//------------------------------// // 7...8...9... // Story: Discord's Game of Hide and Seek // by TheEveryDaySparkle //------------------------------// Twilight makes her way toward the Wonderbolt Academy school. Her mission is to find out as much as she can about where Rainbow Dash might be. She already knew the first person she would ask. Spitfire. After all, it was basically her job to keep up with all the members of the Wonderbolts, as well as new trainees. If anyone would know anything about where Rainbow Dash was, it would be her. She now stood in front of the door to the Academy. she didn't have to knock. Not this time. It was a school, not someone's house. Thta being said, she couldn't just walk in. She decided to look around for someone with access. Before she could even move to put her thoughts into actions, however, she was stopped by a voice directly behind her. "Hey! What do you think you're doing down there!" It was Spitfire. She was sure of it She turned around. "Get away from that door right this- Oh, it's just you, Twilight. Sorry. I thought you were one of the newbies." "It's fine. Nothing for you to apologize for. You were just...doing your job, after all. hahaha." Spitfire spoke up. "So why are you here in Cloudsdale? What could a princess possibly want with grunts like us?" "Well, I'm looking for Rainbow Dash. Do you know if she happened to come back at any time?" "Nope. Dash hasn't been back since I gave her today off. She's probably off slackin' somewhere." "I see. Well, do you mind if I search anyway? I believe she told me she forgot something important up here." "That Dash, always so irresponsible. I aught to drill her for this. remind me to give her five hundred laps as punishment later." "I will, but, my question..." "Oh yeah, that. Knock yourself out. And make sure to tell Rainbow Crash to be more careful next time. I won't always be here to look after her things for her." Twilight giggles. "Will do, Spitfire." She was let in to the Academy by Spitfire, and, after receiving directions from her as to where Rainbow's locker was, she made her way down the corridors, looking for the locker rooms. Once she found the corresponding locker, she opened it and checked inside. Nothing. Nothing but her Wonderbolts uniform and the goggles that came with it. Twilight frowned. Where could her friends be? Without a word, she made her way back through the way she came and out of the academy, completely out of Spitfire's line of sight. While in her grief she spotted a...rather strange cloud. It was blue, and not white like the others. Too upset to care enough to study this strange new phenomenon, she simply went about her search on another direction. Heading for Fluttershy's, she hung her head low as she sulked. Once there, she shook off her sadness in order to pay attention to the trees around her. She had no idea what dangers could be lurking out in the forest. She knocked on Fluttershy's door once she reached it, and sure enough, there was Angel Bunny, looking at her as though she was an intruder on someone else's land, which, technically she was. Twilight simply ignored her and stepped into Fluttershy's home. "I'm sorry, Angel, but I have no time to tell you what's going on." she was right, she didn't. Once she left Fluttershy's, she still had one friend to look for, and she wasn't sure how long this search was going to take. The search of Sweet Apple Acres and Rarity's boutique took five, and the search at the Wonderbolts Academy took six if she factored in the extra time it took to look for a clue to Rainbow Dash's Whereabouts. Twilight began gently moving Fluttershy's things around, just as she had done with her other friends homes, albeit in a bit of a quicker and less time consuming way. At some point she found a rose. She put it with the rest of her things. The lasso she had tied loosely around her neck, the ring she wore on her hoof to keep it form getting lost, and the cloud she had taken notice of in her mind. She had a perfect picture of it in her mind still despite being the way she was when she saw it. She made a second hole in the lasso and put the rose in it, wearing it like a necklace. She gave the place one last quick search. She couldn't enlist the help of the animals like Fluttershy, so she had to do it alone.She looked under her rug, checked behind her clock, and just about every other spot in the little cottage once more before apologizing to Angel Bunny and leaving. She had one last place. to go. But with her spirits crushed, and her friends still gone, did she really want to continue? NO! she couldn't think like that. She had to do it. For her friends. For Zecora. She trotted away and over to her friend's home and job, new hope filling her being as she went. But would she be able to do it, with only seven hours left to search. "I can do this." She said to herself as she made her way to her friends front door. Once there, she knocked on the door. The store was still open, so someone had to be there, right. The door creaked open slowly, and sure enough, Mrs. Cake stood there smiling. "Hi there, Twilight! What can I do for you today?" "Hi Mrs. Cake. Pinkie told me she left her party cannon at home, and she sent me to pick it up. May I come in and look for it?" "Really? But Pinkie never leaves home without her beloved cannon. Something must be very wrong if she forgot it at home. Come on in dear." She trotted away, still in the middle of a worry storm about her 'poor baby.' Twilight got to work, making her way upstairs to pinkie's room. She searched everywhere. From under the bed to the very cracks of the walls. She had had enough of Discord's little game and was not about to be outdone by an evil trickster like him. Or so she thought. She searched everywhere, and still there was no sign of where pinkie was. Not anywhere. She walked down the stairs, sighing in defeat. Where were all of her friends? She had been searching all day and she hasn't found a single thing to tell her anything about them. And now here she was, out of ideas and out of places to search. She said goodbye to Mrs. Cake and left the sweets shop, sulking even more than before. She sat down on her haunches on the grass next to the path that stretched all the way through the center of ponyville, and cried.