The base deep within the Everfree Forest had gone dark - no lights, no movement, no active crystals. Nothing but pure darkness in a forest of magical shadows. The ponies had risked their own precarious safety for the sake of remaining hidden. They could see the search party in the distance - the lights of many concerned ponies searching through the forest. Any of the fearsome creatures of the Everfree fled from the sheer volume of ponies trudging through the trees. Even the most terrible of manticores wouldn't take those odds. There was going to be an outbreak of poison joke the next morning, in both ponies and manticores. The plants did not discriminate.
The search party moved to and fro, north, south, east, and west - but despite their thorough searches, they completely missed the clearing and a few other key locations. Sunset herself wasn't at the dark base - she was elsewhere in the Forest, in a location where the light was intense despite the night. Harmonious energies abounded, whipping her mane back and forth. A powerful, stationary object reflected in her eyes, the orange glow complimenting her color scheme.
The swirls danced...
A pegasus scientist landed behind her. "Miss Shimmer?"
"Yes?" She asked, not removing her gaze from the glow.
"The search party is looping back to Ponyville. We remained undetected."
"Resume normal operations in an hour. The Doctor?"
"We think he escaped back to Ponyville already. We are watching closely though."
"Darnit," Sunset muttered. "He knows too much..."
"He doesn't know about this place."
"We don't know what he saw. He might. which is a chance we can't take. He doesn't understand."
"Of course."
"Send word to our agent. She is to find the Doctor and tail him everywhere, but not to arrest him. Find out what he knows and what he's up to, and only order capture when the opportunity is right."
"Yes, ma'am."
Sunset continued staring intently at the swirls of orange. Her lips remained straight and she didn't blink.
The patterns beckoned to her.
She refused the call. Now was not the time.
~~~
"Lotus!" Cheerilee called out, galloping through the streets of Ponyville after her distressed friend. The blue mare wasn't hearing any of it rationally - she continued bucking up dust for Cheerilee to inhale. The particles got stuck in her already ruined mane and made her cough but Cheerilee wouldn't be deterred that easily. She pressed on. "Lotus!"
Lotus let out an exasperated grunt, running the rest of the way to her house. The lights were off - but five ponies were waiting in front of the door, talking amongst each other.
"Hey! There she is!" Derpy said, pointing at Lotus. "Hi!"
Lotus paid them no mind whatsoever. She charged through them, bolted through the front door, and ran for the magic gems.
"Uh..." Berry said, raising a confused hoof.
"She's had a rough time, be nice to her," Tree Hugger said.
"She hadn't said anything," Rarity muttered.
"It was the vibes."
"You and your vibe-"
Cheerilee interrupted the spat before it truly began. "Why are you even here?"
"Rituals," Tree Hugger said, patting Vinyl on the side while jiggling the jars of jelly, juice, and the incense with a quick motion.
"I made contact with Aloe-" Rarity began.
"You and Vinyl," Derpy corrected. Vinyl nodded in agreement. "Since you forgot."
Rarity twitched. "...We made contact with Aloe. She's alive, and the Geist thing took her. We were going to talk with Lotus about-"
"No! absolutely not! Do you see how much this is damaging her!?" Cheerilee shrieked.
"Dude, Cheerilee," Tree Hugger said. "Take a chill. She's going through a rough time and we're trying to help her find her sister. I'm no expert on her, but just my basic vibe-sense tells me she'll be fine once you find her sister."
Cheerilee wanted to object - pretty strongly - but she knew she couldn't. She looked at Vinyl. "...You sure about this?"
Vinyl nodded in affirmation.
Cheerilee shook her head. "She's... She's almost broken completely. I mean, will this really help?"
"She can tell us what Aloe's words mean and perhaps provide other answers or questions or stuff," Tree Hugger said. "We're going to make contact again."
Cheerilee resigned herself, nodding slowly. She wouldn't have even considered this yesterday - would have dismissed it as completely crazy and made up. But given the events of tonight... Maybe.
Lotus ran out, magic crystal in hoof. It was blinking like mad. "What does this mean!?"
"It means we need to get to work," Rarity said.
"...it actually does. Nice, Rars," Tree Hugger said.
Rarity bristled. "Just start making the circle."
