My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship

by Danieru


99. Secrets of Canterlot

Star Twinkle just came home from work a few minutes ago. He was tired and just wanted to relax for the rest of the day. He already laid in his bed, some snacks next to him, and a book ready to read.

An adventure here and there was unavoidable, that much he was getting used to but still, he needed a day to relax and recover from those things. Today was one of those days.

That's what he thought...

As soon as Star Twinkle was ready to "start" relaxing, somepony knocked on his door.

"Of course..." he just mumbled to himself before he got out of his bed to answer his door.

Seeing a certain pony standing on the other side of the door did not really surprise him. It was Twilight, who had a serious expression on her face.

"Star Twinkle, you need to come," she simply said.

"Of course..." Star Twinkle repeated with a bothered tone in his voice after he figured that the relaxed part of the day was over. "Let me guess...the map?" He asked annoyed.

But Twilight shook her head. "No...it's the princess," she explained.

Now Star Twinkle's attention was grabbed. Whenever Princess Celestia wanted something from them, it usually meant something very serious and threatening for Equestria. It was not as if the stallion could just say "no" now, not if it came from the princess. It looked like another adventure was afoot.


Later in Canterlot...


As usual, the princess was calling not only Star Twinkle and Twilight but the rest of their friends as well. They had to go to the throne room to meet the princess and have her tell them what reason she summoned them to her.

"Whatever could the princess want from us?" Rarity wondered.

But Rainbow Dash claimed to know the answer. "I bet she tells us that some big evil from the past returned and that we need to beat it up!" She said, getting excited to just think about it.

Star Twinkle figured that this would also be the case. Princess Celestia would not call for them if it wasn't important. Something dangerous must be going on that the group has to deal with. Knowing that made Star Twinkle feel rather worried.

The group entered the throne room and the princess was sitting on her throne, but as soon as the group of ponies entered, she stepped forward to them, in order to greet them.

"Princess Celestia, we are here!" Twilight announced towards the Alicorn Princess who was of course already aware of this.

Princess Celestia smiled at Twilight. "I'm glad you could all show up," she said before she decided to cut to the point quickly. "I'm sorry to trouble you with this but I have a task for all of you," she added.

Rainbow Dash got quickly excited. "You want us to beat up a bad guy? Or Rescue a whole country? How about fighting off monsters?" She asked in her excitement before Applejack looked at her as if she wanted to tell her to calm down.

But Princess Celestia paid that no mind and explained. "Something is happening in Canterlot for a while now. I...kinda feel embarrassed to not have done anything on my own so far but things...are complicated..." she said with worry colored on her face before she explained further. "Ponies are disappearing," she said.

The group felt rather surprised to hear that. "Disappearing?" Star Twinkle asked.

The princess nodded. "Ponies seemed to have disappeared for a long time now but they always showed up days later without any memories about what happened to them. That is why I ignored it for so long. But I fear that something or someone is behind all of this and I fear for the citizens of Canterlot," she explained.

Fluttershy tried to see the positive thing about this. "Maybe they just forgot their way home and were lost for a while?" She casually brought up.

Pinkie Pie joined in as well. "Or maybe someone is giving them a secret party that no one is supposed to know of!"

Star Twinkle simply shook his head. "A party that no one is aware of is not much of a party, don't you think?" He pointed out.

Of course, Princess Celestia knew it better. "That is highly unlikely. The first time it happened, I sent the Royal Guards to look for the missing ponies. They were not able to find them and then, days later, the missing ponies were back home safely with no memory of what happened to them at that time," she explained.

"But why?" Twilight asked confused. "You said the ponies didn't remember what happened to them. Is there something else? And was there something that they all had in common?"

"No," Princess Celestia replied before she tipped her chin for a moment. "As far as I know, no Earth Pony was missing so far but that is about it. Strangely enough, the ponies were not hurt or robbed of anything," she further informed. "But it happens so often that it can't be normal. It almost feels organized, which is why I believe that someone is behind all of this," she explained.

By now, this whole situation was sounding rather weird. "So there is somepony, who is ponynapping ponies...but releases them a few days after without harming them?" Applejack summarized.

"Whether that someone is hurting the ponies of Canterlot or not, there is someone out there who pony-naps them, and that is something that can not be ignored," she said sternly. "That is why I brought you all here," she said.

This all sounded pretty dangerous, depending on who that pony-napper was. Star Twinkle instantly remembered some dangerous ponies on the loose, like Mystic, or Fade. Grace, the Witch of Equestria was also a possibility given how the rumors about her indicated that she was pony-napping fillies in Equestria, according to the scary stories that one would tell to little ponies to scare them.

But with Princess Celestia giving them this task, there was not much choice for them to ignore that, especially for Twilight who was not even thinking about letting the princess down or watching more ponies getting pony-napped.

"You can count on us, Princess Celestia!" Twilight said, causing her friends to support her on those words almost instantly.

Princess Celestia was happy to hear that and smiled at her. But soon, she had a more stern expression on her face again. "As I said before, the one behind this was doing it rather organized. I expect that the culprit is striking today again. You need to be careful and keep your eyes open. Also, don't try to let this be known to the public. It would create a panic in Canterlot that I would likely avoid."

With all the information given to them, the seven ponies walked outside the throne room and were ready to tackle this task. The princess was still worried about them but she figured that if somepony would be able to complete this task, then it would be them.


Later...


The group was walking through Canterlot together, all while keeping their eyes and ears open. They looked for everything that was suspicious in the hope that they would find some clues about all this. But this is where they realized something.

