Lessons in quirks

by Mike84

Chapter XXXV

As Twilight left the town hall, she saw the others standing in front of it and by the looks of it Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in a heated debate.
"I am not running out on him, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack snapped in response to something Rainbow Dash had obviously said before.
"All Ah'm sayin' is y'all are mighty certain about everything. I have said it before and I'm sayin' again that he comes across as very friendly and all. But he's right about one thing for certain, we know him for less than two days and already y'all act like there was not a chance in the world he actually could have his hooves in this!"

"Do you really think that he did this?" Rarity asked uncertain.
"Ah'm not saying that!" Applejack with a tone that made clear that she had said this before too and was getting frustrated with repeating herself. "Just saying that y'all are so rock solid convinced that he didn't do anything it comes across like nothing could happen to convince y'all otherwise!"
"Don't tell me you're falling for that bag of money in his sleeping bag, AJ!" Rainbow Dash called. "He asked me to strike the tent. Just how stupid would a thief have to be to send ponies right to where he hides his booty? And who would hide his booty in a place where everypony who happens to find it would link it to him right away?"

"Ah'm just not so sure who of us is falling for something here, Rainbow Dash! You're right that all this would be very stupid of a thief to do. So stupid that perhaps nopony would end up thinking of the one as the thief who was so clearly being framed as the thief. Any chance a pony could frame himself so much that everypony else thinks he was being framed by somepony else?"
Rainbow Dash goggled at Applejack, not knowing what to say.
"Don't y'all forget exactly what Frank said? One out of six money bags as an acceptable price to make everypony look the other way for the thief? No chance the thief may put that spotlight on himself so much that everypony thinks it would be too obvious for him to be the thief?"

As Twilight approached the group, Applejack turned towards her. "You, Twilight, you told me just yesterday you thought he was manipulative. You, Rarity, were there too."
"Yes, Darling", Rarity said. "You told Twilight then that you didn't think of him as dishonest, if I remember correctly?"
Applejack nodded. "Yes, I did tell that and please trust me when Ah tell y'all that Ah hope I was right then. But it was all before anything happened to get worried about." Applejack gave a quick look to everyone. "And Ah also remember another time when Twilight had a bad feeling about somepony and we were all talking her out of it and it turned out she had been right all along. If it taught me one thing, it was to take Twilight's intuitions very seriously."

"I got more than intuitions now, everypony!" Twilight said with a grin. "We got to head to Mr. Rich's place immediately!"
At this moment there suddenly was a quiet wailing sound from the top of the town hall. It turned out to be the beginning of a mournful melody played on a harmonica. Now that the sun was setting and the air cooled down somewhat, some more ponies were out in the streets than during the heat of the day and the melancholic melody from the top of the town hall attracted the attention of every passerby.
"No doubt he knows how to make everypony feel bad about him being locked up there", Applejack commented sourly.

The mournful melody grew quieter as they headed for Mr. Rich's place. On the way, Twilight laid out her more than intuition points to the others. "At first I thought that I was just being prejudiced against this pony for having never seen him before and because our first meeting got off on the wrong hoof. At first I thought that his being so rude and repellent was because he was trying to shield his master. Mr. Rich really did look very bad, so such concern could have been understood."

"Then what makes you think otherwise now?" Applejack asked.
"On the one hoof of course the point that working in the house he would know all he needs to know to commit the theft and being a unicorn he would be able to levitate and teleport the moneybags—"
"But—" Applejack began, but Twilight cut her off with a quick wave of her hoof.
"I know that's not enough, but let me finish first. I grew more suspicious because none of you knew him or had ever heard of him. AJ, Rarity, you have both been living in Ponyville all your lives and both of you had some contact with Mr. Rich, selling zap apples, cider or fashion to the Rich Family."