Cheerilee raised a hoof the moment Tree Hugger started making the star out of mint jelly. "Okay - what is this?"
"Communication circle," Tree Hugger said. "We can connect our mind waves to Aloe's. And a good way to solidify that-" She grabbed the blinking gem from Lotus. "-is to use an object close to her."
Cheerilee blinked as Tree Hugger alongside the incense. "Wait, that is Aloe talking!?"
"I haven't the faintest idea. But it'll give us a connection, seeing as this is one of her things. I think."
"You think?" Rarity inquired. "Can't you be sure?"
Tree Hugger shrugged. "It worked before without the gem, though only you unicorns could see anything for whatever reason."
Lotus shook her head. "...We're contacting my sister and I won't be able to see her?"
"Probably not," Tree Hugger admitted, "unless the gem does more than I'm thinking it will. "
Lotus twitched.
"If you're part of the circle though, your energies will be closer and you might see something. Derpy, Berry, how about you sit this out so these two can get closer."
Berry nodded, stepping back with Derpy.
"Let us convene. Everypony on a point... Enter a state of serenity..."
Cheerilee sat on one of the star's points - the jelly was still wet. She could feel the blueberry juice next to it staining her coat, a feeling that made her shiver. She worked through it despite this, emptying her mind.
Tree Hugger began to chant. "Alla balla challa dalla ehlla falla galla... Pest a skrim Butes Harambe le Ponk!"
What in Equestria did that mean? It sounded like gibberish. Cheerilee was becoming less and less sure about this.
Tree Hugger clapped her hooves. "Take us to the one who was taken by the beast!"
The next thing Cheerilee knew, she was waking up. The sun was streaking in through the window. The mystic circle had dried completely into the floor and the incense had burnt out. Lotus' parents were standing in the doorway with livid expressions on thier faces.
Cheerilee gulped. "Uh... Hi..."
"GET OUT!" the father roared, grabbing Cheerilee by her mane and tossing her outside where Berry and Derpy were nervously waiting. A gash opened up on Cheerilee's cheek, causing her to scream out.
"Dear!" the mother chided.
"They still need to get out!"
Tree Hugger shook her head. "No worries... We'll just leave. Our vibes are clearly messing up the place..." She walked out, a shaken Vinyl and Rarity coming out behind her.
"Wait!" Lotus yelled. "What did you see?"
Rarity opened her mouth but was shut down by the father. "No! We're done! All of you, scram and leave my daughter alone!" The front door slammed in their faces. They could all hear Lotus screaming at her parents, but she never came charging out the front door.
"...That was a great idea," Rarity remarked.
"That depends," Tree Hugger said. "Did you learn anything new?"
Vinyl nodded slowly and Rarity shivered. "She... Wasn't as active this time. She looked tired, worn out. She said she was there with us, watching everything, triggering the crystal flashes - but that it was getting harder."
Cheerilee gawked. "So, what, is she a ghost!?"
"Wrong ritual for that," Tree Hugger said. "...I think so anyway. Never actually contacted a ghost."
Vinyl raised an eyebrow.
"The taco incident was not what it seemed."
"Doesn't matter," Rarity said. "I asked her if she felt alive, she said yes. Though less than usual."
Cheerilee frowned. "So... She's not a ghost, but she was there with us and her life is slowly draining...? Why am I listening to you?"
"Because rampaging Geist," Berry said. "Nopony has been found with conventional means, so we've got to think... outside the box."
Cheerilee took in a deep breath - was she really doing this? Was she going along with the crazy? Why was she even resisting? Not only were two ponies missing but she herself had wanted more excitement in her life only a few days ago.
"Fine. I'm in. So, how is she not a ghost and yet we can't see her?"
Rarity's eyes widened. "Oh... The Geist seemed to come out of nowhere. Right behind me by tearing through something with its swirls..." She shivered.
Tree Hugger put her hooves together. "So... Maybe what we have here is a thing that hides in plain sight!"
Berry paled. "...I seriously nailed the description of this thing by complete accident. Is it also a lost pony soul?"
"Huh?" Cheerilee said. "What is she talking about?"
"Shortly before we were attacked I told a made-up-on-the-spot-story about a geist creature you could never see but was always watching..."
