//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three 
// Story: The Sound of Silence 
// by dog0food 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Three – Follow the Cookie Crumbs

“Spike’s been dragon-napped?!” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie chorused after Twilight told them.
The story was simple enough. Twilight had stayed upstairs after Rainbow Dash had left, eventually falling asleep reading her book. When she woke up in the morning, Spike was nowhere to be seen and he had only gotten about halfway through his cleaning.
“I didn’t think much of it at first,” Twilight bemoaned, her hooves in her face. “But then he didn’t come back and… and I noticed the note!”
“Note?” Rainbow Dash pressed. Applejack picked the note carefully up between her teeth and gave it to Rainbow Dash to read. Pinkie Pie appeared over Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, nuzzling comfortably with her nose pressed against Rainbow’s cheek and her chin on her shoulder, to read the note as well. Normally Rainbow would have complained about Pinkie’s closeness or shrugged her off, but her mind was too focused on the note to even care.

If it is your baby dragon that you seek
The key to finding him is unique.

At this point, Pinkie gasped and interrupted Rainbow’s reading with, “Zecora!” Pinkie’s breath, so close to Rainbow, tickled her ear and it twitched involuntarily.
“It does sound like her,” Applejack agreed. “Usin’ that fancy-pansy rhymin’.”
“There’s nothing wrong with showing a bit of decorum now and again,” Rarity sniffed.
“But we know Zecora isn’t evil. She wouldn’t do something like this,” Twilight said.
“Who would take poor Spikey-wikey?”
“What about a… a… a… dragon!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“I don’t think dragons are capable of being this clever,” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “No offense to Spike. Anyway, hang on, I haven’t finished reading it yet.” She looked back at the parchment and darted down to the third line. She could feel Pinkie again, reading with her.

The six of you have certain traits
That will seal each other’s fates.

This time it was Rainbow who interrupted. “What does that mean? Are they talking about the Elements of Harmony?”
“Keep reading,” Twilight said darkly. “There’s more.”

It is the traits that the six of you lack
That are key to getting your friend back.
If you do not learn anything from this gloom
It means that the dragon will meet his doom.

Rainbow and Pinkie finished reading until the end. Then they looked up at their friends. “So…” Rainbow began, trying to sort out the words in her head.
“It’s a game!” Pinkie blurted out. “A bad kind of game. But it’s a game.”
“A game? I don’t see a game here. I just see a riddle. It’s pretty stupid. We have to learn something from each other to get Spike back? It doesn’t make sense. And it isn’t clear at all.”
“It’s like taking everything I’ve been doing here and putting an evil spin on it,” Twilight whispered. “I’ve been learning so much from you guys and reporting to Princess Celestia… But now this pony is threatening us with Spike’s doom in order to… I don’t know. Make us learn a lesson?”
“What’s the lesson?” Applejack said, thinking out loud. “Our traits will seal each other’s fates…”
“But it is the traits that we lack that will get Spikey-wikey back,” Rarity finished.
“So… Maybe… We have to act out of character?” Fluttershy suggested.
“Quick, Fluttershy, be loud!” Rainbow Dash shouted, half-joking. “Or else Spike will be doomed!”
“Oh no, oh no… Oh, um, I…” She was obviously flustered and didn’t know what to do. But Fluttershy took in a deep breath and let out what she must have thought was a loud scream of, “Ahhh…” Everyone stared at her, unimpressed. “Too loud?”
“Well, if that’s the answer, we’re doomed,” Rainbow Dash said, finally sitting down and letting out a sigh. Her movement finally disrupted Pinkie, who stopped leaning against her. The result left Rainbow with a cool spot on her shoulder where the warmth from her friend had once been, but she didn’t complain or make any movements that she noticed Pinkie had left her side.
“This riddle ain’t gettin’ us nowhere,” Applejack said, standing up. “Ah’m gonna go round town and see if maybe anypony saw Spike today.”
“Rainbow Dash and I were out all night long and we didn’t see a single pony!” Pinkie Pie said, trying to be helpful. “Right, Dashie?”
“Oh, right…” It seemed so long ago now, that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow had spent all night preparing their prank. In fact, it couldn’t have been more than two hours ago that they had just witnessed their prank in action. Hadn’t she just stuffed herself full of sweets? And now what was happening… Rainbow Dash could feel her stomach turn and she hoped she wouldn’t lose face and throw up in front of her friends. How could this have happened? When could this have happened? In that small, hour long gap that Rainbow Dash had allowed herself a moment’s rest? She pounded the ground with her foot. How could she have been so stupid? She shouldn’t have let the citizens of Ponyville out of her sight… She should have…
But she couldn’t have known. Being a hero wasn’t her job. As much as she liked being called the town’s residential hero, she wasn’t responsible for every life being saved in the town. And then there was that brief moment in time where Mare Do Well had come along and stolen the spotlight. Her fur bristled at the memory and she felt herself inching away from her friends, if only subconsciously. They had each donned the costume (or at least in Rarity’s case, made the costume) at one time or another, each pulling stunts and tricks and claiming to be a mysterious masked vigilante named Mare Do Well. In the end, all those impressive feats were being performed by four different ponies, and while Rainbow Dash still considered herself the top pony when it came to heroism and daring dives, she did concede that there was more to being a hero than saving ponies. There was a certain humility necessary to true acts of heroism. While Rainbow Dash still prided herself in her cockiness, she did learn to tone down the bragging for the sake of everypony that had to listen to her. And, if Mare Do Well had taught her anything, it was that she wasn’t the only pony in Ponyville that could be the hero the town needed. ‘Even if it does take five ponies to match my skill,’ she added as a private afterthought.
“We gotta try,” Rainbow Dash finally said. “We’ll look all over town, Twilight. Somepony must have seen him. We’ll find him. We’ll bring him back. And we’ll kick the butt of whoever took him. Hard.”
“Yeah! Ain’t nopony gonna get away with dragon-napping our Spike!”
“Um… Maybe I can ask the animals for help?”
“And of course I will use my connections in Canterlot to gather information. We’ll have Spikey-wikey back in no time at all.”
“I better hurry if I’m going to ask everypony in town if they’ve seen Spike before sundown!” Pinkie wasn’t joking. She gave a quick salute and then zoomed out of the room, leaving a trail of dust in her wake.
Twilight gave a sorrowful smile. “Thanks, guys.” Magically, she picked the paper up and let it hover in the air for a moment. “I’m going to study this note. Maybe the truth is in the parchment.”
“Good idea, Twilight,” Applejack said, comforting her. “We’ll meet back here at sundown and tell everypony what we’ve found.”

