6.
Twilight moved through the plaza at a brisk pace. She felt a nagging sense of apprehension, but not, as yet, a full-blown panic. True, several ponies had disappeared, but it was highly probable that either she or Princess Celestia would be able to bring them back, as soon as the black stallion’s magic could be properly examined and a method could be found for reversing its effects. As for the stallion himself, it had always been Twilight’s experience that shapeshifters preferred to act from behind the scenes, and she doubted very much that this one would blow his cover by doing something drastic, at least not until he felt ready to deal with the consequences. With luck, that would leave enough time to find out what he was planning and how to stop it. And the first step was going to Sugarcube Corner.
Fortunately, Twilight was already quite close to her destination, and soon spotted the bakery’s signature tower—which resembled a candle-topped cupcake—jutting above the nearby houses. The roof of the bakery looked like frosted gingerbread, and its many windows were tinted pink, to match the cupcake’s frosting. Out front, protected by lace-trimmed parasols, stood a number of tables and chairs.
These were inhabited by what was clearly a crowd of regulars, some of them talking together in lively groups, some of them enjoying a quieter breakfast with their significant other, and a few sitting alone to read the paper. A smiling, apron-wearing pony with a light raspberry-colored coat and a darker raspberry-colored mane and tail (both of them attractively poofy) moved about between tables, serving milkshakes, coffee, and an assortment of scrumptious goods.
“Let’s see, there’s a split banana split with two spoons for Daisy and Rose, a vanilla mousse for Lily, and Steamer, you’re in superduper luck because we just made a fresh batch of chocolate and the chocolate-chip muffins are so good I wanted to eat them all myself! I mean, I didn’t, because if I did, I couldn’t be serving them, but I really, really, REALLY wanted to! And Junebug, you ordered our amazingly apple danish—with a maple milkshake, too? Oh my gosh, I love those! But don’t worry, Mr. Karat; I didn’t forget about you. No sir, I warmed up your cherry cider caramel cinnamon cheesecake chestnut coffee cappuccino to be nice and toasty hot, just the way you like it!”
The waitress pony had said all of this extremely quickly. At the same time, she had served the delicacies on her tray with remarkable precision, placing each one before the proper customer and spilling not a drop of the various beverages. When her tray was empty, she turned around to make her way inside the bakery, but stopped upon noticing Twilight.
“Omigosh, Twilight! Would you like something to eat? What about a Bavarian cream? Do you know they even come from Bavaria? Actually, do you even know where Bavaria is? Because I have no idea! Or maybe an apricot parfait? Those make you feel like you’re out of this world! Well, not really, because if you were really out of this world you’d be in space and you can’t breathe in space so that might not feel very nice, especially since you can’t talk without breathing and if I couldn’t talk, I don’t know what—”
The waitress cut off abruptly, as Twilight strode forward and shoved a forehoof into her mouth.
“Pinkie Pie, STOP! Please! I need your help and it’s extremely important.”
“Ew eely eed ey elp?”
Twilight removed her hoof from Pinkie’s mouth.
“Yes, I need you to come with me to see the mayor. Do you think you could take the rest of the morning off?”
“Well, we’re kind of busy right now, buuuuut since it’s you, Twilight, no problem! Just let me tell Mr. and Mrs. Cake.”
Pinkie Pie whipped around and zipped into the bakery. A moment later, she reemerged, sans her serving tray and apron, the latter of which no longer covered her colorful tri-balloon cutie marks.
“All set!” she said to Twilight. “Where’re we going again?”
“Town hall. Come on!”
Twilight about-faced and broke into a canter. Pinkie Pie bounced along in her wake, easily keeping pace, even though she kept pausing to greet friends and give hugs. She knew everyone in sight, and had a never-ending store of kind words and pertinent inquiries, not only for those she met, but also about their family, friends, pets, and sundry other relations, many of who lived halfway across Equestria and whom Pinkie had never actually met.
Twilight couldn’t help feeling impressed.
“Pinkie,” she said, “how come you can remember so much about everypony in town, but you can’t even remember your own birthday?”
“Dunno. I guess other ponies are just more important to me than I am.”
Pinkie Pie veered away to greet yet another acquaintance. They were nearing the town square now, and Twilight could glimpse sunlight glinting off the narrow river that curved through the center of Ponyville. An arching bridge passed over the water, beyond which lay a wide, mostly open area dotted with colorful tents.
In the middle of this space stood the town hall, a grand three-story building finished with wood and white stucco. Twilight and Pinkie made their way inside and traveled through the main corridor, until they reached a waiting room.
Unsurprisingly, the receptionist turned out to be a friend of Pinkie’s, and he was able to confirm that, not only was the mayor in, but her door was open and she had no meetings for the rest of the morning.