"What do we do now?" Star Twinkle asked into the round, only to receive some confused looks of his friends.

It was true that they had not much to go with. They knew that there was most likely someone pony-napping ponies, and that was about it. The ponies also didn't remember what happened to them so there was nothing that could help them as well. There was not much information to go with at all.

"I don't know what to do either," Twilight said. "But I do know that the princess is believing in us to solve this problem so we have to try our best to not let her down," she further said.

Rarity decided to see the positive things about all this. "I for one welcome this as a chance to spend some time in Canterlot," she said as she had already planned to visit a few shops soon.

But Applejack reminded her why they were here. "We are not on vacation here, Rarity," she scolded. "We are here because ponies are in danger," she pointed out.

"In danger of what?" Rainbow Dash then pointed out. "All we know is that ponies disappear and reappear soon after! Without a scratch on them! Not much danger if you ask me," she said as she was crossing her forelegs in midair as if she was actually a little disappointed in all of this.

Still, Twilight was not too sure about this. "But there must be a reason for those ponies to disappear. What could the culprit want from the ponies? And is it a coincidence that no Earth Pony was targeted so far?" She started to question herself and her friends.

The group was at a loss. There was no hint to follow as far as they could tell, leaving them quite frustrated. But despite all that, Twilight was determined to find the answer.

"Let's all split up!" She then suggested. "If we all go and look in separate places then we have a bigger chance to find some clues," she figured.

But Star Twinkle was not liking this idea. "So you want us to split up so that we could potentially be pony-napped by someone in this town?" He pointed out.

"The culprit is not going after Earth Ponies so you should be fine," Pinkie Pie pointed out casually.

"We don't know that for certain!" Star Twinkle exclaimed frustrated.

To some extent, Star Twinkle was agreeing with this plan since it would, most likely, end up getting them further to solve this problem. He eventually agreed with this plan and the seven ponies split up to look around Canterlot. One of them would find a clue eventually. Time was also not on their side since there was only today was the day for somepony to get pony-napped according to Princess Celestia.

What Star Twinkle still didn't like was that they all were split up so that they were all on their own. With his luck, he would be the one to be captured. He thought about every single option that would not make him a target, what could a pony-napper do with him anyway. And maybe Pinkie Pie was right that this "Pony-napper" was just taking ponies away to give them a secret party. The ponies would not get hurt after all so maybe this was a big misunderstanding just like his recent adventure in Appleloosa with Trouble Shoes.

But once Star Twinkle was caught into this train of thought, something suspicious appeared close to him, something that was definitely out of the ordinary and worth checking out further.

A Parasprite, or at least it looked like one. It was a mechanical object flying not too far away from his sight, it was round, had wings, and big eyes and was definitely supposed to represent a Parasprite but if one would expect it closer they would definitely see that it was not.

Of course, Star Twinkle wanted to know what this thing was and if it was connected to the pony-nappings so he followed it...from far away. For the rare chance that this thing was belonging to this pony-napper then he had to be careful.

"I could tell the others that I found something..." Star Twinkle figured as he was slowly following the mechanical Parasprite. "But I can't let this thing get away!"

He would get further if he would know where this thing was going instead of telling his friends what to look out for after all.

Soon, exactly that happened. He watched the mechanical Parasprite stopping in front of a house before eventually flying inside on one of the windows on the upper floor. This was weird and not normal, something was telling Star Twinkle this. It was definitely not ordinary this much he could agree on.

"I have to tell the others," he whispered to himself from around the corner of another house from where he watched this thing.

The stallion turned around so that he could sprint to find one of his friends but he stopped immediately once he noticed how someone was standing in front of him all of the sudden.

POW!

Before he could even notice who it was, the stallion got knocked out by a magic blast and collapsed to the ground before eventually falling unconscious.


Later...


The six mares already met up again after some time has passed since they split up. They did not find anything suspicious and were at a loss.

"Find anything?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"No," Fluttershy replied. "I even asked some birds to look for something but they had no luck either..." she said with a frown on her face.

"We can't give up yet!" Twilight said with determination in her voice. "The princess is expecting us to take care of this!" She reminded everyone.

Once some time has passed between the group though, they realized that someone of them was missing.

"Where is Star Twinkle? It's really unlike him to be late," Rarity wondered.

But the group didn't know where he was of course. It didn't take long though until they all shared the same thought.

"You don't think that he got...you know?" Fluttershy asked into the round with some worry in her voice.

"Nah, Star Twinkle wouldn't let himself get caught that easily!" Rainbow Dash assured confidently. However, that confidence did not last for too long. "Right?" She then added a little nervously.

It was then Applejack who spoke for everypony. "Then we have to save him!" She said getting the support of her friends immediately.

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie then said a little bit more serious than usual before she had a confused look on her face. "But where do we start to look?" She then asked confused.

"Uh..." Applejack could only reply since she had no idea where to look.

Surprisingly, Twilight was not too worried about all this. "If Star Twinkle really was pony-napped," Twilight said before she then formed a determined expression on her face. "...Then I know where he is!" The girls seemed surprised to hear that.

"How?" Rarity asked confused, in the name of everypony else.

Twilight explained. "Since Princess Celestia was sure that today was the day where the pony-napper would strike again, I had to take some precautions. I put a spell on each of you. I can use my magic to track you down with it in case one of you would have gotten pony-napped. I just had to do it in case one of you would be the next targets," she said with some regret in her voice as if she knew that it was wrong.