Nothing. That’s what Rainbow Dash had found. Her first stop had been Cloudsdale. She searched all over the city in the sky, asking everypony that she saw, but not a single one of them had even heard of Spike, let alone seen him. It crossed her mind that perhaps she ran into the dragon-napper, and they were lying to her face. But she had no evidence anypony was lying to her. And besides, wouldn’t somepony have noticed a pegasus carrying a baby dragon all the way from Ponyville into Cloudsdale?
Her head was bothering her. The concussion left her ears ringing and her temples aching. But she couldn’t stop now. She couldn’t give up on Spike, either. Or Twilight. Twilight, who was so heartbroken… She couldn’t let her friend down. And yet here she was, failing her with every step she took.
She flew above Ponyville for a while, hoping to see some sort of clue. She had a unique perspective, something only Fluttershy could match (but often refused, due to her fear of flying). And Rainbow always preferred the view of Ponyville from the sky. But not today. Today she was staring at the remnants of her handiwork from earlier. There was still some cake left on the streets, still some flowers that remained untouched, and most of the houses appeared to still be covered in their respective candies. Somewhere in this mess of Candy Land, Spike had been dragged out against his will. Taken who knows where, to do who knows what, and… and… And Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened wide.
She had seen it. Only for a second, but she had seen it. Her head still reeling with surprise at what she saw and the searing pain from her earlier crash with the bell, Rainbow Dash flew down onto the surface. She trotted over to the house where she had noticed it. 'Yes,' she thought. 'There’s nothing else that could of done that…'
She couldn’t hold in her excitement. Flapping her wings, she lifted herself off the ground and flew towards Twilight’s library. Her flying had become a little weak as a result of the concussion. She found that occasionally she veered off into the wrong direction or misjudged the depth of her perspective. And now she found herself crashing into Twilight’s house through the open window, ramming into a bookcase and sending all of the work Spike had managed to get done plummeting to the floor.
“Whoops… Uh…”
“Rainbow Dash! What’s going on?” Twilight jumped up from the table where she had been assessing the note and ran over to her pegasus friend.
“Sorry. Heh, messed up the landing a bit… Uh, I have something to show you. Come on, let’s go!” Rainbow Dash didn’t even wait for a response. She jumped up and flew right out of the door, expecting Twilight to keep up.
She heard the frantic clopping of hooves behind her and knew that Twilight was following. Slowly, sure, but she was following. Rainbow Dash slowed down her own pace so that Twilight could run beside her.
When she finally did catch up, she asked, “What’d you find?”
“Last night, Pinkie and I pulled the ultimate prank,” Rainbow Dash began. “You can still see it now.”
Twilight glanced around. At first she didn’t see anything, but Rainbow Dash smirked as her friend did a double take as they passed a cupcake tree. “What…?”
“We turned Ponyville into Candy Land. Pinkie Pie’s idea. Anyway, I found something.”
“I’m not really in the snacking mood, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight stated.
“Don’t eat the evidence!”
“Evidence?”
“Just wait until you see it.”
They arrived at the house where Rainbow Dash had first noticed it. She touched down and looked eagerly at Twilight, who said nothing. She looked at the candy-covered home, then back at Rainbow Dash, then back at the home… Rainbow Dash was getting impatient. She let out a huffy sigh and stared pointedly at a small section in the corner of the house where the graham cracker had been eaten away, leaving the frosting underneath to show.
“I really don’t have time for this, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, exasperated. “I need to get back to that letter, there may be something I missed…”
“You’re not seeing it!” Rainbow interrupted, angrily. “It’s right there! Look!” She practically pushed Twilight’s face into the frosting, but was careful that she didn’t actually touch it. “See that? Right there? See it?”
“I don’t… Oh!” Twilight’s formerly impatient voice melted into one of understanding and surprise. “That looks like…”
“Exactly! It has to be his tongue mark, right? No other pony could make a print like it. He was here. He licked that frosting. He left us a trail!” And it was so obvious to both of them now, a sudden lead in an unexpected place, that the two of them began grinning stupidly, despite the ominous warnings and their dragon-napped friend. Because right there, just like Rainbow Dash had said, where only the frosting was visible was a long, forked section where frosting had obviously been licked away, leaving the house beneath it completely bare. And it was only a long, skinny, forked tongue like Spike’s that could have made it.