"Cider to the Riches?" Rainbow Dash asked, but both Twilight and Applejack ignored her.
"It is very unlikely, though not impossible, that you would have never met this servant of Mr. Rich. When Rainbow and I were at Zecora's place, she told us that there are potions that could make ponies forget about something, though she pointed out they were nothing banal. She didn't rule out the possibility of a different kind of magic used for that either, though she couldn't say anything certain without seeing Mr. Rich herself. She promised to come here tomorrow."
"Twilight, that's still rather weak", Applejack said. "Didn't Mr. Rich himself tell you that he has absolute confidence in this Swallowtail? And wouldn't he know him good enough after all that time?"

"He would...", Twilight said with an almost triumphant tone, "...and indeed this, more than anything else, made me think that I was just being biased. But Zecora said yet another thing."
"She did?" Rainbow Dash asked surprised, raking her brain for what Twilight was referring to.
"One last thing that comes to my mind
have you ever thought of a thief, who is not of ponykind?" Twilight quoted.
She found that as unusual as Zecora's talking in rhymes sounded, it made her words a lot more memorable, making it easier to remember the literal wording the way Frank had sometimes shown he was capable of.

"Not of ponykind?" Rarity almost cried. "What do you mean, that he is some kind of changeling?"
Twilight shifted her head from one side to the other, hesitating a bit before she answered:
"Not really. We don't know very much about changelings, but from what we saw at my brother's wedding, they can take on the appearance of someone who really exists. But other than Queen Chrysalis we didn't see any of them really acting like anypony whose form they had taken on. And Queen Chrysalis gave the worst performance as Princess Cadence I could imagine. Had she just put a little more effort into it... anyway, I'm getting off topic here."

"And besides, don't forget that Chrysalis and the changelings are locked up safe and sound in durance vile in her own castle!" Rainbow Dash reminded everyone with a deliberately cheerful tone. "She and her minions won't impersonate or harm anypony for a long time!"
While Twilight shared Rainbow Dash's relief over the disposal of Queen Chrysalis and the changeling scourge she didn't allow for this to distract her from the problem at hoof. She continued:
"Zecora's comment just made me think of the possibility that somepony could pretend to be somepony else. Changelings really physically take on the form of whoever they are imitating, which makes them very difficult to track and you really need to be in touch with them to turn them back to their original form.

But as you said, they are locked up and we would know if anyone of them escaped. It doesn't take a changeling for such a deception, however.
So long nobody is even trying to dispel it, a simple illusions spell could do the trick. Few ponies practice that and therefore few ponies would recognize it or know what to do to dispel it, but I could easily imagine a pony like Trixie to be into that kind of magic."
"Trixie? But Twilight, hasn't she reformed?" Fluttershy asked.

"Did I ever tell you, Fluttershy, that for some time it makes me cringe every time you are using the word reformed?" Rainbow Dash said.
Fluttershy gave her a hurt look, making Rainbow Dash feel sorry right away, but before she could give any apology, Twilight spoke up again.
"I'm not saying this was Trixie's doing, I just used her as an example."
"But Twilight, we think the same one who stole Mr. Rich's money also attacked Miss Cheerilee, right?" Applejack asked. "Why would the thief do that?"

This was indeed a question Twilight had been wondering about herself, but she thought she had a plausible theory. "I don't know this for certain, but my guess is this: Diamond Tiara must have noticed something. If indeed this Swallowtail has never been around before, she must have been hit by the same memory changing magic as her father to prevent her from exposing the thief. But it seems like this magic must work differently on fillies than on adult ponies. Diamond Tiara doesn't seem to have gone all depressed or feel that she has forgotten anything at all. But maybe the magic is also less effective on kids. Maybe she told Miss Cheerilee something that made her suspicious and the thief attacked her so she wouldn't be able to tell anypony."

"Maybe Mr. Rich himself made Cheerilee suspicious", Rainbow Dash said eagerly. "I recall seeing them talk to each other late during the party yesterday."
Twilight nodded eagerly. "Yes, I remember too."
Applejack still looked skeptical however: "Twilight, Ah know what Ah said before about taking your intuitions seriously, but ya said you got more than intuitions now and so far intuition is all we got. Do you really think this is enough for all of us to march up there to Mr. Rich's house and do... what exactly do you think we should do anyway?"