"How do we save somepony if we can't see them?"
"Magic," Rarity said, pointing at her horn. "Vinyl and I got this." Vinyl smiled sheepishly.
Cheerilee sighed. "If only there were more unicorns in town..."
"I think we need to gather more information," Berry said. "Since Golden was taken the same way as Aloe, we should probably try to contact her now. Maybe go to where she was taken?"
"Let's check Rarity's house first," Cheerilee said. "Maybe we can use your... magic ritual weirdness to find something."
Derpy clapped her hooves together. "This is just like one of the Doctor's adventures!"
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. "I seriously doubt that. This kind of thing doesn't happen around here."
~~~
"You know Rose, I think my adventures may follow me around," the Doctor mused.
Roseluck rolled her eyes from her perch in a tree at the edge of the Everfree. "There's nothing to suggest this is your fault."
"Oh, I don't think it's causally related, but you have to admit, this is rather similar, don't you think?"
Roseluck shrugged. "You are right there. Mysterious assailant that defies explanation, secret government base, and a confused general population. That about sums up most of our escapades."
"The only difference is it happening here - this town hasn't shown any signs of being a place for this until now."
Roseluck raised an eyebrow. "We're right next to the Everfree Forest, you know, the thing that surrounds the Tree of Harmony? Of course it'll attract attention."
"I just didn't think now was the time," the Doctor said, pursing his lips. "See anything?"
"That agent of theirs must be really good. I don't see anypony acting like they're supposed to be tailing us, or even looking for us."
"Two options. One: they suck at tailing and we're just paranoid. Two: They're scarily good at tailing and we need to take every precaution."
Roseluck gulped. "I vote for precautions. What's the plan?"
"To effectively lose a tail of this hypothetical caliber you need to lead them on a wild goose chase, let them think you've let your guard down, and then..." He looked around, frowning. "Actually, just follow me. For all we know it's a unicorn with bat-hearing."
Roseluck nodded. "Okay. Good point. Lead the way."
"Remember, we don't want to interact that much with the ponies of Ponyville. We have to sneak around them as well."
Roseluck pulled a bandana out of her saddlebags and tied it around her face. She also threw a cloth over her cutie mark and messed up her mane. "Got it."
The Doctor chuckled and feigned fear at Roseluck's appearance. "The horror! The horror!"
"Funny," Roseluck muttered. "You should disguise yourself as well."
"Where we're going we don't need disguises."
Roseluck facehooved. The Doctor grinned. "Follow my lead." He put on a confident expression and walked out of the Everfree Forest, walking like any normal pony would, except carefully arranging his path to be behind bushes, trees, and sheds as often as possible. Roseluck acted more like a ninja - visible only for the slightest of moments between objects of cover. They slowly made their way back to town - taking the long path, avoiding pony traffic. They set down behind an abandoned house, looking around with paranoid expressions.
"Where to?" Roseluck whispered.
The Doctor pointed at a nearby cart of vegetables being carried through town by a large mare. He pulled Roseluck out the moment it passed, and they walked in its shadow for some time before ducking into the shadow of another house.
Roseluck looked at the Doctor, a questioning expression on her face. He shook his head, leading her around the building. he leaped into a bush, uprooted it, and slowly started inching across a think alleyway. Roseluck simply leaped across it in an instant. They made their way to the back of a large building further into town. The back door was locked - but that didn't mean anything to the Doctor. He unlocked it with the screwdriver, letting Roseluck in. The building was bare of design and filled with dozens of unopened moving boxes.
"Why here?" Roseluck asked.
"This is just where we let the tail think we're confident. We're actually headed to-" He froze mid-sentence. A blue rectangular prism was sitting on top of a box in the middle of the room. He picked it up - and grinned.
"What is that?"
"A message. Change of plans, we're heading home."
Roseluck frowned. "...Interesting."
"So... we can use the cart again. Come on." He trotted up the stairs, opened a window, and leaped into the dumpsters below. Roseluck followed without question. They laid in wait - until the vegetable cart mare passed by with a second cart. They moved in time with it once more, stopping only when the cart made an unexpected turn. They jumped into a nearby bush - from which they could see the Doctor's house. They were about to make a move when they noticed movement on the other side of the street, at Rarity's house.