"And when were you planning on telling us that!?" Applejack asked offended, understandably.

"When did you even have the chance to do that?" Rarity added.

"Does that matter now!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Yes," Fluttershy agreed. "Star Twinkle might be in danger so we should be lucky for Twilight's action," the mare pointed out.

Once that was settled, Twilight used her magic to focus on her spell. Once she activated it, the rest of her friends started to glow a little bit.

"Oh! Shiny!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly at her own sight.

Shortly after, Twilight stopped her spell. "Follow me, girls!" She then said before she ran to where she suspected Star Twinkle to be at.

The girls followed the mare closely. They just had to believe in Twilight's spell to work. They didn't have to walk for long until they came across the same house that Star Twinkle came across. It looked just like any other house in Canterlot and didn't stand out much.

The girls looked through the windows, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy taking care of the upper floor. The two Pegasi then came back with confused looks on their faces. "Nothing," Rainbow Dash said.

"Nothing here either," Applejack added. "Doesn't even look like as if somepony lives here," she figured.

But Twilight was sure that her spell was leading her to this place. "Then we have to go inside!" She said sternly.

Of course, Fluttershy was having second thought about that. "Um...is it really okay if we-"

BAM!

But Rainbow Dash knocked the door open without hesitation.

"-break in?" Fluttershy finished after she realized what had already happened.

Eventually, the worry about Star Twinkle was bigger than the fear of doing something wrong for the mare and she joined her friends to look around the house.

As far as they could tell, there was nothing suspicious inside. A normal living room, with a kitchen next to it, a bath, all clean and looking as if it was brand new. And judging from how Rarity was not freaking out about any of the decor it was not too bad looking either.

But still, all that did not help any of the girls since this was just a normal looking house from what they could tell.

Twilight focused her magic once more to check if this was the right place. She soon found out that Star Twinkle was here but not on the same floor. He was beneath them. But strangely enough, there was no staircase leading down anywhere. Twilight used her magic once more, this time focusing on it a lot more to pinpoint his exact location. Soon, she was following the "signal" to a bookshelf.

"What is it, Twilight?" Applejack asked.

But Twilight didn't answer and inspected the bookshelf a little more. After removing a few books, she found a button with a hoof on it, which was previously blocked by the books. She pressed it and the bookshelf started to shake, causing her to step away a little bit.

The bookshelf was then revealing a secret staircase that would lead down. This was all screaming suspicious and soon the girls had to agree that Star Twinkle was in potential danger now.

"Let's go!" Twilight ordered before she ran down the staircase with her friends following her.

They all started to get worried now. The staircase was going down quite a while and the more they ran down, the darker it got, making them all feel quite uneasy. It was then that lights started to appear after a while, to lighten up the place.

They then came across an entrance. They didn't even think about taking a subtle approach and Applejack and Rainbow Dash both bashed the door open. Another room awaited them after this and they found what they were looking for.

"Star Twinkle!" Twilight exclaimed.

The stallion was strapped to a table and was unconscious and next to him was someone who instantly escaped into another room as soon as the group stepped in, it must have been the one who captured Star Twinkle and all the other ponies of Canterlot. They were about to follow the culprit but Star Twinkle's safety was more important now.

The girls freed the stallion and tried to wake him. He had no scratch on him as well, which calmed some of the girls down again. It didn't take long until Star Twinkle slowly opened his eyes again.

"Wuh?" The stallion cleverly let out after waking up again.

"Thank goodness you're okay!" Fluttershy said in relief.

Star Twinkle was a little bit confused to see his friends in front of him. He also looked around to see that he was in a strange room with tools hanging on the walls and the table where he was previously strapped on. It kinda looked like what you would get if you would mix an operation room with a carpenter workshop. Everything was metallic which gave the room a really weird feeling.

Star Twinkle had a million questions right now, but the most important one was already answered by Rarity.

"Some ruffian pony-napped you and strapped you to this table!" She said with disgust in her voice.

"You were lucky that we came before this someone did something to you," Applejack added.

Still, Star Twinkle was confused. "Who pony-napped me?" He then asked confused.

"We are about to find out," Twilight said before she walked towards the door where the culprit went through before. Everypony was standing right behind her, even Star Twinkle, who felt okay again was standing right behind her. He wanted to know who was pony-napping him, and for what reason.

Twilight carefully opened the door with her magic, it was not locked barricaded from the other side strangely. The screeching of the door was echoing through the whole room before it eventually was practically slammed open as soon as the group saw what was inside of it.

The group was left stunned. They didn't know what to say. It was weird, it was confusing and almost scary. They did not know what exactly they were looking at but they were shocked nonetheless.

"What is all this?" Star Twinkle said in surprise.

But he got no answer since they had to comprehend what they saw. There were several shelves on the sides filled with jars that had either some unknown liquids or dust inside of them, there were feathers presented in glass cases and several other weird things.

Things got even worse as soon as the ponies started to inspect some of those things. The shelf with all the jars that had dust in them had a little sign in front of them that said "Horns".

"I think I'm gonna be sick!" Rarity said in disgust.

"I'm starting to think that there is no secret party going on here," Pinkie Pie figured.

"What is this place!?" Rainbow Dash added into all this. "Is this some kind of laboratory of a mad scientist!?" She said, half expecting this to be the case.

Star Twinkle was walking up to one of the shelves and was about to pick them up to inspect them further but the next words he heard stopped him in his attempt.

