Twilight Holmes: The Mystery of Basil Bones

by bats


Chapter 11

Rainbow Dash woke up in a cold bed. She scrunched her eyes against the brightness streaming in through the window and groaned, grabbing the second pillow and sandwiching her head between the two. The second pillow smelled like Twilight. The previous day came flooding back to Rainbow and she groaned again.

Tossing the pillow and blankets aside, she stumbled out of bed in Twilight’s room and rubbed her face. “No hangover,” she mumbled, “so that means it wasn’t a nightmare. Great.” She headed downstairs through the library and into the kitchen.

Twilight stood at the counter with a newspaper opened in front of her. A piece of toast floated in the air off to the side, half-buttered and apparently forgotten as a knife listed away from it. Twilight narrowed her eyes and turned the page. Rainbow cleared her throat.

Twilight glanced up, gave her a faint smile, and returned to the paper. “Morning. There’s coffee.” She diverted her attention towards the coffee pot and noticed her toast. The knife swiped across it and dropped itself into the sink, and the toast sailed into Twilight’s mouth as she went back to reading.

Rainbow grinned and rolled her eyes. She walked through the kitchen towards the coffee, but stopped directly behind Twilight. She watched Twilight read for a few moments, then changed course and hugged Twilight around the middle with a hoof. She kissed the nape of Twilight’s neck.

“Mmm.” Twilight leaned back into the embrace and reached a hoof over her shoulder to stroke Rainbow’s mane. She dropped the toast on a plate. “I see you slept well.”

“Pretty good. You?”

Rainbow felt a sigh of relief against her chest and the newspaper folded itself up. Twilight glanced back and caught Rainbow’s eye.  “I slept very well. I feel a lot better.”

“Cool.” She squeezed tight, then slipped away and headed for the coffee. “Did you wake up knowing who Diamond Acorn is, and how he gets away with stuff? That’s what always happens to detectives in books when things don’t make sense.” She poured herself a cup and carried it to the table with its steam flowing over her snout.

Twilight reopened the paper in front of her face and blindly joined Rainbow at the table, sitting across from her. “Nope. No big eureka moments.” She pawed at the bare table. Rainbow heard a grumble, then watched Twilight’s toast fly over from the counter. “Nothing about it makes any more sense than it did last night, and most of it makes less sense the more I think about it. It’s all just so stupid.”

“Totally. Does it even really matter who he is anymore? Like, yeah, it was important to make sure it wasn’t Discord, because if he was getting free, that’d definitely be our problem to deal with. But, like, it isn’t.”

“I understand. Part of me thinks we ought to just forget about it, tell Basil if he comes and tries to regroup that I’m done with everything and he’s on his own, except that we keep getting targeted, too. It involves us now. I don’t think we can just ignore it and hope it goes away.”

Rainbow nodded reluctantly and swallowed a few mouthfuls. “I guess so. It’d be pretty annoying to keep having stuff stolen and finding acorns forever. Also, if Basil’s hunting him, he’d stay here.”

Twilight chuckled. “That would be terrible.”

Rainbow’s brow knit. “Hey, how come you didn’t ask me if I figured stuff out while sleeping?” Twilight’s chuckles deepened. “Shut up, it could’ve happened.”

The newspaper folded itself in half, revealing Twilight’s smile. “I’m sure it could, but if it had, wouldn’t you have led with the answer, instead of asking me if I’d figured it out?”

“… Maybe I was building up to it?” The paper twitched back up. “Okay, fine, maybe I didn’t figure it out, either, but you should still ask me.”

Twilight let out a long breath, then spoke again, her voice mock excited. “Rainbow, did you have any sudden revelations while you were sleeping that could blow this case wide open?”

“Nah.”

She sighed theatrically. “I never would have guessed.”

“I did figure something important out, though.” Twilight reappeared from behind the paper and Rainbow fixed her gaze with as much seriousness as she could muster. “I’m, like, ninety-seven percent sure that Fluttershy isn’t a hooker.”

Twilight winced and rolled her eyes. “I’m glad we’re on the same page there.” She went back to reading. “Speaking of same pages, was I missing something between you and Scootaloo yesterday? And Sweetie Belle?”

“Huh? Oh.” Rainbow chuckled and shook her head. “Yeah, so get this, she and Sweetie are going out.”