Six ponies - Vinyl, Cheerilee, Tree Hugger, Rarity, Berry, and Derpy - walked out, looking dejected, like they had just failed at something. The Doctor furrowed his brow. On one hoof it looked like Derpy was successfully indoctrinated into the group. On the other, they must have been doing investigations of their own and were finding nothing. He sighed - the bystanders were always hurt the most.
Roseluck put a comforting hoof on his back - a reminder that they always tried their best to help ponies. The Doctor nodded. They laid in wait until the six girls were out of sight - then they rushed to the Doctor's house. The Doctor unlocked the door with his key and they were inside in less than a second.
The Doctor set the blue prism on a nearby shelf, smirking. There was an identical one right next to it.
"Okay," Roseluck said. "What was the big plan?"
The Doctor put his hoof on a nearby lever, grinning. "Let me just say that I am a genius. Time to break the rules." he pulled down the lever.
Roseluck's eyes widened - then she smirked as well. "That will throw them..."
"We could just be annoyingly paranoid," the Doctor said, grabbing the other blue prism and sticking it into his collar. "But it never hurts to be too careful!"
He pressed a few buttons, and a strange stretching, grinding noise could be heard...
~~~
Rarity looked up at the sun - it was afternoon already! Time passed quickly when you spent hours at a time in a dream-state stupor...
The six of them were currently headed for the place Golden had been taken - there were no stories or much conversation this time around, just six grim faces. The ritual at Rarity's house had been a failure - Rarity and Vinyl had sat, waiting for something to come to them in the black expanse - but nothing ever did. All they had found, in the end, was a dead patch of grass and an unusually warped tree limb. None of them wanted to contemplate what that might mean.
Rarity may not have liked Golden - or, heck, anypony all that much - but she was still a pony in danger. Rarity just couldn't be fine with that, no matter how hard she tried. So she allowed herself to travel with Tree Hugger and Derpy, the two mares she liked least in the world. Infuriating idiot and inexplicably popular.
...Maybe. Berry had a point - maybe Tree Hugger really wasn't trying to be popular. The escapades of last night definitely supported that. For whatever reason, this only made Rarity angrier - how dare Tree Hugger get what Rarity wanted so much without even trying?
Rarity shoved that thought away - there were other things to worry about. The circles, the spirals, the Geist... And then there was Cheerilee, who had just gone along with all this. Cheerilee had a reputation for being the ordinary, thoughtful, down to earth pony who did far too well in school. For all her dreams and wishing for greatness, Cheerilee was just a plain mare despite the outrageous manestyle. Rarity had never really attempted to understand Cheerilee before today - she wasn't really her target audience - but still...
"Hey, Cheerilee, what weird stuff did you see? What got you to this point?" Rarity asked out of nowhere.
Cheerilee blinked. "Uh... Well there was the blinking gem, the disappearances..."
Tree Hugger frowned. "...There's something else, isn't there Cheerilee?"
"Oh..." Cheerilee smacked her lips."Uh... Okay. We went to the Everfree forest. There were... Things there."
"What kind of things?" Rarity pushed.
Cheerilee looked down. "Nothing helpful..."
Vinyl gave her an accusatory glance.
"Really! we can't do anything with it!"
"What is it?" Rarity deadpanned.
"...There's some secret government base in the Everfree that was attracting the Everfree Lights. The Doctor wanted to break in. I just left."
Berry twitched. "That's information we could have used hours ago!"
"What are you going to do? Break in?"
"Maaaaaaybe...." Tree Hugger mused, scratching her chin.
"Nah, the Doctor totally has it," Derpy said. "He's used to breaking in and out of places. We can just talk to him when he gets back."
Rarity stared at Derpy. "...What kind of pony is the Doctor?"
"Clever!"
Cheerilee blinked. "Okay, fine, we'll talk to him about it when we see him. Let's not go into the Forest to break into a government installation."
Berry thought about this for a moment and eventually nodded in agreement. "Fine. We're still going to contact Golden though. Rarity?"
"Over here," Rarity said, pointing off the edge of the path to a patch of dead grass. "It happened here."