"Please be careful while you look at those," a male voice said casually.

Hearing that voice made the seven ponies all stand in attention to be ready for who would show himself. A shadowy figure then slowly stepped out from the dark and revealed itself to be an Earth Pony with a light brown coat, a dark brown messy mane, orange eyes, and a light bulb as a Cutie Mark. He was also wearing a necklace with a hoof-shaped gem in the middle of it.

Star Twinkle was the only one who recognized that pony immediately. He desperately tried to remember the name of this pony, which came to him pretty swiftly.

"Tinker!?" He said in surprise.

The rest of his friends quickly picked up on that. "You know this guy?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Star Twinkle explained. "I met him here in Canterlot back at the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, before the Changeling attack. He was also the one who I had to look for to repair the Anti-Magic-Device that was used in the Equestria Games."

Having said all of that, he remembered how weird this pony was, which was probably why he was staying in his memory all this time. Still, he never expected this stallion to be a pony-napper. Tinker had a pretty neutral expression on his face. He did not seem angry or surprised to see all those ponies at his place. He did not seem too happy about it either though.

"I would like you to stay quiet and don't touch anything while I attend to my research again," he said casually.

"Research?" Star Twinkle asked confused.

"You mean this!?" Twilight added as she pointed to the shelves in this room.

Tinker just shrugged his shoulders. "Isn't it obvious?" He replied.

Applejack then stepped forward. "You are the one who pony-napped the ponies of Canterlot isn't that right!?" She asked trying to get confirmation about Tinker being the pony-napper.

Tinker gave a quick and casual answer. "Yes, I am," he said.

Now Twilight stepped forward with a serious expression on her face. "What did you do with all those ponies!?" She then asked.

The Earth Pony looked over to the shelves next to him with a proud look on his face. "I gathered research. Can't you tell by all of this?" He asked.

Rarity got visibly more sick after hearing that. "You mean those jars with are..." she said as she looked over the jars, mainly to the ones that had the "Horn" sign in front of them and the feathers.

"Yes. Samples that I got from Unicorn horns and feathers from Pegasus Ponies that would help me in my research," he casually explained.

Twilight did not like hearing that at all. "That is your explanation for pony-napping everyone?" She asked indignantly.

"You can't just pony-nap others and collect samples from them!" Star Twinkle added.

Tinker just shrugged his shoulders. "I did not remove that much. A few feathers missing from a wing will not make much of a difference, same goes for some dust that I rasped away from some horns," he said in order to defend himself.

"But that is wrong!" Twilight pointed out.

"No, it's messed up!" Rainbow Dash added angrily.

"Yes," Fluttershy added. "I know I would not let anypony do something like that to me," she said while she stood behind her friends since she was a little afraid of Tinker right about now.

The brown-coated Earth Pony rolled his eyes after hearing those comments. "That is why I made sure that the ponies I took were unconscious so that they would not have a chance to disagree," he said.

The fact that Tinker talked about something like this without a hint of regret in his voice made Star Twinkle and Twilight feel both angry and disturbed at the same time. Star Twinkle felt as if he needed to say something to the stallion in his disgust. But it was then that Twilight was taking action, much to everyone's surprise.

"In the name of Princess Celestia, you are under arrest for ponynapping and hurting the ponies of Equestria!" Twilight announced in a serious tone like Star Twinkle never heard her before. Of course, Star Twinkle agreed with Twilight's decision, a pony that was doing acts like this without showing any signs of regretting them was too dangerous to walk around freely.

But while those words from the Princess Friendship were still echoing through the room, Tinker did not feel intimidated or worried at all. "I'd rather not be arrested..." Tinker replied. "There are still some things that I need to know. So many things that I need to know more about. Things that I still need to take a closer look at," he said before he smiled at Star Twinkle. "Including you, Starfall Twinkle," he said with a creepy smile on his face.

Of course, Star Twinkle felt really uneasy hearing those words. He even began to get a little nervous. Twilight noticed how Tinker was talking towards Star Twinkle and that is where she had enough. Just minutes ago he was pony-napping Star Twinkle to do things to him she didn't want to imagine. It was then when she had enough. She aimed her horn at Tinker and was ready to fire a magic beam at the pony. Tinker did not seem worried one bit and kept looking at the mare unimpressed. Twilight clenched her teeth and shortly after, she shot at the stallion, who didn't make any signs of dodging the attack.

It was a direct hit...

Or at least that is what should have happened...

Tinker was unharmed. Before the beam made contact with him, it seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"What!?" Twilight said in shock after she noticed it that her attack didn't do anything. "I thought I was hitting him directly!" She said in disbelieve.

Star Twinkle remained silent. He saw what happened but before he could explain, Twilight shot another magic beam at the stallion. This time, she made sure to look at what happened. The beam was about to hit Tinker but in the last second, his necklace was glowing for a moment. The magic beam did not vanish but instead was being sucked in by the necklace.

"That necklace...its absorbing magic!?" Star Twinkle said in confusion after he witnessed what happened in front of him once more.

"Indeed," Tinker replied as if it was the most normal thing ever.

Twilight glared at the stallion. "What is that necklace? Where did you get that!?" She asked.

"I built it," Tinker replied proudly. "One of my many inventions that I was able to make after analyzing and experimenting on so many ponies," he said with a smile on his face which shortly after vanished again. "As an Earth Pony, I was not granted to have the ability to use magic or flying, like you Unicorns and Pegasus. Unfair, I say! I had to make up for it! Surely my great mind was not destined to do some kind of primitive job that required brute muscle strength like working as a simple farm pony!"

