine! Nightowl broke through the front door, I broke through the side. He checked the closet and I checked under the sheets and bed. Between the two of us, there’s no way that Page was in there. Happy?”

With a grin, Caesura turned towards Nightowl, who only nodded silently. “I’ll explain how it’s possible, but only if you answer my question. Rainbow Dash is the only pony who doesn’t have an alibi for the only time that Page was abducted. So answer me, Twilight Sparkle. Am I correct?”

Grinding her teeth together, Twilight found herself cornered by a simple repetition of those three infuriating words. There was no way she was going to win this battle if Caesura kept acting like a spoiled brat! Withholding vital information like that would be a crime if they were in Celestia’s court right now, but that was the problem. They weren’t in Celestia’s court. They were stranded in the middle of an unnaturally heavy storm with a criminal! For now, Twilight reasoned that she would have to be the better mare and step down, since they were going to have to work together to solve this, but she was going to make sure that she was in control of this situation. If she played along, Caesura would be forced to play all of her trump cards.

“Fine then,” Twilight sighed, nodding conclusively. This was the best solution. “For now, I’ll admit that only Rainbow could have done it. But—”

“Twilight?!”

A chorus of angry yells, one louder than the others, made Twilight suddenly realize what she had said. Before she could explain herself, the crowd of ponies parted between Rainbow Dash and herself, forcing Twilight to look her friend in the eyes. It would only take a second to explain herself, but the words stuck in her throat as she stared into the eyes of her terrified friend.

What... did I just do...?