“So it was what it looked like. I was second-guessing myself, considering how young they are.”

“Tell me about it, Scoots was driving herself nuts not knowing how to go out with somepony, or what that even really means.” She gulped down the rest of her coffee, stood up, and walked back to the pot. “From how it sounds, they’re both into each other … as much as a couple of fillies can be into each other, anyway. She just wanted to be a good girlfriend, but didn’t know what she should do, and was worried about hurting somepony’s feelings by mistake—Sweetie’s or Apple Bloom’s.”

She filled her mug and turned around, finding the paper down and Twilight focused on her. “I can imagine it would be hard at that age, especially with how the three of them are together. Honestly if us and, I don’t know, Applejack were friends the same way they are, I’d be constantly worried about leaving Applejack out of everything, or making her feel like a third wheel. And we’re adults.” She smirked at Rainbow. “Mostly, anyway.”

Rainbow chuckled and sat back down. “I’ll grow up all the way when I’m dead.”

“I’m not sure how that would work.” Rainbow shrugged, and she giggled. “So what did you say to Scootaloo?”

“Lotta stuff. I gave her a better idea of what going on dates is like, she thought it was all fancy dinners and stuff like in movies, but mostly I told her to talk with Sweetie Belle about what was going on with her. And Apple Bloom, too, after. I said they’re both probably worrying about the same things she was, and that after talking it all out it’d be a lot easier to decide on things without hurting anypony’s feelings.” The uncomfortable gurgle she’d had in her stomach after talking to Scootaloo woke back up, and she grimaced, quickly hiding her mouth by taking a sip of coffee. She went too fast and flinched as she burned her tongue.

“Well, that’s … really excellent advice, actually.”

Rainbow fidgeted and tried to force a casual smile onto her face. “Of course it was, don’t act like I don’t know stuff.”

Twilight smirked again, shook her head, and unfolded the newspaper. “I know you do, Rainbow.”

Her stomach twisted over and she nursed her coffee while fidgeting in her seat. Twilight had said they’d talk later. She’d tried twice already to start, and got put off both times, and a big part of her didn’t want to go through having it put off again and was happy to just wait for Twilight to bring it up. Another part of her was pretty sure that first part was a total coward, though. She took a steadying breath.

“Listen, Twi, about—”

A hoof rapped against the front door.

Rainbow rubbed her face as Twilight left the kitchen. “Why do I even try?” She got up to follow.

“A pleasant morn to you, Miss Twilight,” Basil said when the door opened. He carried a shoulder-slung saddlebag and his spectacles sat slightly askew on his muzzle. He trailed smoke with him across the threshold. “And you as well, Miss Rainbow. I trust I haven’t disturbed anypony by arriving too early.”

“This is a library, Basil, no smoking,” Twilight answered.

Basil blinked and surrounded the bowl of his pipe with magic, choking is out. “Apologies; I often forget it’s there.”

Rainbow grumbled and went back to the kitchen. She pulled her mug close and sipped on it, then grumbled again when Basil and Twilight followed her in.

“It was difficult to wait this late in the day before presenting myself. Ponies in academic professions often keep unusual hours that can vary wildly from one to another, and I felt any insights regarding your schedule I made yesterday would be tainted by the jubilance of the night before. I opted to—is that coffee I smell?”

Twilight sighed and sat back down at the table. “Yes, Basil, would you like a cup?” She frowned. “Have you even slept at all?”

“Hmn?” He paused and glanced back, holding the coffee pot and a mug retrieved from a cupboard. “Oh, sleep is a luxury with which I rarely concern myself. I shall sleep on the train from Ponyville to Canterlot, as I deliver Diamond Acorn to his rightful home behind bars.” As he poured himself a cup, Rainbow watched him float a bottle of milk from the fridge and a jar of sugar from the pantry, and narrowed her eyes as he used them to defile his coffee. He took a sip and straightened his glasses. “Ah, yes, that was all the recuperation I needed. As I was saying.” He returned to the table. “I opted to make my entrance calculated on the assumption that you retired immediately after our parting last night. It seemed the most logical course of action, while wasting the least amount of time.”