Cheerilee frowned. "Just like at your house... Dead grass..."
"That just confirms it was the Geist," Berry said, contemplating. "There's no flat ground. Tree Hugger, how are we going to make the circle?"
Tree Hugger frowned. "Man, I'm not sure. Maybe we could, like, mow this grass down?"
"Okay!" Derpy shouted, leaning down and taking a voracious bite of the greens.
Rarity recoiled. "Derpy! We do not eat grass off the ground!"
"You have a better idea?" Berry asked.
Rarity frowned, glancing to Cheerilee. The teen wasn't any help. Rarity sighed. "I'm not stooping that low."
"C'mon Rarity! It tastes pretty good!" Derpy said through a mouthful of grass.
Rarity facehooved. "I'll be averting my eyes thank you."
Cheerilee hesitated only a moment before digging in herself, everypony else eating without so much as a question. soon they had razed a roughly circular area.
"...That was surprisingly delicious," Cherilee observed.
"It's fresh grass eaten the way nature intended," Tree Hugger said. "You all should totally try some more often."
Rarity gagged. "You mean to tell me that you do this regularly?"
"Only when ponies aren't looking since it's considered a bit 'off'."
"So you are playing the game!"
Tree Hugger blinked. "What?"
Rarity sighed. "Just hurry up and make the circle already."
"Sure thing!" Tree Hugger spread the ingredients, lit the incense, and sat at a point. Berry, you can stand guard today."
Berry nodded. Tree Hugger, Vinyl, Cheerilee, Derpy, and rarity took their places in the circle. Tree Hugger performed the chant once again and clasped her hooves together.
Rarity and Vinyl were in the darkness again.
Rarity cleared her throat. "Golden! You better be in here you little-"
"Hi Rarity."
Vinyl and Rarity turned around to see the familiar - and yet not - form of Golden Harvest. From an initial glance, it was impossible to tell what was wrong with her. But Rarity knew something was off from the start. Golden's eyes were unblinking, face straight. Her posture was far too perfect, her mane arranged in a comically perfect proportion. The ears on her head weren't swiveling to pick up sound - they stayed straight up, alarmed, contrasting with her stoic face. Had Aloe been like this? No - Aloe'd had expressions. But Rarity didn't think her ears had moved either...
Rarity approached Golden, looking into her eyes. She soon saw the real difference - the swirl patterns deep within her irises. "Circles..."
Vinyl pulled Rarity back, shaking her head.
"But-" Rarity began.
"She's right," Golden said, her voice undeniably her own, but it was spoken too slowly, each word eerily drawn out to the syllable. "They're bad. You should run from them."
Rarity blinked. "W-what?"
"I went towards them instead of fleeing. Look where that got me."
Rarity moved forward again. "Where did it get you?"
"It got me."
"What does that mean Golden?"
Golden dissolved before their eyes, decaying into a mess of the cyclical pattern. Her yellowish body began to glow, shifting to a deep orange. Other circles shot from Golden at all angles, encasing her in a... shape. Then the sound met their ears, shaking their minds with its impossible contradictions. With the tearing clanking squishing, the Geist fully coalesced before them, standing tall amongst the pure blackness.
Vinyl's jaw dropped; Rarity could only see the patterns wafting off the impossible body. It grabbed both of them in a separate claw. The two of them felt the neon lines tear into their flesh, anchoring into their minds...
Vinyl and Rarity woke up with a scream. The others remained asleep.
"That's not supposed to happen," Berry said, running over to them. Big Mac was with her, a concerned and confused look on his face.
Rarity breathed heavily and rapidly. "It... It grabbed us! I felt them..."
"What?" Berry asked.
"The Geist. It wasn't happy to see us..."
Vinyl began to panic, scampering around crazily, trying to communicate something.
Big Mac reared up. "Woah! Calm down! What is-" Everypony froze. Despite it still being afternoon, they saw Everfree Lights forming around them. The punishing laser of the sun dulled their luminosity but there were more than enough for the lights to draw attention.
"Move!" Big Mac yelled, picking up the sleeping Cheerilee and running for the Apple Farm.
Berry picked up Derpy and Vinyl picked up Tree Hugger. Rarity just booked it, running after big Mac, face strained. She felt something tug at her - welcoming, inviting. The warm embrace of orange...