“So it’s a perfect time to see her,” he added
Twilight thanked him and led the way around a corner into the building’s largest office. The mayor, or Mayor, as she preferred to be called, sat behind her desk, reading a real-estate magazine. Her coat was a light amber color and her mane and tail were shades of bluish-gray, though it had been suggested (rather scandalously) that Mayor actually dyed them this way, in order to make herself look older and more inclined to wisdom. Her cutie mark was a diploma wrapped in a bright blue ribbon, and she wore a pair of golden pince-nez on her nose.
As soon as she caught sight of her guests, Mayor invited them in, asked them to sit, and held out a well-stocked candy tray.
“Oh, boy!” said Pinkie Pie. “Are those lily lemon suckers from the royal Canterlot sweet shop?”
“That’s right,” said Mayor. “Have as many as you like.”
Pinkie Pie took a few of the candies and sprawled on a couch at the back of the room, squeeing with joy as she unwrapped the first sucker and popped it into her mouth. Mayor turned the candy tray toward Twilight, but she politely declined and settled herself in the nearest chair. Shortly thereafter, when the usual pleasantries had been exchanged, Mayor set down the candy and cleared her throat.
“It’s always a pleasure,” she said, “to receive a visit from one of Ponyville’s most prominent citizens. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that, whenever you seek me out under your own initiative, it’s almost always because you need to provide a warning of some newly discovered danger.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t going to change today,” said Twilight.
She leaned forward and explained about the disappearing ponies, the mysterious black stallion, and the strange shadow in the Everfree Forest. Mayor steepled her hooves as she listened.
“And you’re sure,” she said, when Twilight had finished, “that this stallion isn’t what he appears to be?”
“I’m positive. For one thing, he seems to have some control over shadows—there was a whole mess of them behaving strangely after Trixie’s disappearing trick. Not to mention, it can’t be coincidence that Fluttershy found her anomaly on the very same afternoon.”
“Well, what if Trixie caused it?”
“I don’t think so. Trixie might be talented for a traveling entertainer, but she isn’t a wizard. It takes a tremendous amount of power to manipulate darkness; as far as I know, there isn’t a pony in the entire world who can do it. That’s why I think the stallion is more than he’s letting on. If you need further proof, there’s the fact that he uses magic at all. Only unicorns have that ability, and he clearly looks like an earth pony. He shouldn’t have enough sorcery to light a candle, much less produce the kind of power I sensed at Trixie’s show.”
Twilight didn’t say anything about how she had felt when the stallion had looked at her, though she suspected Mayor might have guessed there was more to it, because the latter gave her a penetrating stare before asking a follow up question.
“Then, if he’s not a pony, what is he?”
“I’m not sure yet. My working theory is that he’s some kind of spirit.”
Mayor almost leapt out of her skin.
“Good heavens! Wasn’t Discord a spirit? Are we dealing with something on his level?”
“You don’t need to worry,” said Twilight. “The only shadow spirit who’s comparable with Discord was sealed away, over a thousand years ago. And that’s if he even existed in the first place; the legends are a little sketchy there. Either way, it’s much more probable that we’re dealing with a minor entity—dangerous, but nothing we can’t handle.”
“This is still highly disturbing. I’m beginning to wish I had attended the show myself, so I could have seen what happened. But I was…” Mayor paused to stare out a window. Then she smiled helplessly and turned back to Twilight. “Well, given the circumstances, I suppose there’s no point keeping it under wraps: Princess Luna is making a surprise visit to Ponyville.”
Twilight’s mouth fell open. In the back of the room, there was the sound of Pinkie Pie choking on her sucker.
“Yes,” continued Mayor, “she’s touring the countryside now, but she’s scheduled to be here this evening. It seems she had so much fun during Nightmare Night that she wanted to return. My staff and I were busy all day yesterday, making preparations.”
“Princess Luna couldn’t have asked for that,” said Twilight.
“No, she specifically requested a quiet trip. Still, she is Princess Celestia’s sister. At least we want her to have the best room in town. And the best food, the best drink, the best after-dinner ten-pony musical floorshow… Hopefully she’ll have a good time. Perhaps, if she enjoys herself enough, we could even get a bit of royal funding.”
Mayor trailed off and scratched at her chin.
“Of course,” she added, “if there’s a maniacal shapeshifting spirit vanishing our citizens, that may not make such a good impression. Not to mention, those poor ponies! Are you saying they’re lost for good?”
“No. Magic almost never makes things disappear permanently; there’s no reason to believe we can’t bring our friends back once we get the situation under control. And if Princess Luna is coming here… Well, I said before there’re no ponies with the power to manipulate darkness, but that’s not entirely true. If you count alicorns, then Princess Luna can do it. And I’ll bet she’s much better than the black stallion.”
“She’s scary-o-rific!” declared Pinkie Pie.
“Quite,” said Mayor, “but please don’t mention that to her face. In the meantime, until she arrives, we’d best take every action to find this stallion and keep him contained.”
“That’s why I’m here,” said Twilight. “I’ve got a plan and, even better, a secret weapon, one that’s going to blow our shadowy visitor right out of the water.”
She turned around to look at Pinkie Pie, who waved cheerily and popped another candy into her mouth.