“Well, we’re awake,” Twilight said. She rubbed her eye, then straightened, her voice cheering up a little. “Did you end up finding anything after we left?”

Basil smiled and took a long sip of coffee. “At the site of the theft? No, I did not. Our prey left no sign of his presence, not a single fresh scuff on the table nor broken blade of grass upon his retreat. I couldn’t begin to hypothesize as to what direction he came, nor to where he left.”

He leaned back from the table and stared at the wall. “I was not laboring under the impression that Diamond Acorn is careless, else I would have apprehended him ages ago, but I have never been so close as to have a theft occur and be discovered in such a scant amount of time. It would have been logical for him to slip up now, when working so dangerously under our snouts. But he did not. To complete his work in such hostile conditions and leave not one scrap of evidence is the work of a true master. It’s almost frightening.”

Twilight sighed and shared a look with Rainbow. She already looked tired again. Rainbow knew the feeling. She shrugged at Twilight, then turned to Basil. “Well … that’s lame.”

He waved her off. “All part of the hunt, Miss Rainbow.”

Twilight drummed a hoof on the table absent-mindedly. “If you didn’t find anything, I don’t understand what the rush was to come see us.”

His face lit up. “Ah, but that was at the scene of the crime.” His tone sounded rehearsed to Rainbow and she rolled her eyes as he slung his shoulder bag forward and undid the clasp. “Fortunately for us, our three filly compatriots are less attentive to details compared to our prey. I discovered this within their clubhouse, beneath a table.” He pulled a pale yellow marker from his bag and set it on the table.

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s from the same set that Diamond Acorn took. I can use my—”

“You can use the same spell with which you located the sequestered wagon wheel,” Basil said over her. “If I am to properly understand the nature of the spell in question. I have my doubts as to its full utility, as I imagine Diamond Acorn has already staged the remainder of that set for our benefit. We will at least be able to retrieve it for the young madams, if nothing else. However …” his grin widened as he pulled a newspaper from the bag. “This is our true trump card.”

Rainbow stared at the newspaper quizzically, until she took a close look at the photo on its front of a younger Basil. Her eyes widened as she read the headline: ‘Bold Burglary Bested by Basil Bones.’ She jumped up. “That’s the paper that he took from your bag, Twi! Where’d you find it?”

Basil settled the paper on the table. “I am doubtful it is the stolen issue, as this one was purchased from a local establishment in town. Well, rather, I purchased the information of where unsold papers are stored before being pulped and recycled, and the permission to enter said storeroom and attempt to locate this. There is a non-zero chance that Diamond Acorn chose that very location as the perfect place to dispose of the stolen paper, however, so it can’t be discounted as a possibility.”

Twilight frowned and spun the issue to face her. “Well … I’d say it’s unlikely that it’s the same one. The stolen copy had been crushed and straightened out a few times, this one’s in too good condition to be the one that was taken. But that doesn’t help with anything, anyway.”

“Nonsense, it is my theory that it will be of the utmost utility.” He finished his coffee and stood up to pace back and forth in the kitchen as he spoke. “There is of course the possibility that Diamond Acorn has already disposed of your stolen issue, possibly by method of staging it somewhere for us to later encounter, or possibly in a discreet location with the intention of covering his tracks, but I contend there are some irregularities that make such theories less likely.”

He stopped and turned to face Twilight. “First irregularity is the nature of our hunt. For years now, my trail after Diamond Acorn has been the same, with me encountering his crimes, following his clues, and recovering his items, one by one across the face of Equestria. I occasionally get the upper hoof and know where he’s going to strike before he has, but I have often suspected that my advantage was an orchestrated illusion, with him guiding me from destination to destination with intentionally dropped clues. Never before has he involved another pony in our game. Your presence, both of your presences,” he looked to Rainbow and Twilight in turn, “in fact the presence of Miss Fluttershy and the little madams as well, all are anomalies.”

He nodded once and started pacing again. “Secondly, is the nature of the how Diamond Acorn has chosen to involve you. It would be one thing if through the influence of his machinations we simply continued to cross paths haphazardly, or were drawn away from each other. Had he done so, his motive would have been clear: he would have desired to begin the game anew, with you as his hunter as well.”