Her run slowed. Berry and Vinyl passed her within a few seconds. Rarity found herself pausing, turning back to the Lights. They were getting extremely agitated, approaching terminal instability. She found herself anticipating what was to follow...
Vinyl grabbed Rarity with her magic. She protested - but there was no way to escape the mare's strong telekinesis. She was torn away. With sadness in her heart, Rarity witnessed the Lights dissipate - waiting for another opportunity. Tears started to fall from her face.
She had no idea why she was crying.
~~~
"Ah couldn't find either of them Surprise..." Granny sighed.
"Sometimes all you can do is try."
Granny rocked faster in her chair. "Ah'm not the type to give up, y'know."
Surprise nodded. "Neither am I. I... They need to pay for what they did."
Granny frowned, concerned. "Y'know, Ah'm all for that, but revenge is a dangerous path wrought with all sorts of pain and suffering."
"I know. But I can't be free with them out there..." She glared out a window. "...So they have to pay anyway..."
"You think you can tell me who they are now?"
Surprise looked at the sun - and then at a plate with the mark of Celestia on a nearby shelf. "I... I... They uh..." She shook her head. "...S-Sorry."
"Hey... Hey... We aren't in a rush."
"But we are. They're looking for me. I... Just..." She looked at Granny, pained. "You won't like what I have to say."
Granny shook her head. "Ah already know it's somepony Ah know - cause Ah know everypony here - it just hurts to not know who, y'know? Ah thought better of most of 'em... Someponies are going to be a horrific dissapointment.."
Surprise gulped, fidgeting with her wings. "It's... uh... It's..."
There came a pounding knock at the door. Surprise leaped into the air and ran into a cupboard, closing it behind her. Granny sighed - she had been so close to getting Surprise to open up. What an inopportune visitor. She opened the door. "Yes?"
The Doctor and Roseluck quickly rushed into the house and shut the door behind them. "Why Granny! nice to see you! we need to ask a favor of you!"
Granny was already suspicious. "...Yes?"
"We're on the run from the government! Can we hide here until I make a plan?"
"We went through considerable trouble to lose our tail," Roseluck said. "...I think."
Granny shrugged. "Well, you're always welcome to hide here from your problems, but you do have to tell me what's happening that has the government after you." She sat back down in her rocking chair, glancing quickly at the cupboard Surprise was quietly hiding in. The Doctor and Roseluck got on a couch together.
The Doctor began. "Well, Granny, I was looking for Aloe in the Everfree and I found a government base at the end of an Everfree Lights trail. I, of course, broke in and investigated. I found a lot of files on pony magic experimentation and I'm positive they have something to do with the disappearances. Unfortunately before I could get to the really juicy files I was stopped by none other than Sunset Shimmer."
Everypony heard a pained yelp come from the cupboard. The Doctor looked at it, quizzically. "...Granny..."
"That was nothin', just ignore it."
The Doctor whipped out his screwdriver, popping the cupboard open. Surprise yelled in surprise, blowing the Doctor over with her powers.
Roseluck leaped out of her seat and armed a blowgun. Surprise flapped her wings, burning the blowgun to ash with a single thought. Roseluck drew a blade, entering a readying stance.
"Everypony stop!" Granny yelled. Roseluck looked at her in confusion, the Doctor in curiosity, and Surprise with conflict.
"Look, Surprise, Doctor - Ah think you two are hiding from the same ponies!"
Roseluck blinked. "Wait, what?"
"Doc, you said they were experimenting with pony magic?" Granny asked.
"Why ye-" the Doctor looked at Surprise, eyes widened. "...They wouldn't."
"Experiment on live ponies? Ah think they did," Granny said.
"That's barbaric!" the Doctor said. "The technology to do such a thing safely doesn't exist today!"
Surprise backed away nervously.
"Surprise..." Granny said. "You don't need to run. They can help us - help you."
Surprise looked at the Doctor, surveying him.
The Doctor smiled back at her warmly. "I'm not going to bite, so long as you don't either."
Surprise recoiled from his outstretched hoof, shaking her head rapidly.