"Hey!" Applejack said, taking offense to those words.

But Tinker continued and ignore the mare. "I had the mind to do great things!" He said before he once more presented his necklace. "This necklace makes me immune to magic. No spell will be able to break through it. Every spell will just be absorbed and nullified if it is closing into me! And that is just the beginning! Can you imagine what else I could do as time goes on!? So many great things that I can invent if I gather more information!"

The stallion then looked over to the ponies who were all glaring at him. His eyes shifted over to Twilight once more, which sent down shivers on her back. "I am not as fortunate as some of you at all. I am not fit to ascend to an Alicorn," he said before he looked over to Star Twinkle again. "And neither am I lucky enough to get dragged into events that would let me archive the Terra Unisus Transformation like you or Summershine," he said as he kept looking at Star Twinkle as if he was envying him for a moment.

Of course, Star Twinkle quickly picked up on what Tinker said there. "Summershine? You know Summershine?" He then asked confused. It was the name of the Unicorn stallion that attacked him back when Tirek was attacking Twilight. That one pony that appeared in his memories. The pony who erased Star Twinkle's memories. The stallion stepped up for a moment. "What do you know about him? Tell me!" He begged.

It was a really bad time to ask for something like this now, especially since Tinker was not the most trustworthy and sane pony to talk now but he had to take this chance. He had the chance to find out something about Summershine. That one pony that he should know. There were only bits and pieces that he knew about Summershine. Star Twinkle knew that Summershine used a memory erase spell on him. He also knew that he entrusted the Elements of Harmony to him. But all those little information were not painting a complete picture for him since the rest of Star Twinkle's memories were a complete mess. He had to know more and Tinker could provide him with that information.

Tinker was actually willing to continue talking about all this, much to Star Twinkle's surprise.

"The Memory Erase Spell. Thanks to my necklace I was spared to get my memories changed. I can't imagine having to live with some things missing in my head," the stallion said annoyed. "But Summershine claimed to do it because he wanted to protect you and your friends...from who was inside of him," he explained.

"Inside of him?" Star Twinkle asked. "Who was inside of him?" He asked further.

Tinker replied. "Ashgray," he simply said. "The one who attacked you in Ponyville after you all took care of Tirek with the chest that was created from the Tree of Harmony," he explained.

Star Twinkle did not recall this name at all. He figured that he should but then again he was targeted by a Memory Erase Spell so that might be why he didn't remember. Ashe was thinking about this though, things sounded really suspicious for Twilight and she finally had to speak up about it.

"How do you know all of this? About Summershine, what happened in Ponyville, and the Tree of Harmony?" She asked.

It was weird that Tinker knew about all of this after Star Twinkle thought about it. This pony knew about things that he shouldn't. Was Tinker there when his memories got erased? Did he know Tinker?

But the answer then came in form of something that Star Twinkle actually did recognize. It was hovering towards Tinker from out of nowhere. It was the little mechanical Parasprite from before. It landed on Tinker's head and the stallion smiled proudly. "Isn't it obvious?" He said before he continued. "A Mechasprite," he simply said before the little thing started to use some kind of magic to project pictures in front of the stallion. It showed Twilight and the rest of the friends in front of Tinker's door, right before they came to Star Twinkle's rescue. "It records everything that it sees and can show it to me. I use it to gather information so that I don't have to leave my home and can continue to focus on my inventions," he explained.

"Wait!" Rarity then interrupted. "You are spying on other ponies!?" She then asked before she covered her body with her hooves just thinking about what this guy might have seen with these things.

"That's not really nice!" Pinkie Pie said angrily.

But Tinker could not care less, in fact, he was sighing in disappointment. "One day I just had to give up my home for the sake of science...what a shame. It will put back some of my progress but I am willing to do that if I want to get out of here," he figured.

But that was not sitting right with any of the ponies standing in front of him. "And you think that we will just let you leave?" Applejack said with her friends agreeing on her words.

"No I don't," Tinker said calmly before he turned around and headed to another door to leave this room.

"Hold it right there!" Rainbow Dash said as she was punching her front hooves together before she then rushed towards Tinker. If magic doesn't work then she had to do it the old fashioned way, is what she thought.

"Rainbow Dash, wait!" Star Twinkle warned but the mare already was charging at the Earth Pony and could not react to his words.

The reason for Star Twinkle's warning soon came in action as soon as two little towers appeared next to Tinker. Magic was coming out from the towers and created a shield in front of the pony, which caused Rainbow Dash to crash into it, knocking her back again. The shield protected Tinker from Rainbow Dash's charge.

Tinker just smiled seeing how another one of his inventions was helping him out. He then walked towards the door and closed it behind himself, leaving for good this time.

"He's getting away!" Applejack exclaimed.

"We can't let him escape!" Star Twinkle added.

In the meantime, Rainbow Dash tried to kick down the shield in front of her in order to break it but she was not successful with it. "I can't get through!" She said frustrated and angrily. Applejack soon joined her and the two both tried to kick the shield down but no matter how much they tried, the thing would not break at all.

Soon, Twilight had an idea though. "Gather next to me!" She said, causing the ponies to do as she said. Twilight then focused her magic and soon the whole group disappeared and reappeared behind the shield.

"Oh," Rainbow Dash said once she realized how easy Twilight dealt with this problem.