Basil slipped his pipe in his mouth, then made a face and looked at the unlit bowl. He glanced back at Twilight, then shook his head briskly. “Or, conversely, rather than keeping us apart, he might have attempted to put us at further odds with each other than we were already, by way of framing me. I have no doubt that he could do so convincingly, he has proven quite resourceful. If, by chance, he’d grown tired of our game, he might have found it convenient to get rid of me. I’m certain that course of action would have worked in his favor, had he pursued that goal. In the face of convincingly planted evidence, it would be a question of believing Miss Twilight Sparkle, the protégé of our Princess Celestia, savior of Equestria on multiple occasions, versus a pony whose defense would be an unseen, unheard, unproven master criminal of petty thefts. The conviction would be swift.”

Rainbow scratched her head. “But we did think it was you. Well, I mean we thought it might be you.”

Basil nodded and smiled. “Which I believe was his intention from the beginning. You were constantly left in doubt as to my role in the wave of crime, while at the same time never presented with anything airtight that implicated me, keeping us in contact, and most importantly, talking and exchanging information. Diamond knows me perhaps too well, and has a keen level of insight into you and your lives here in Ponyville. I was unaware that Miss Twilight lived here, and I am doubtful that I would have been made aware of it at all, without Diamond’s interference, and he knew exactly how to play his cards to spark your interest in investigating me in turn.”

Twilight frowned. “I’m not sure that’s true. When you first approached me for help, it was because I was the librarian, not because I’m … me.”

He nodded reluctantly. “True, it is possible that I might approach you of my own accord, I often do when in unfamiliar cities and towns, but I would have limited the scope of our discourse to asking about Ponyville, rather than you specifically. Well, in truth, I would most likely have examined you and arrived at the same erroneous conclusion I did yesterday, and discounted you as being too recent an arrival here to be of much help. Tell me, were a detective to enter your library unannounced and ask you questions about the nature of Ponyville or its inhabitants, would you feel the need to announce that you were Miss Twilight Sparkle to them?”

“No, no I wouldn’t.”

“I did not think so.”

Twilight tapped her chin. “Okay, but even if Diamond Acorn arranged that part of it, the reason we suspected you was because you came to the conclusion that Fluttershy is a sex worker—” Rainbow giggled, and Twilight shot her a look “—and still found her tea set, despite how wrong your conclusion was. Diamond Acorn didn’t do that.”

Basil frowned and looked down at the floor. “Did he not? We have both arrived at an accord that he was the true perpetrator of that theft, a theft from a very dear friend of yours who would be the most hurt by a misappraisal. I …” He cleared his throat and straightened up. “You were correct yesterday, in your judgement of me. I can be quite short with ponies. This sometimes results in me being condescending or dismissive towards them. Even cruel, it could be said. It is, perhaps, a flaw that has kept me isolated from friends for many years, which no doubt has made this quality of my personality worse. Recent events have…put things more sharply in perspective for me, and it is with utmost sincerity that I offer both of you an apology for my actions. I truly am sorry.” He took a long breath.

Rainbow shifted uncomfortably, and exchanged a look with Twilight. To her annoyance, Twilight looked touched by the apology. To her greater annoyance, she noticed she felt less animosity towards him, too.

Basil cleared his throat. “Anyway, as I said, Diamond Acorn knows me very well. Exploiting my cruelty to make your involvement personal would be well within his capabilities.”

Twilight grimaced, and she looked at Rainbow. “I’m not sure I can believe that was his plan. Can you, Rainbow?”

“I dunno. I mean, if he knew Basil was gonna make Fluttershy freak out and that we were watching, I guess so.”

“But it’s not just knowing how Fluttershy would react, or that I would be watching and want to figure out what’s going on. He’d have to know what conclusion Basil was going to have, where to put the tea set to line up with that conclusion, that the conclusion itself was wrong, what type of pony Fluttershy is for that conclusion to affect her as much as it did, what type of pony I am to be drawn into investigating, and that we’d all be there together after a night where the two of us got really, really drunk.”

Rainbow leaned back. “…Yeah, when you put it like that, it makes it sound like the guy’s got super powers.”

Basil frowned. “Perhaps I am, as they say, reading too much into the situation. This calls for more of your wonderful coffee.” He floated his mug back over to the counter.

“Ugh.” Rainbow wrinkled her snout in disgust. “How can you even tell if it’s good coffee or not if you keep ruining it like that?”

