Prologue: In which the stage is set

12 months ago

It was Tuesday night and all the ponies were together, except of course Rarity and Fluttershy. Those two were at their weekly spa visit. The rest of them had gathered together at the library for their weekly get together. This week, Twilight had decided to try to start a reading club, with mixed results. Looking around at the mess that was the library – books were scattered everywhere due to Pinkie Pie’s antics – it occurred to Spike that Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen. This was odd, because Spike had been with Twilight when she had invited Dash. Thinking back he recalled that Rainbow hadn’t actually agreed to be there, stating only that she would try to attend.

Brushing the matter aside, Spike went about trying to clean up after the other ponies. A resounding crash and the fall of books, accompanied by an exasperated “Pinkie!” from Twilight, announced that the party pony had created more of a mess. Sighing in resignation, Spike continued his task when another thought occurred to him. Rainbow Dash is never here on Tuesdays…

Spike was curious.

Interesting… he thought. I wonder what she’s doing that she’s never around? Inwardly, he resolved to find out. Thus began his investigation, an investigation that would forever change the six ponies and dragon. FFFOOOOOOORRRRRREEEEEEEEVVVVVVEEEEERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

~~~~

The following week Spike finished his chores early. He had resolved to follow Rainbow Dash everywhere that evening, and find out where she went and what she was up to. “Hey Twilight, I’m gonna go deliver that, uh… one book to, uh… Ditzy, okay? I’ll be back in a little while!”

“Okay Spike,” the unicorn replied absentmindedly. She was studiously reading Supernaturals: Natural Remedies and Cure-Alls that are Simply Super, and not paying too much attention to anything else. Looking up, she turned to the dragon. “Wait, what book-?” she started, but the dragon was already gone.

It hadn’t been hard to track Rainbow Dash down. Loving the spotlight as much as she did, the mare had put on an impromptu exhibition to show off some of her aerial tricks at the behest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Spike had hidden behind a bush to observe from a distance.

“-and that’s when BAM! Sonic Rainboom!” Dash said as she dove at the ground,recounting one of her tales of heroism. “I saved my friend Rarity and some of the Wonderbolts! Proved those jerks from flight school wrong too.” She had pulled out of her dive and was now posing in front of the younger ponies.

“Wow, that’s so- so- AWESOME!” said Scootaloo, the admiration plain on her face.

“You know what’s even awesomer?” Not waiting for an answer, Dash continued, “I get to hang out with them whenever I want! They told me I could come around to their stadium in Canterlot anytime I felt like it!”

The three crusaders looked at their idolized pony in awe. “Ranibow Dash, you are the most awesomest pony ever!” Scootaloo managed to say.

“I know, right? Hey, do any of you know what time it is?”

Snapping out of her adoration induced trance, Sweetie Belle spoke up. “Uh, yeah, it’s four thirty, Rainbow Dash,” she said

“Four thirty? Hey, it was fun hanging out with you guys, but I gotta go… do some… stuff.” Dash glanced around guiltily, then took off into the sky, leaving behind only a rainbow colored contrail.

Spike had watched the scene from behind the bush. Noting the direction that the Pegasus had abruptly taken off in, Spike attempted to track her down, running as fast as he could. She’s definitely up to something! he thought.

As he sprinted off after the flying pony, he overheard the three fillies gushing over Rainbow Dash. “She’s like so- so-!” “COOL!”

~~~~

Spike had no luck following Dash that week, and none for several weeks after, either.

“Horseapples! Where does she go?!” he shouted in frustration one Tuesday afternoon.

“Spike? What’s wrong? Where does who go?”

“Agh!” He jumped in surprise “Twilight! Wh-wh-where did you come from?” He turned to face his friend, clutching his chest and breathing hard.

“Uh, Spike? I live here,” she replied, eyebrow cocked in confusion. They were in the library, in their shared room.

“Oh, right. Yeah. I know that,” the dragon replied sheepishly, scuffing his foot on the floor in embarrassment. “I dunno - it’s nothing. You’ll think it’s silly.”

“Come on Spike, you’ve been acting weird for the last few weeks. What’s going on?”

“Well, you see, I noticed that Rainbow Dash never hangs out with us on Tuesdays. She’s always gone. So, I’ve been following her around trying to see what she’s up to. But I always manage to lose her somewhere along the way.”