The group then went to the door that Tinker went through in order to chase him again. The next room was not too big and Tinker could be seen preparing something in one corner of the room, his back turned towards them.

The seven ponies figured that this was the perfect opportunity to attack him and all charged towards the stallion. However, Tinker turned around and aimed his hoof at them. Suddenly, a beam of magic was shot at the group, causing them to all move to the side in order to dodge away.

They all got confused about what happened. How did Tinker shot magic at them all of a sudden, he was an Earth Pony after all.

The answer was an object on Tinker's left hoof. It looked like some kind of armor piece but there was something else on it. The first thing that came to mind to the group was a cannon. With the help of that, Tinker was shooting magic at the seven ponies.

"You should all really consider yourself lucky. Nopony has ever seen so many of my inventions in action before. Don't you see how far I've come by gathering research and information from other ponies? All those ponies that I captured served their purpose," he said proudly.

Twilight was sick of hearing that but at the same time, she tried to talk to him one more time. "Tinker, your inventions are all great but the way you obtained them is wrong," she said in a more composed manner this time. "You are capturing other ponies, you hurt and use them for all of this. What you are doing is wrong! Don't tell me you don't realize that!"

The rest of her friends agreed with Twilight's words and they were also willing to forgive Tinker if he reconsidered his actions. They hoped that he would realize how wrong he was by using other ponies to advance his inventions. He was not stupid after all, surely he knew that running away would also not be the best action to take if he continued like this. He would be a criminal on the run and he surely knew that this was no way to live.

Then came Tinker's answer...

"I'm never wrong!" Tinker said with a bitter tone in his voice. "All I do is to help me grow more intelligent. All the information that I gather is to serve me and my inventions. "Hurting other ponies and using them," you say. Pain is not lasting forever and so is the feeling of being used. But the knowledge that I gather stays forever! I need to know everything in this world! I need to discover all the secrets out there and collect them. And if other ponies can provide them to me then I will take it from them! What is one pony after all if it means gathering more knowledge!?"

Those words echoed through the room. It left the group stunned to hear them from Tinker. Star Twinkle especially got scared by those words. He looked at the pony in front of him in shock. He could not believe that Tinker was not even seeing how wrong his actions are. He needed to be stopped, he needed to be stopped fast. He might not be as powerful as Discord or Tirek but this pony was dangerous, and the way he was thinking was even more dangerous. They could not let him escape.

But Tinker seemed to have already prepared something to make his escape. He was standing on top of some kind of platform. Next to it stood a little wooden cart with some boxes on it. Tinker smiled and waved over to the group, mainly to Star Twinkle.

"I know we will meet again someday. I hope then I will get some time to research you properly," he said with a sinister grin on his face.

ZAP!

Then suddenly, he was gone. He disappeared into thin air as if he teleported away.

The seven ponies quickly rushed towards the platform that Tinker was standing on. They knew that this was what was letting him escape just now. And that was the problem, Tinker got away...


Later...


Princess Celestia was quickly informed about the things that happened in Tinker's home. The seven ponies told her all about his inventions and how he managed to build them with the help of "samples" from the ponies that he pony-napped.

The whole town was turned upside down by the Royal Guards to look for the stallion but no one was able to find him. Considering how he was traveling with a cart, he should have not been so hard to find unless he teleported himself way further away than Canterlot.

Of course, Twilight was blaming herself for all of this but Princess Celestia often claimed that it was her own fault to not have acted earlier. Tinker was gone, that is all that they knew now and knowing that certainly made them nervous. The thought that he was spying on the ponies of Equestria and pony-napped them somewhere else now was discomforting, to say the least.

Just like Canterlot, Tinker's home was taken care of as well. Princess Celestia did not know what to do with the stuff that she found in those jars yet but everyone quickly agreed to somehow get rid of it. Having feathers and horn remains laying around was just too creepy.

Star Twinkle and his friends were also still inside and looked around to find something suspicious. It was not long until Twilight came across a big machine with some buttons on it. "I think I found something," she said as she looked over the thing in front of her.

Her friends quickly came to her side to see for themselves. Star Twinkle looked at one of the buttons and read out loud what was next to it. "Mechasprite call back command?"

"Press it! Press it!" Pinkie Pie excited while bouncing on the spot.

"Should we really activate any of the things in here? They could be dangerous," Star Twinkle pointed out.

But the group decided to press the button on the machine anyway. Twilight had a good assumption of what this machine would do. At first, they all regretted doing this because the machine started to shake a little but it calmed down soon and was then running quietly.

Nothing happened for a while but soon, A Mechasprite came flying into the room, then another, and another one, and another one. More and more Mechasprites came flying into the room and landed next to the running machine. It left the group quite stunned.

"So many of them!?" Star Twinkle said in surprise.

"Those must be a hundred at least!" Twilight figured.

Rarity began to cringe. "Just the thought that somepony was watching me the whole time!" She said in disgust as she looked around nervously.

Princess Celestia was taking a look at all of this as well. She did not like this at all. "Those things need to be destroyed or deactivated. Every single one of them. Only then will the ponies of Equestria feel safe again," she ordered.

The ponies did as Princess Celestia ordered and took care of it. Rainbow Dash was especially enjoying to smash those things into pieces. The same could not be said about Fluttershy though who was apologizing to every single one of those things before she tried to smash them, which most likely came from the design of those things. Still, they were only machines and they needed to be taken care of. There was always a possibility that Tinker would rebuild a machine like this somewhere else and called all of those things back to him.