“Rainbow, be nice,” Twilight admonished with a giggle. “Not everypony likes black coffee.”

“Yeah, only ponies who are right.”

Basil chuckled as he topped off his mug with milk. “I do quite like coffee with nothing more than sweetener, but the inclusion of fat and protein results in a more fortifying restorative. I find a seven percent solution of milk to coffee to be the most appropriate.”

“That still means you put sugar in it, you weirdo.”

Basil took a loud sip and returned to the table. “My tastes aside, I am more concerned that you are correct about my overestimation of Diamond Acorn, and that I am finding cold calculation where instead there is simply malice and flexibility.” He nursed his coffee in thought for a moment. “I propose as an alternative that Diamond Acorn’s initial goal might have been for me to humiliate Miss Fluttershy, and thus humiliate me by proxy, knowing that I would make an evidently false declaration in front of a crowd of ponies who already knew the target of my defamation. Ponyville being the size and density that it is, it stands to reason that everypony here knows close to everypony else who has lived here for any significant amount of time. It would be a simple way to call into question my veracity.”

Twilight nodded. “If that was the reason, I think it had its intended effect for a lot of ponies here.”

“I concur, as I’ve had an especially hard time in this town getting anyone to, ah, take me seriously, as it were.” He cleared his throat and took a big swig. “It follows, then, that after setting such a trap against me, Diamond Acorn subsequently observed and took note of your interest in uncovering the truth, and then modified his following actions in order to unite us as allies in his pursuit. Rather than a case of omniscience, it’s one of improvisation.”

Rainbow drew her brow together and leaned against the table, resting her chin on her hoof. “I dunno, if you’re saying that what he was doing first was just to mess with you, I’d think it’d make more sense that he was just messing with us, too, once he saw that he could.”

Nodding in appreciation, Basil started pacing again, carrying his coffee with him. “I have no doubt that his capriciousness plays a very important role in how he elects any of his actions, so while his goal was to unite us, his means were through ‘messing’ with us, as it were.”

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “That’s still supposing that us working together was his intention from the start and not something that happened out of his control.” She tapped the table again. “Remember, you came to me to ask about Ponyville, and only found out who I am because your credibility was called into question, which we just decided was probably done to humiliate you, not to …” She frowned and let out a long breath, shaking her head. “To … orchestrate a situation where you would find out who I am, which would make you want to work with me.” She looked at Rainbow. “This is sounding as stupid as I think it sounds, right?”

“Oh, totally.”

Basil grunted and continued his trek back and forth across the floor. He finished off his second mug and floated it into the sink. “But as I’m sure you recall, your initial reaction to my proposal of combining our forces was one of refusal. It wasn’t until his next theft that our collaboration was actually set into motion, which segues nicely into the third anomaly: the theft of the newspaper itself.”

He stopped and faced the table again. “In the five years of my pursuit, I have never had any of my own belongings taken, nor the belongings of any colleagues I have accrued along the way. As I’ve already stated, I haven’t had any colleagues of the same, or even of a similar nature to you, but I have relied upon the help of the occasional librarian, wizard, sheriff, street urchin, or butler in my journeys through Equestria, many of whom have also been made aware of Diamond Acorn’s existence. Up until this point, it seems that such ponies have been set as off-limits to his plans. Those ponies were my helpers, but the pursuit was always between the two of us, and the two of us alone.”

He sat down at the table and tapped on the newspaper. “Considering all of this, I suspect a very specific motive behind Diamond Acorn’s theft of your copy, distinct from any other thefts he has ever committed. Including the most recent.” He touched the marker and slid it away, towards the center of the table. “I have a strong suspicion that were we to only hunt down the remaining markers, we would find a nicely presented hiding place filled with a mocking subtext for you, me, or all of us. The newspaper, on the other hoof, was taken to send a specific message.”

“What do you mean, a message?” Rainbow asked. “That he could steal something from off of her without her noticing, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it?” Her expression darkened and she turned to Twilight. “Hey, if we ever find this guy, are you gonna be angry if I hit him?”