“You’re right, Spike, that is silly. Why, she’s… Well, she was at… Wasn’t she there when we..?” Twilight trailed off in thought. “Huh, you’re right. She isn’t here on Tuesdays. But that doesn’t justify following her around. Why don’t you just ask her?”

“But Twilight, I did ask her! She always dodges the question! And then she flies off when I push the issue!”

“Spike, she obviously doesn’t want to tell you. You should respect her privacy and stop bothering her about it.”

“But Twilight, I gotta know!” The dragon didn’t want to stop. The mystery was quickly becoming an obsession, and he wanted to find the answer. Badly. Desperately, even. “I mean, aren’t you just the tiniest bit curious about it? About what she’s doing or where she’s going?” he said, a hint of slyness creeping into his voice. “I mean, it’s not like she just isn’t hanging out with us – she’s doesn’t seem to be anywhere in Ponyville! Don’t you want to know?” he reiterated. “How can you stand not knowing?”

There it was, the studious unicorn’s greatest weakness, above all others. Not knowing. She shifted her eyes and bit her lip. Now that she thought about it, she really did want to know. Not necessarily because she was curious about what Rainbow Dash was doing, but because someone had pointed out that she didn’t know. This was not something that could be looked up in a book, she would have to track down the answer on her own. That would require spying on her friend, but that was wrong wasn’t it? Then again, what could it hurt?

Then her resolve returned and she frowned at the baby dragon. “No, Spike. We should respect her privacy. You should stop following her around and leave her be.”

Having put her hoof down on the matter, Twilight Sparkle turned and walked out of the room.

Spike glared after her maliciously. “Oh you’ll be curious,” the dragon muttered to himself as the pony left. “You’ll be going nuts before the week is out!” Twisting his hands around each other, he chuckled maniacally. Behind him, there was a large CRASH of thunder, further enhancing the sinister nature of the malevolent cackling.

…Outside, a flustered Ditzy Doo looked down at her new set of pans, hoping that none of them had been damaged in the fall. That tree branch had come out of nowhere, and she’d dropped the cookware right onto Twilight Sparkle’s balcony trying to dodge around it…

~~~~

Spike’s prediction had been correct. By the next Tuesday, Twilight Sparkle was just as obsessed as the dragon. Together they sneaked around Ponyville, attempting to track their flighty friend. Week after week they tried, and failed, to discover her whereabouts.

“It just doesn’t make sense! Where is she going and how is she getting there?!” Spike was annoyed and fed up. He had gone from innocent curiosity to full-blown obsession. The dragon had literally spent nights awake worrying over the problem.

Twilight fared no better, and in fact may have been worse off as she was more prone to obsessive tendencies than her companion. “IdontknowIdontknowIdontknow!” she shouted. Her mane was disheveled and her coat was unkempt from lack of care. “It’s driving me crazy!” She pulled on her mane in frustration.

“Did somepony say crazy?” an excited voice piped up from out of nowhere.

“GAAAHHH!!!” the two shouted, jumping into each other and holding on for dear life. They had been walking down Ponyville’s main street after trying unsuccessfully to locate their quarry. Not paying attention, they had walked right past Sugarcube Corner.

“Oh, are you scared? What scared you, was it a big nasty manticore like that one time in the forest when we were going after Nightmare Moon? OHMYGOSH! Was it Nightmare Moon? Where is she? I’ll show that big mean grumpy mean meanie-pants to scare my friends!” Oblivious that her sudden appearance had shocked her friends, Pinkie Pie had crouched low to the ground, a fierce expression on her face, as though ready to pounce on whatever imagined threat there was.

Regaining a semblance of composure, Twilight responded, “Pinkie, we defeated Nightmare Moon, remember?” She sighed, “You just shocked us, coming out of nowhere like that.”

“Oh, but I do that all the time. Remember that one time with Granny Smith? Where I popped out of th-“

“Yeah! We remember, Pinkie!” Spike interrupted, fear evident in his voice. “I don’t think we could forget that one…” the baby dragon said with a shudder. Some memories were better left buried.

“Yeah, that one was really funny! Anyway, what were you guys doing? I was just trying to find Rainbow Dash. She said she’d help me make cupcakes, but I can’t find her anywhere!”

The unicorn spoke up quickly, before her friend had a chance to ramble back into more disturbing topics. “Yeah! Uh, we were actually looking for Dash ourselves. You don’t happen to have any idea where she is, do you?”

Pinkie stopped and stared at them, head cocked to the side, an exasperated expression plain on her face. “Well, duh! If I knew where she was I wouldn’t be looking for her, silly filly! Oh well, I guess I can get Applejack to help make cupcakes, but she’s not as fun as Rainbow Dash. If you really want to find her though, you might try going to ask the Doctor if he knows where she is. He knows a lot about a lot of things. He always seems to know where I misplaced the keys to my-“

“Wait, who?” Spike interrupted, confusion evident on his face.

“No, not Who - Whooves! Doctor Whooves! He lives over on the edge of town. He’s really smart, and he’ll show you a lot of cool stuff if you ask him enough, like WHOOOUWOOO and BROAWAOW!” Pinkies stood on her hind-hooves and waved her fore-hooves around as she made the sound effects. “It’s really neato! Well, I’ve gotta get going – Gummy needs me to floss his toes!” Presently, the perplexing party pony pranced off, parting with the purple pony and paralyzed dragon.

“Are we sure she’s not completely insane?” Spike asked.

“No, no I don’t think we are.” Twilight replied.