The whole place was a mess after a while, metal and bolts were scattered all over the place which needed to be cleaned off soon. But that could still wait because there was still the last room that needed to be looked at. The room with the teleporter which Tinker used to escape. Of course, no one was able to get this thing to work. There could also be a possibility that Tinker made sure that it would no longer work just so that he could escape. He probably prepared his escape before the group even arrived at his house. He had his Mechasprites to keep an eye out after all and knew that the group would be going after him soon.

Other than the teleporter, there was not much else inside the last room. There was a bookshelf with multiple books and no secret passage behind it, a table in one corner of the room, and one more thing. The last thing was the most suspicious one. It was something big covered under a black sheet. Of course, the curiosity of everyone in the room was too big to take a look at what was under it so they decided to remove the sheet.

A big machine with a glass window in the center of it from which you could see someone sitting inside of it.

"Goodness, somepony is inside!" Fluttershy said in surprise.

Twilight was clenching her eyes for a moment and took a look at the pony inside. She was surprised to find out that this was not necessarily a pony, at least not for the most parts. It was a pony, for the most part, but it wasn't an Earth Pony, Unicorn or Pegasus. This pony had long ears, sharp teeth, and bat-like wings.

"A Batpony..." Twilight said in awe.

Star Twinkle looked over to Twilight, confusion was colored on his face. "Batpony?" Star Twinkle asked.

Twilight explained. "Bat ponies are a really rare species that was said to be gone long ago," she said.

"Didn't Princess Luna have two of them as her guards as well? Back at Nightmare Night?" Applejack pointed out.

"Yes," Princess Celestia said as she approached the machine as well. "It is as Twilight said, not many Batponies are left in Equestria. They vanished long ago for unknown reasons. Back when Luna was around, a thousand years ago, they were of them. Batponies prefer the night and Luna was like a symbol for them. Many of them were joining her as her Royal Guards and even stayed by her side after she became Nightmare Moon. But once I banned her into the moon, the Batponies started to vanish." Princess Celestia was visibly showing guilt once she had to remember what she did to her sister but she continued anyway. "Once Luna returned, a good few of them showed up again and joined her guards, just as you said Applejack," she explained.

Hearing this story was fascinating for the seven ponies. Still, it did not explain why there was one of those Batponies inside this machine. But soon they figured that Tinker was most likely well aware of how rare a Batpony was so he decided to keep one for his...research.

The group quickly decided to free the Batpony. It did not take long for them to find a button that would open the machine. As soon as the door opened of the machine, Star Twinkle started to feel really dizzy.

"Does anypony else feel really sleepy all of the sudden?" The stallion asked before he yawned loudly and rubbed his eyes.

"It must be coming from inside this machine," Twilight said. "I guess it is supposed to keep this Batpony asleep," she said with a frown on her face. Just another object for Tinker to research. It made her sick thinking about it.

Star Twinkle grabbed the Batpony out of the machine and laid her softly on the ground. She was still asleep and the stallion was not in a rush to wake her up anytime soon. This was the first time that Star Twinkle saw a Batpony up this close.

The Batpony was female. She had a navy blue colored coat and a white mane. On her flank was a Cutie Mark in the form of a full moon made out of a white crystal that had bat wings coming out from both sides.

"What should we do with her?" Star Twinkle said as he looked over to his friends.

"Maybe she is going to join Princess Luna's Royal Guard?" Pinkie Pie figured in an optimistic tone.

"I think we all should make sure the girl is alright before we decided," Applejack pointed out.

But Twilight had other ideas. "And we need to make sure that we get to know her really good," she said casually before her friends looked at her strange. "Come on! I have so many questions about her and Batponies in general! I can't let the opportunity to talk with one slip!"

The girls smiled at each other after hearing that. "Okay, as long as you don't experiment on her and all," Applejack said jokingly.

"I'm not!" Twilight said embarrassed, knowing that Applejack was talking about Tinker.

The group started to laugh at Twilight's reaction. Considering what the group went through a while ago, a good laugh like this is all they needed now.

While the group was laughing though, the eyes of the Batpony started to slowly open. All those noises must have woken her up. She looked up to Star Twinkle who noticed how she looked at him with tired eyes. The stallion smiled as soon as he looked into her orange eyes but she had no idea what to say or how to react.

In the meantime, the girls still laughed cheerfully. They didn't notice how the Batpony woke up just now. But that changed as soon as they heard a loud smack. They looked at Star Twinkle and found him laying on the ground, pinned down by the Batpony who was still holding one of his legs up so that he would remain on the ground, unable to free himself.

Everyone looked at the Batpony with a glare on their faces. She had Star Twinkle pinned down and was keeping a tight hold on him so that he could not move.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Applejack said sternly as she walked over to the two.

But as soon as she got closer, the Batpony only tightened her grip on the stallion. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" The stallion said in pain with his face pressed to at the ground.

Applejack then stepped back once she saw how Star Twinkle was in potential danger. The Batpony just scanned her eyes across the group. Her eyes were elliptically-shaped, unlike the ones from other ponies, a trait from a Batpony. She did not seem to be letting her guard down in front of anyone in the room. That was until she saw one certain pony in the room.

"Princess Celestia!?" She said in a surprised tone, causing the princess to walk up to the Batpony.

"There is no need to be nervous, nopony here wants to hurt you," Princess Celestia assured.

