The moon began to peak over the horizon as the sun slowly set in the city of Canterlot. Ponies began shutting their doors, blowing out their candle, and falling deep into slumber; hoping that Luna blesses them with sweet, humble dreams. The street became quite and eventually empty. The town had ended its daily duties and was now resting and preparing for the new day ahead.
Twilight Velvet was lying in bed next to her husband. Her eyes were red and swollen from her crying she did earlier. She had just recently stopped herself, realizing what she had done earlier. Scolding Twilight at a simple request that she should have handled better than she did. She ordered her to leave without a single word to follow. She knew that Twilight would be curious as to why her mother was acting so strangely, and thought of what she might find out in the process; which was too much for her to forget. She had to fix this. She has to explain herself to Twilight before she discovers something she can never forgive her for. But what to say, and how to say it? Velvet just didn’t know of a valid excuse. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “Please Celestisa. Let her not uncover our dark past. In your light pray.” She turns to the night stand and blows out her candle before resting her head next to her husband’s. She hoped that by tomorrow she could think of something to say to Twilight and get this horrible experience behind her. She closed her eyes, and falls into a painful slumber.
On the lower level of the house, there was faint sound that could be heard. A sound coming from back door in the kitchen. A slight “Click” is made and the door slowly creeks open to reveal Twilight who had used her magic to unlock the door. Behind her was Spike wearing his black spy suit to not be so recognizable. They both tip-toe in to not make any loud noise to awake Twilight’s parents. She didn’t need them knowing that she was breaking and entering in their house to find something they obviously didn’t want her to get involved in. But she just couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe this had something to do with her.
“So tell me again why we’re breaking in like burglars into your folk’s house?” Spike asked following the purple pony into the living room. “We’re here because something I said made my mother flip out earlier and I need to know why.” She looks around the room for anything that might be out of the norm. “My mother wouldn’t just tell me to leave so suddenly without a reason why. We are looking that reason now.” She proceeds to look under the furniture around the room to see if there might be anything to direct her in right direction, but to no avail. “Don’t you think that maybe invading your parent’s private life is going a little too far? I mean, it seems a bit extreme.” Spike whispered over to her while he looked under the rugs. “Maybe, but they aren’t going to say whether or not they need help and I just need to make sure they aren’t in any trouble.” She checked under the couch, in-between the cushions, and by the glass table in front of the couch, but nothing was found. All that was there was photo box from earlier. She stared at the box remembering earlier to when the incident happened.
“She got upset when we were looking through pictures. Maybe there’s something in there that set her off.” Twilight sat up on the couch and pulled the box full of photos next to her. “Spike. Come over here.” She whispers over to him. He goes over as quickly as he could without sound and sat on the other side of the box. “What?” “Help me look through these photos. I think something in here may have upset my mom. Look for something…off. Something out of the ordinary in them.” They shuffled through the pictures one by one, looking at the family in each scenario they were in at the time it was captured, but they didn’t seem to find a connection. They went through every picture until they reached the bottom. Nothing. Absolutely nothing, they could find. “I just don’t get it.” Twilight states in confusion. “I thought there’d be something in these that explained mom’s earlier actions. I guess I was wrong.” She lowers her head inn disappointment at her supposedly failed accusation. “Ahh, don’t feel bad Twi.” Spike said. “It was just a misdirected thought, that’s all.” “But I was so sure. We didn’t do anything but look through these old family photos, but there’s nothing in these that look suspicious; besides the fact that, again, there’s no pic of me as a foal. This just make’ no sence.”
Twilight slouches back on the couch lost in thought and staring down at the pictures on the table. “I guess we should start putting them back in the box Spike.” They both being to pick up their mess and place them back in the box. “Don’t worry Twi. Maybe this just means that the problem isn’t as major as you thought it was. After all, isn’t that a good thing we didn’t find anything?” She looks up at Spike as she picks up some photos and gives a faint smile. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maybe I was just overrea-.” Her sentence is interrupted as she looks back at her photos and finally notices something in them. Something in the background that seemed blurred at first. “Spike…Spike, get over here.” She gestured to her assistant to quickly come over and scooted over on the couch until he was next to her. “What is it?” “Look at these pictures Spike. What do you see?” “Umm…Well, in one it’s you and your mother at the town flee market and in the other it’s you and your brother at the park. “ “Exactly.” Twilight exclaims. “They are two separate pictures at different times with different ponies. They have nothing to do with each other, except for the inclusion of me.” “So, what?” “So, look in the background of both photos. What do you see?” Spike takes another look at the pictures and notices a slightly blurred image of a figure in the shape of a pony.
“What is that?” he asks squinting his eyes. “It looks like a guard, but his armor is slightly different from a normal uniform.” Twilight says. “What do you think he’s doing?” “I’m not sure, but he appears in both photos. Same colt, same armor, and always a far distance away.” Twilight put’s the photos down and shuffles through the rest of the pictures of her early life. In each picture she grabbed she could see this weird colt stalking her in back of the shot of every one that had her in it. He was always looking at her and never seemed to change in any of the photos. From what she could make out, he was a tall, black colt with purple mane. Whether or not he was young or old was hard to clarify since the blur made the image difficult to see, but she could make out that his front, right hoof was a bleached white in all the pictures. His cutie mark was covered by his armor and his helmet was always on. He was a complete mystery in his identity.
Twilight takes a couple of the pictures gives them to Spike to put in his pockets. “Why are we taking these?” "Because Spike, I believe that this is what might have made my mother so distraught. She was probably looking through these and saw the exact same colt we did now, causing her to act the way she did.” She grabbed a couple more and looked through them. “I’m hoping having these will help get to the bottom of what’s going on. I’m going to go to the Cantrlot National Guards tomorrow and see if I can’t find some answers.” She gets up and starts moving towards the back door. “Spike, I want you to look through the library’s collection and see if you can’t find anything on the type of armor this colt is wearing. It might help in aid of knowing who this guy is.” They exit the house and quietly close the door. Spike jumps onto Twilights back as she prepares to take flight. “Get good and rested Spike, because tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.” She flaps her wings and begins to fly away from her parents’ house back to Ponyville. She had to get ready for her investigation to continue tomorrow a she visits the National Guards. Hopefully they could shed some light on this growing mystery.
As Twilight and Spike left the quiet house, a silhouette shadow watches them on the top level window. That shadow being Twilight Velvet, awake and aware that the situation may now be going a very wrong and unwanted path.