~~~~

Doctor Whoove’s home was easy to find, and within minutes the pair had reached the quaint cottage. “Looks kinda small.” Spike commented as they approached the front door. “There’s gotta be, like, one room in there. Maybe two.”

“Hush Spike, don’t be rude.” The purple pony chided as she walked to the front door, raised her hoof, and knocked. They waited in silence for a few moments before they heard a muffled “Just a moment!”

A short minute later the door opened, revealing a light-brown stallion. His hair was much darker than his coat and a bit spiky. Ttucked behind his left ear was a small rod with several glowing lights. His eyes were wide and inviting, and upon his flank was an hourglass mark. “Yes? How can I help you?”

“Doctor Whooves? I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is my baby dragon, Spike. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise,” he replied, holding out a hoof for Twilight to shake.

Twilight grasped it and continued, “We were told that you were good at finding people, and were hoping you could help us locate one of our friends. We’ve been looking all over for her and we can’t seem to find her anywhere.” Desperation had crept into Twilight’s voice as she finished explaining their visit, and a manic gleam was starting to enter her eyes.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, mildly perplexed, and responded, “Well, come inside, come inside. I don’t know that I’m the best person for the job, but I’ll see what I can do. Care to join us for some tea while we talk?”

“I guess… Sure, why not? Do you have any Old Grey?” Twilight asked as she and Spike walked into the house. She seemed to calm at the mention of tea. “We’re not interrupting anything, are we?” As she passed the threshold, her jaw dropped. Inside the tiny house was an enormous room, and passages along the walls suggested more rooms. “How- what- where-?” The unicorn was so astonished at the improbable space that she couldn’t form a complete sentence.

“Whooooaaaa… How did you fit all of this into that tiny hut?” Spike was a little more articulate than his shocked companion.

“I take it that his is your first time interacting with a TARDIS, then? Not to worry, it’s perfectly safe and scientifically sound. In answer to your first question however, no I do not have any Old Grey – that tea is incredibly hard to come by! To your second query, no, nothing terribly important, just a game with some friends.”

As the Doctor lead them further into the house, the group heard a familiar voice calling from deeper within. “Hey, Doctor, can we get back to the game? It’s my turn and my warrior is itchin’ to fight!”

Spike and Twilight followed the Doctor into what looked like a dining room. A large table occupied the center of the space, upon which a gridded mat with several small, metal figurines of various kinds rested. On one end of the table were a vacant chair and a cardboard screen. Around the rest of the table were sheets of paper, pencils and a few books, all arranged in front of several ponies. Spike recognized all of them, but a certain light blue pegasus stood out from the rest. It was she that had spoken, and as the new arrivals came into view, the die that the pony had been holding fell from her hoof, clattering onto the table. The weather-mare froze, petrified with horror at the sight of the visitors.

Rainbow Dash, the coolest pony in Ponyville, had been caught red-hoofed, playing–

“Dungeons and Ponies?!” Spike exclaimed, recognizing the traditionally geeky game.