Twilight chuckled and shook her head. “At this rate, I might end up hitting him.” She looked at Basil. “I had the thought at the time that it was making a statement, but I didn’t have much time to consider it before I was on the move again. Also, I still wasn’t sure if you were the one doing all of this or not, and thought it might have been an attempt to cover your tracks.”

“Mm. Unlikely as a course of action I would take, supposing I was the culprit, as I am doubtful that you would then forget the contents of the paper having lost it. You strike me as the sort of pony with a solid grasp on object permanence.” He chuckled to himself.

Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes. Rainbow frowned in confusion.

“Digressions aside, I believe the message being sent by this theft was related to the symbolic relevance of the newspaper. It was, if my recollections are correct, a representation of your suspicions of me, and by removing it from your bag, Diamond Acorn was stating in as direct a manner as he would, that your suspicions were incorrect. Do you disagree?”

Letting out a long breath, Twilight shook her head. “No, I don’t. It was the first thing that popped into my head other than the possibility of you taking it.”

“Then it stands to reason,” he said, striking the paper again, “that his goal at that point in time was to bring about this collaboration. Whether it was his goal from the initiation or as an adaptation based upon how events proceeded, is ultimately irrelevant.”

Rainbow grumbled and leaned back against the wall. “The bigger question here is, so what? I get that this guy’s nuts, and he’s messing with us, and he probably wants us to work together so he can try to mess with us all at once and get away with it, but what’s this got to do with us having a copy of the stupid paper?”

Basil straightened up and grinned. “Ah, well, I believe the answer to that question is quite trivial when we consider his motive of wanting to bring other ponies into his hunt alongside the symbolic theft of an item representing a lack of trust, which was keeping his ultimate goal from coming to pass. This is a singular, meaningful theft, that is attached solely to the act itself, not the hunt, nor the retrieval. For him to then create a scenario for us to find the copy would be to alter its meaning, and to attempt to dispose of it would be a denial of its significance. I submit, without the shadow of a doubt, that Diamond Acorn pocketed the original copy of this paper and still has it among his personal effects.”

Rainbow looked at Twilight. Twilight grimaced and shifted from side to side for a moment. “I suppose it’s possible, but it’s also a large risk for him to take, which I’m not sure he would do.”

“Miss Twilight, we are talking about the same pony who absconded with a set of foal’s markers from a picnic table surrounded by six ponies actively looking for him. The unnecessary taking of risks is part and parcel.”

She nodded. “I guess you have a point.” She sighed. “Regardless, none of this actually changes anything, because even if you’re right about his motivations, and even if you’re right that at this very moment he has the stolen copy of this newspaper, there’s nothing we can do about it, other than know what to look for if we find any suspects.”

Basil slapped his hoof on the paper again. “Ah, but this copy itself is the key to our problem! With it as the focus, your location spell will suss out his hiding place in no time!”

“But …” Twilight glanced at Rainbow in disbelief, then back to Basil. “I’ve already told you, the spell doesn’t work that way. It’s only able to find other items in a single, unified set, like the wheel missing off the crusaders’ wagon when targeting the other wheels. I could use it to find the other markers from this set.” She tapped the yellow marker in the center of the table. “But this newspaper is not part of a set. I couldn’t use it to find the one that Diamond Acorn might have.”

“You did explain it to me, yes.” Basil’s expression remained satisfied. “By means of targeting one or more objects that are linked together, you can then locate other objects within that linkage. The more objects you have on hoof the more powerful and precise the spell becomes. As we only have this single marker,” he said, pointing at the one on the table, “your ability to find the remainder of the set will be less precise, though if by chance the stolen markers were strewn about, you would be able to add increasing surety to the spell with each marker located. Am I correct?”

Twilight sighed through her snout and nodded. “Yes, that is how it works.”

“Then, surely, it works in reverse as well, where the fewer pieces available as the focus and the more tentative the connection between the pieces, the less powerful your location abilities become.”

Frowning, Twilight glanced at Rainbow again for a moment. “Yes, I guess so. But we’re still not talking about a set of items.”

“Are we not?” He straightened up and grinned. “This paper was not inked and printed in isolation, it was run through a single press in a single run at the offices in Canterlot, along with all other existing copies of this issue. Those copies were then bundled in stacks and distributed to all the vendor locations across Equestria, of which there are many, but inside of Ponyville there is only one. From that point forward, the stacks are separated and distributed among ponies with a subscription or delivered to mail stands to be sold individually, but up until then, are they not part of a set?”