Hearing those words from Princess Celestia herself seemed to get the Batpony's attention and maybe even her trust. She looked more confused now than serious. And after some painful noises that Star Twinkle released once more, the Batpony released her grip and stepped away from him, much to the stallion's delight, who crawled away a little since he didn't want to end up like this again. The girls also sighed in relief after Star Twinkle was free again and the Batpony was hopefully willing to listen now.

"What is your name?" Princess Celestia asked as soon as the situation settled down a little.

The Batpony still kept her distance. She was still keeping her guard up but she answered the question of the princess.

"Noire...Noire Gloom..." the Batpony answered hesitantly before she looked around the place. She clearly was still confused about the whole situation. "What is this place? And who are you all?" She asked.

Twilight then stepped up and explained. "We're in Canterlot. This pony, Tinker, he most likely pony-err...Batnapped you, and kept you inside of this thing," she said as she pointed at the machine where Noire was inside a few moments ago.

Noire only lowered her eyebrows confused. "Canterlot? Tinker?" She asked confused. "So this is not the Crystal Empire?" She added.

"No, it isn't," Twilight replied. "Don't you remember anything?" She asked.

The Batpony scratched her head for a moment. "No...All I remember is that I was leaving the Crystal Empire along with-" but then she stopped and her face was filled with panic. "Lumi!" She then exclaimed. "Where is Lumi!?" She said as she looked around as if she was looking for someone.

The group got confused for a moment. "Who is Lumi?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Princess Celestia explained. "I'm afraid you are the only one we found in here," she said.

Noire did not seem to like hearing this. "What!? But...I gotta find her! King Sombra is still out there!" She exclaimed in a panic.

And once again, the group got confused. "King Sombra?" Twilight asked. "What does he have to do with all of this?"

Noire tried to calm down a bit and then explained. "The Crystal Empire returned and along with it, King Sombra! He might just be a shadow now but he is still out there trying to take over the empire! That means that Lumi is still in danger!"

Hearing Noire talk about King Sombra like this was reminding all the ponies about the event long ago when they were entering the Crystal Empire for the first time. Her explanation made it all sound all too familiar. It also sounded as if Noire was sleeping for a long time now if those are the most recent events that she remembered.

It was then that Rainbow Dash explained some things to Noire. "Yeah, about King Sombra, we totally took care of him no problem and saved the whole empire." she boasted.

"Actually it was Star Twinkle and Spike who saved the empire!" Pinkie Pie corrected casually, much to Rainbow Dash's dislike.

Noire was not believing the words of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie but Princess Celestia confirmed it for her. "Thanks to actions of those seven ponies in front of you, and someone else who is not present yet, the Crystal Empire is now safe again and under the rule of two fair rulers," she explained.

"One of them being my big brother!" Twilight added proudly with a smile on her face.

The Batpony seemed positively surprised to hear this. "So...King Sombra is no more?" She asked, causing everypony to nod in response. It was then that Noire smiled for the first time. "That's great news!" She said happily before she remembered why she got into a panic before. "But I still need to find Lumi!"

"Who is this Lumi you keep talking about?" Star Twinkle finally asked.

Noire explained. "She is my best friend! A Crystal Pony. Her name is Luminous Purity! And I need to find her!" She said before she opened her bat wings in order to fly into the air.

But Twilight reached out her hoof. "Wait, we can help you to find her!" She offered.

But Noire only turned her head towards the group. "No thanks," she replied before she grinned at them all. "I don't really trust you all," she casually said before she flew out of the room and outside, looking for her friend.

This left the group in quite some confusion.

"Not a big fan of saying "thank you" I see," Rarity commented at this.

"Should we go after her?" Star Twinkle suggested.

But Princess Celestia shook her head in disagreement. "She looked like someone who can take care of herself," she figured.

"Ouch..." Star Twinkle thought. He figured that she was meaning how Noire was pinning him down a few minutes ago.

"We also have more pressing matters to take care of," Twilight then pointed out.

"That is right," Princess Celestia agreed. "With Tinker gone, I assume that the ponies of Canterlot are now safe again. I will still send my Royal Guards to look for him and hopefully capture him. But that is nothing you should concern you with for now," she assured.

Star Twinkle was not really convinced that Tinker would be so easy to capture though. He was living here in Canterlot all this time after all. Then again, he had to leave a lot of his stuff in order to escape so hopefully, he would not be able to do anything terrible right away.

The group had to wait until another opportunity would come up to deal with him. That is all that they could do now...


In the meantime...


On an open field somewhere in Equestria, Tinker was on free hooves. He was pulling the wooden cart behind him slowly and kept his eyes focused on the clouds in the air.

"To think that I lost my home in Canterlot..what an inconvenience..." the stallion said with little to no bother in his voice. He then looked at the cart behind him for a moment and a smile formed on his face "Though I have lost some things, it is good that my greatest invention is still with me. It would have been quite a bother to start over again. But then again, I do have to start over for the most parts," he said, again with little bother in his voice.

Suddenly, something was closing into the stallion, something that he noticed as well, and that put a smile on his face after he saw it.

It was one of his mechanical Paraspite's. He stopped for a moment and held his hoof up, causing the Mechasprite to land on it. Again, he smiled and just let the Mechasprite fly up in the air again, which then followed him.

"It would be boring if things were always easy after all," he said amused as if he could not wait for the next encounter with Star Twinkle and his friends.

And just like that, Tinker managed to escape, for now. It was still unclear what his end goal was and why he did all those things but one thing was for sure. He needed to be stopped. With him on the loose, Equestria was not safe at all.