Spike rolled on his basket bed again and again, but the endless sound of hooves downstairs was restless. Getting up, he went to the routine that was getting painfully familiar.
"Twilight? It's four a.m."
"Sorry Spike, I can't sleep." Said Twilight, trotting without stopping.
The dragon tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes, as he made his way to the kitchen.
"I'm going to prepare you a daisy tea. It helps."
The alicorn teleported herself to face Spike.
"You don't understand. I CAN NOT sleep. I must not sleep. I will not sleep."
"Oooookay... if this is some schedule conflict again..."
"NO! And I can't tell you, they may be listening."
"Right. They may be listening; huh... who are 'they', exactly?"
"I'm not sure!"
An exasperate Twilight let herself collapse on some pillows at the library, head full of emotions and revelations of the day. Having a flashback of his friends freak-outs, Spike tried to calm her.
"Twilight, I think you really need some relaxing tea."
"No, I need to make sense of all that." Twilight took a deep breath. There is only one way she knows to 'make the world come to its right place', and allow her to think better.
"Spike, I need a parchment, ink and a quill."
"Here. Want me to take the letter?"
"No. The less you know, the safer your sleep will be."
"What?"
Twilight tenderly pecks the dragon's forehead.
"Go back to sleep, Spike. We may have a full day ahead. I promise I will not make any noise."
As the dragon went back to his room, Twilight sighed. She floated the quill over the parchment, and divided it in the middle and started to write in one column.
QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS
1- Who Killed Trixie?
2- Why was Trixie killed?
3- How was she killed?
4-Are any of the two police forces trying to solve the crime?
5- If they aren't, then why not?
6- Is this Alicorn Amulet really relevant in this story?
7- Why does Bridle want the artifact?
8- Why does the Night Guard not want Bridle to have it?
9- Is Zecora really gone?
10- Why is Luna spying on me?
11- Who else is Luna spying on?
12- Who else is spying on me?
13- Who can I trust?
She then went to the other column.
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THE CASE
1- Trixie was killed two days ago, at Mareami Beach.
2- Between the Ursa case and her reformation, Trixie worked on a rock farm.
3- Listening devices and dream spying. Be careful.
It wasn't much, but it was a start.
Twilight started to write her plan, in several parchments. If she wanted to pay respect to Trixie, she would need to find the perpetrator and to do that, she would need lots of help.
She hated to admit, Sugar Skull had the right idea. She would need to say things that mean nothing while keeping important things in silence. Better safe than sorry.
As she wrote, two hours passed quickly.
The air yacht floated gently on the pure blue sky, without a cloud to be seen. Inside, a young dragon and a white unicorn rested together on comfy recliner chairs.
"Oh, Spike..." said Rarity. "This is so perfect, I want to give you something."
The dragon pressed his lips together, waiting for the kiss, only to find a jewel being pushed on him.
"Rarity, you want to give me this large, shiny, beautiful purple gem? It's wonderful. Ah... I already accepted it, you can stop pressing it against me."
"Wake up Spike."
In a fraction of a second, the jewel morphed into the hoof of an anxious Twilight Sparkle, shaking the young dragon's head. Spike let out a sound of disappointment as he tried to cover himself, but the sheets were magically pulled off from his small basket. The alicorn floated a parchment in front of him. His sleepy brain took a while to interpret the written words, then, wide awake, he had to read it three times to really make sense of it.
"Twilight, you-"
"Shhh." The purple mare demanded the dragon to be quiet and pointed at the parchment. With a sigh, Spike nodded, while she coughed twice before speaking a bit too loud and with a hint of over-reacting.
"Spike, could you get my saddlebags from the closet? I need to get to the morning train to Canterlot."
The dragon did so, with an unpleasant look on his face. twilight made small circles with one front hoof, asking the dragon to go on. this made him frown even more, and so he let a small burst of fire to lightly damage the luggage. The alicorn pointed to the parchment. The dragon read out loud:
"Uh... 'o-sorry-Twilight-I-burned-your-saddlebag'."
Twilight rolled her eyes at Spike's fake tone, not aware hers was not any better.
"No worries Spike, it can be fixed. better do it now, before the morning train leaves."
The alicorn rushed through the doorway, as the dragon let himself collapse on his basket, mumbling. "I was awoken from a 'Rarity dream' for this..."
Between the things quickly put on the damaged saddlebag, was Twilight's schedule. Everything must happen in a timely manner, she thought, as she covered the distance between the Library and the Carousel Boutique. The owner opened the door in surprise, still on her peignoir.
"Twilight, darling, is something wrong? It's quite early."
"Sorry Rarity, I was wondering if you could fix my saddle bag."
The element of generosity looked at a clock on the wall and was about to protest when a parchment floated in front of her eyes.
She raised an eyebrow and tried to question her friend.
"Are you sure, Twilight? I mean, ahem, Fixing this may be dangerous. The leather is damaged and..."
Some quick words are scribbled down by the alicorn. Rarity sighed, and pointed upstairs, as she began to work. Twilight sighed in relief. She would be able to talk to Sweetie Belle before school. The first parts of the schedule of her plan were going smoothly. That is until a childish shout so loud shook the boutique.
"YAY! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SECRET AG-"
Or not, Twilight thought, while she tried to shut the mouth of the young filly.
A few moments later, Sweetie Bell skipped down the stairs with a large smile, ready to go to school.
"Bye sister, after school the girls and I will go try and get our cutie marks in..." She made giant quote marks with her hooves, "'botaaaanicals'."
As the filly left, Twilight tried to apologize.
"I'm sorry Rarity, but I'm really short of-"
Sweetie Belle sneaked her head on the boutique again.
"We'll go to the forest, to get some herbs."
Twilight tried again to ease her friend who was getting more and more concerned. "The, uh, saddlebag looks good. Perfectly safe and-"
"To get our cutie marks." Said the filly, appearing out of nowhere, again. "'In the boooootaaanicals'." And left the boutique.
"Really Rarity, the saddlebag is fine."
Getting in from nowhere once again, Sweetie Belle gave a questioning look to Rarity. "And I'm keeping an eye on you, ma'am."
Twilight took her clue and rushed out before Rarity gave everything a second thought.
Next Stop, Sugarcube Corner. After all, Twilight thought, nothing is more natural than having breakfast.
She didn't have to wait much. After a bite on her sandwich, an energetic pink pony came to talk with her. At least she didn't need to talk on a code here. Twilight rationalized nopony would install listening devices in a local as public and busy as a bakery; even in they did, it would be impossible to make heads and tails of what Pinkie Pie says.
Twilight explained the situation, getting her food soaked on by Pinkie's unbelievable flow of tears after hearing Trixie's fate, quickly followed by her excitement when the alicorn explained what she needed to do.
"Oh, oh, I will need a ballon, my night goggles, a beehive slingshot, a tuba, two buffalos on tuts-"
"Pinkie, you're just visiting your family. I don't think you'll need any of those."
The pink pony raised her hoof as if she was asking for permission to ask a question. Twilight did not know how, but in a flash something appeared, dangling from the pink pony's face.
"Argh, all right Pinkie, you can wear a mustache."
Pinkie Pie approached Twilight with a large smile full of second intentions showing a piece of cloth that also appeared out of thin air in her hooves.
"You can wear the green eyepatch too. Can we please move on?"
As Twilight galloped to the train station, she reminds her self of some wise words she read somewhere in a book once, 'Never do what your antagonist expects.' Nopony would expect some fillies and Pinkie Pie.
Now, to Canterlot.