Twilight’s frown deepened, and she leaned back to stare off into space.

Basil cocked his head to the side. “I relent that it is not, perhaps, an ideal example of a set onto which your spell might operate. I imagine the relational qualities between individual objects that the magic searches for would be weakened by time and intention, and neither are in our favor. The stack was never intended to be a set outside of the press’ distribution model and the individual issues have been separated for sixteen days now, but they certainly must have a more meaningful connection to each other than, say, to any other issue, or this marker would have to any given marker you might have in your home.”

Twilight slowly leaned forward and touched the newspaper with her hoof. “… I don’t know. It’s possible. More possible than I would have considered. But I’ve never tried to find anything like this, I don’t know if it will work.”

“Well,” Basil said, stepping back from the table, “I believe there would be only one course of action which could verify whether or not it will function.”

Twilight nodded and her horn lit up. Rainbow watched as the paper floated into the air and ruffled its pages back and forth. Twilight’s eyes stayed locked on it and her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. The rustling faded, and the paper descended gently back onto the table, the color of the magic around her horn unchanged. She shook her head. “No, I can’t do it, the connection’s too weak, it’s been apart for too long. Maybe if I had every other issue that got delivered to Ponyville it would be strong enough, but with just this, it isn’t.”

Basil sighed and sat back down at the table. “Disappointing. I suppose we’re certainly able to track down the wayward markers, so we aren’t left completely without recourse, but I was so sure of it …”

Rainbow squinted in thought and looked back and forth between the two, then over at one of the large pantries. “Hey … tell me if this is dumb or not …” Twilight lifted her head. “The paper that Diamond stole was gonna be put down in the basement as part of, like, a big collection of newspapers, right? And it was in a box in there with a bunch of other papers for a couple weeks now. Is that like a set of stuff, too?”

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up. Basil’s did as well, and he looked at Twilight, who tilted her head and tapped her chin. “Interesting … and definitely not dumb.” She flashed Rainbow a quick smile, then got up and opened the pantry door. “I don’t know if this will change anything or not, I haven’t really tried to do this sort of thing with the spell before, so I can’t really say how powerful it is.” She dragged the box out into the center of the floor. “On the one hoof, the more targets I can focus on, the more likely it is I’ll be able to find it. On the other hoof, we’re now talking about two different sets: the archives, and the original printing, so it might not make a difference. But … in theory …” She closed her eyes in concentration and hefted a stream of newspaper issues out of the box, joining the one from the table with them. “In theory … if I focus on it the right way … two intersecting sets might make the spell more powerful …”

Rather than the rustling of the papers slowing down, they flapped faster, swirling through the kitchen like a cloud of bats, faster and faster, while Twilight clenched her jaw tight. She let out a grunt of effort, then opened her eyes and took a deep breath. The papers hung in the air, surround in Twilight’s purple magic, but the magic around her horn was red. As Rainbow watched the glow, it pulsed once, dimmed, and then pulsed again, like a lazy heartbeat.

Twilight smiled and settled all of the papers back in the box. She turned in place in the kitchen until her magic shifted to green. “Great idea, Rainbow, I think it worked.”

Rainbow grinned and puffed up her chest as she stood up.

“Excellent!” Basil said. “Truly excellent! Shall we see what the day now has in store for us?”

Twilight frowned. “Well … I did promise the Crusaders that they could join us this morning, maybe we should wait for them first. I can always recast the spell later.”

Basil cleared his throat. “Ah, erm. Perhaps it would be best not to wait. They, ah, stayed up later than fillies their age normally would.”

Her expression fell to a glare.

“It was not my intention, I assure you. I was quite relieved when their various parental figures came and collected them for the evening, despite the yelling they and I were subjected to. Foals do not mix well with crime scenes.”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Well, I guess they’ll either catch up with us later, or we’ll have an answer for them once they do get up.” She turned in place and watched the color of her horn shift, then walked out of the kitchen. “You should bring the marker along, just in case,” she said.

Basil grinned and slipped it into his saddlebag. “Most certainly. Lead the way, madam.”

They filed out of the library and into town, following the tuning of Twilight’s horn northward.