Twilight nodded but still gave a determined smile matching those so often found on Rainbow Dash's face.
"Again, you would be right if that was all I had to go with. But here is the final thing. I asked Inkhorn about Swallowtail. She doesn't know him either, even though she mentioned knowing Mr. Rich a little when Frank and I were first told about the theft. But Inkhorn also told me that Swallowtail wasn't to be found in the register of Ponyville's citizens either. He does not appear on the list that includes every single one of Ponyville's citizens! A pony supposed to be a permanent resident here since the days of Filthy Rich's father!"

"Now that's really something more than intuition, Twilight!" Applejack agreed.
"Ha!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as if she herself had made her point earning herself a rolling of Applejack's eyes.
"But Twilight, what are we going to do when we get to Mr. Rich's place?" Fluttershy asked timidly.
"We must put an end to this now!" Twilight said. In spite of her certainty about this, she did feel a little uneasy. "We cannot allow for this 'Swallowtail' or who or whatever he is to continue and possibly attack any more ponies!"
"Yeah, let's kick his flank!" Rainbow Dash agreed with an enthusiasm that Twilight herself didn't quite share.

"I hope that won't be necessary", she said. "I will confront him with what we know and hope that he will come along quietly. With the kind of magic necessary to mess with the memory of Mr. Rich and Cheerilee like that, I must admit I would feel more at ease if we had the Elements of Harmony with us."
"You think we are going to need them?" Rarity asked uneasily.
"I hope not", Twilight said and didn't remind the others of the obvious fact that they didn't have them either way. "But we are six against one pony who may in the end be just a manipulator."
"Exactly!" Rainbow Dash agreed eagerly. Oddly enough Twilight thought that she would have felt more at ease if Rainbow Dash had shown a little more of Applejack's skepticism instead of this reckless overenthusiasm.

"Maybe you should write to Princess Celestia first", Fluttershy suggested.
"Or tell the mayor", Applejack said. "Just in case."
"In case of what?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Do you think Mayor Mare is more capable at arresting somepony than we are? And Twilight is a Princess too now."
Ignoring Rainbow Dash, Twilight said: "If Spike was with us now I would send a quick note. But time may be working against us. If the money was all Swallowtail was after he may already be on his getaway and if not, he might attack somepony else. We must hurry!"
Applejack shrugged. "Not much more to hurry about now. Here we are."
They had arrived at the gate of the Rich Mansion.

Author's Note:

I complemented this chapter with a few sentences on July 20th. The added sentences appear in italics here:

"Not really. We don't know very much about changelings, but from what we saw at my brother's wedding, they can take on the appearance of someone who really exists. But other than Queen Chrysalis we didn't see any of them really acting like anypony whose form they had taken on. And Queen Chrysalis gave the worst performance as Princess Cadence I could imagine. Had she just put a little more effort into it... anyway, I'm getting off topic here."
"And besides, don't forget that Chrysalis and the changelings are locked up safe and sound in durance vile in her own castle!" Rainbow Dash reminded everyone with a deliberately cheerful tone. "She and her minions won't impersonate or harm anypony for a long time!"
While Twilight shared Rainbow Dash's relief over the disposal of Queen Chrysalis and the changeling scourge she didn't allow for this to distract her from the problem at hoof. She continued:
"Zecora's comment just made me think of the possibility that someone could pretend to be somepony else. Changelings really physically take on the form of whoever they are imitating, which makes them very difficult to track and you really need to be in touch with them to turn them back to their original form. But as you said, they are locked up and we would know if anyone of them escaped. It doesn't take a changeling for such a deception, however. So long nobody is even trying to dispel it, a simple illusions spell could do the trick. Few ponies practice that and therefore few ponies would recognize it or know what to do to dispel it, but I could easily imagine a pony like Trixie to be into that kind of magic."

Last edited on December 13th 2015.