Princess Luna was doing what she could to calm the mass of panicking ponies. Everpony was questioning how the fillies managed to escape her notice. Many of these questions Luna was mentally asking herself. She and some of her guards were watching the town all night, the fact that none of them had seen either filly so much as leave their home just added to the ever growing concern.
“Of course they’re still going.” sighed Mystic Night as he led Twilight and her friends into the building.
The group carefully made their way through to Princess Luna, who gave a small smile at their presence. The dark blue alicorn turned back to the crowd for her final attempt at quelling the townsponies.
“Enough!” shouted Luna in her Royal Canterlot voice.
The entire building went dead quiet.
“I apologize for raising my voice at you.” said the princess, lowering her voice back down, “I understand you are all worried, and I deeply regret that I could not prevent last night’s disappearance, but becoming angry with me will not solve this situation.
“As you can see,” she continued as she subtly signaled Twilight and her friends to step forward, “Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends have come offer their assistance as well. I promise we will be doing all that we can to return your foals to you. Now please, go about your day as best you can.”
The crowd hesitated for a moment, but eventually dispersed.
Princess Luna turned to the others with a warm smile.
“Good to see you, my friends. I’m grateful that you came to our aid so quickly.” she said slightly bowing her head.
“We’ll do what we can to help,” said Twilight, returning the gesture “Is there any information you can give us?”
“Of course, follow me please.”
Luna led the group to the back of the building to a slightly smaller room in which there were a few of Luna’s guards, some local law enforcement officers, and an earth pony stallion who quickly came up to the group and introduced himself as the mayor of Centrotlia.
Twilight and her friends sat down at one side of the room (except for Rainbow Dash, who simply hovered above them) and a slide projecter was set up. Princess Luna gave a nod to Mystic Night, who took a breath and took his place next to the projecter screen.
“Here’s what we know:” started the silver unicorn as he turned on the projecter, showing a picture of a white unicorn filly with a yellow mane “About a week ago, a young filly named Daisy Glow was discovered to be missing when her mother went to wake her up in the morning. There was no clue as to where she went and nopony in town had seen her since a town get together that was held the previous day. A search party was organized to look for her within town and the nearby Destrier Forest, but unfortunately turned up empty-hooved.”
The slide changed to a picture of a brown earth pony colt with a darker brown mane.
“The next morning, a colt named Rocky Road was also discovered missing. Additionally, multiple foals came forward claiming that they had heard what sounded like faint music the previous night as well as the night before.”
The slides showed more foals, two pegasi (a filly and a colt) and an earth pony colt, while Mystic explained that a foal disappeared each night and the following mornings, foals continued to report the strange music, and more search parties were organized though they always turned up nothing.
The slides then stopped on a picture portraying two earth pony fillies; one yellow with a pink mane, the other light blue with a white mane.
“Which brings us to our most recent disappearances. Honey Sweet and Sugar Swirl, sisters who both vanished last night, somehow escaping the notice of Princess Luna and her guards who were watching over the town at the time.
“This was the first time that more than one foal had disappeared in a single night, causing ponies to panic at the fact that not only did the situation continue after the arrival of the Princess, but also somehow managed to escalate.”
The projector was deactivated as the stallion wrapped things up.
“It’s abundantly clear that something magical is behind this, and that is why the Princesses and the heroes of the realm were contacted.” He looked directly towards Twilight and her friends. “And now that they’re here, we offer any assistance we can and hope for the best.”
Later that day, Twilight’s group decided to get something to eat while they discussed how to handle the situation (given that they hadn’t eaten since the previous afternoon). To say most of the townsponies were still on edge was an understatement, the cafe owners could barely manage a smile while they took orders.
“So, to sum up: mysterious music at night and missing foals the next morning.” Rainbow Dash repeated.
“Sadly, that’s not very much to go on.” said Rarity
“You’re right,” sighed Twilight “I don’t even know where to… Pinkie, what are you doing?”
Pinkie Pie was at the cafe’s counter with a large bag of bits.
“I’m buying as many cupcakes as I can so I can hand them out to everypony as Don’t-Worry-We’ll-Find-Your-Foals-Pinkie-Promise Cupcakes.” explained the Pink Party Pony as the very confused owners brought up several large trays of cupcakes.
Pinkie paid and thanked the owners, somehow managed to fit every single cupcake in her saddlebag, and happily hopped out the door.
The rest of them smiled at their friend’s antics. If anypony could help these ponies cope with the situation, it was Pinkie Pie.
“Anyway,” started Applejack, “Twilight, have ya ever read anything that sounds similar to this?”
Twilight thought for a second, “The closest I can remember is a story about spirits that disguise themselves as breezies to lure foals into the woods. But even so, the similarities are few, and it’s just a story.”
“Yeah, but everypony used to think that Nightmare Moon and Daring Do were ‘just stories’. ” Spike pointed out.
The door to the cafe swung open as Pinkie Pie barreled back in pulling a stunned silver stallion behind her. She went straight for her friends and started rattling off what had transpired while she was gone:
“HeysoIwasgivingoutthecupcakesandIsawMysticNighttalkingtoalloftheparentsofthemissingfoalssoIgavethemcupcakesandIgavehimacupcakeandhesaidhehasnewinformationsoIbroughthimoversohecouldtellallofus.”
“Uh… what she said.” said Mystic, still trying to comprehend what just happened.