"Okay... We don't have to be friends. But maybe we can still talk." The Doctor sat down. "I'm the Doctor. That's Rose over there, she travels with me. We recently had a run in with Sunset Shimmer, had to escape, flee from her base. She wasn't happy with us for breaking on, saw right through our tricks. She hates us now. Does she hate you?"
Surprise nodded at first but then shook her head.
"Ah. It's complicated. Of course. I know what that's like... Well, she hates me. Got close to some of her rather sensitive secrets, so she drove me out with fire. Tried to catch me as well, but I'm just too clever for that."
Roseluck rolled her eyes.
The Doctor continued. "Are you one of those secrets?"
Surprise nodded slowly.
Granny put a hoof to her head. "Ah'm sorry. Am Ah supposed to know who this Sunset is?"
"Personal protege of Princess Celestia," the Doctor said.
Granny's eyes widened. "...Yer tellin' me that Princess Celestia is condoning experiments on ponies? No! There's no way that's right - Ah've met her, and Ah'm a pretty good judge of character!"
"I know her as well," the Doctor said. "I find it unlikely she knows exactly what's going on."
Granny clapped her hooves together. "That's it! We can get this whole mess sorted out if we just tell Celestia what's going on! Git her to stop that Sunset."
"We'd need proof though..." the Doctor turned to Surprise.
"No," Surprise said with conviction.
"Don't worry about it Surprise," Granny said. "Ah'm sure we can find other proof."
"Easily enough," the Doctor said. "It's possible we could even get her to believe us on our word. But that's risky."
Roseluck facehooved. "This doesn't solve the real problem - ponies are being taken!"
The Doctor shrugged. "Sunset is definitely involved, but Celestia could take time to act, time we don't have. ...Maybe."
"Ah'll just organize the town again, assumin' you know where the base is," Granny said.
"Oh, you bet your chairs I do!" the Doctor said.
"You mockin' me boy?"
"...Er, no," the Doctor looked around sheepishly. "Do we know anything about the disappearances?"
"The Geist," Surprise said. "It takes them."
The Doctor frowned. "Do you have anything to do with this... Geist?"
Surprise shook her head. The Doctor frowned. "Well what can you tell us about it?"
"It's orange," Granny said, "looks weird, has claws or somethin' pointy, appears from nowhere and drags ponies in, and has weird circles around it."
The Doctor froze. "...circles? Circles, spirals, and curves all in a fractal pattern?"
Granny blinked. "...Yes? Ah haven't seen it myself."
The Doctor suddenly looked afraid. He glanced out the window.
"What is it, Doctor?" Roseluck asked.
"I... I don't know what this means. Great whickering stallions, I don't know what this means!"
"...That's bad," Granny said.
"No kidding. If I don't know... What are the chances anypony knows? We are facing something... fundamental. I... I need more information. Information we don't have time to gather."
Granny frowned. She'd known the Doctor for as long as she could remember. She knew he wasn't a normal pony - he never aged, he always knew more than anypony, and he carried himself unlike anyone else. He always had a jovial confidence with him - even when he was being serious. Granny had never seen him like this, not even in a town crisis. He was terrified of something.
"Doc, Ah have to know. Why are the circles so bad?"
"Why, why?" he laughed. "Oh, why indeed... It means we're facing something tied into the fundamental nature of magic itself. We might as well be fighting the force of gravity! I'm not even sure how such a thing can exist... This 'Geist...' I don't know what, how, or why, but I know it's bad and it's tapped into an unlimited source of power."
There was silence.
Surprise went back into the cupboard, hiding from the stress.
~~~
Outside the Apple family house, a bush rustled. Inside the bush was a certain yellow earth pony with pink and blue curls. She lowered her binoculars, the slightest smirk on her face.
Bon Bon - or, more accurately, special agent Sweetie Drops - didn't know how the Doctor had pulled that 'in two places at once' trick, but it had been a welcome challenge to trace. Not only that, but the reward at the end of the tunnel was even sweeter.
She had located their other target.
It just kept getting better and better.
She reached into her mane and unfastened a small crystal from her hairs. She tapped it on the ground twice - each hit prompting a dull flash of red light.
Now all she had to do was wait.
The cavalry would arrive soon.