***


At sundown, the six friends all met up back at Twilight’s. Rainbow Dash and Twilight were already there, neither of them talking much. After what Rainbow Dash had discovered, they both had fell into fits of giddiness, but Twilight turned back to her serious nature as soon as they arrived back at her home and she noticed the absence of her number one assistant. Instead she became quiet and poured over her books. Rainbow Dash didn’t know what she was looking for, but the whirlwind of emotions she was feeling left her concussed head in pain. She couldn’t bring herself to even fly. Instead she laid down and sighed, closing her eyes and allowing her brain a rest.
Applejack was the first to arrive, at the first sign of sundown. Twilight rushed over to her immediately and filled her in, speaking so fast that the pegasus found her head spinning in place just trying to keep up – and she already knew what Twilight was telling Applejack.
“Now, what?” Applejack managed to sputter when her friend had finished. “You found somethin’?”
Rainbow Dash stepped in, despite the pain still creeping its way through her head. “Spike left us a trail –”
“Like the foal story! Haysel and Grainel!”
“So, Ah reckon you mean it’s got somethin’ ta do with the strange look Ponyville’s suddenly got.”
“Well, kinda,” Rainbow said, giving a guilty smirk. “That was a prank Pinkie Pie and I did. But Spike used it to his advantage. He left a trail in the candy.”
“Smart dragon,” Applejack mused. “S’pose you’ll have ta show me what y’all are talkin’ about when the others get here.”
They didn’t have to wait long, Rarity and Fluttershy arrived next. Rarity had a hoof around her friend, softly cooing to her. “It’s alright, darling. Perfectly fine. No need to be so upset. I didn’t come up with any leads, either. I’m sure we’ll still find him, dear. There’s still so much we can do.” No expanse of words could keep Fluttershy from tearing up, and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but burst with the news that she had found something. It was sure to cheer up her friend.
“Hey, no worries, ‘Shy!” Rainbow Dash said cockily, sidling up next to her friend and giving her a rather rough pat on the back. “I got us a lead, seein’ as we were fresh out. We’re gonna get Spike back in no time at all and kick the hide of whoever took him from us!”
“A lead?” Rarity repeated, shocked. “Well?”
“Just gotta follow the cookie crumbs,” Rainbow Dash said with a wink.
“You don’t mean the gross state of our beloved Ponyville, do you?” Rarity demanded.
“Say whatever you want about it, but the proof’s in the… frosting!” Twilight said.
“What are you talking about?” Fluttershy asked quietly.
“Spike left us a trail in the frosting! We can follow it and find him.”
“Oh… You mean… the candy all over Ponyville?”
“Yep!”
“So if, um… if somepony ate all the frosting…”
“You didn’t, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, a look of shock and horror twisted on her face.
“I didn’t!” Fluttershy squeaked. But she was still visibly upset and suddenly retreated to the door. “I… I have to go!”
Rainbow Dash deflated, touching the ground. “What’s her problem?”
“I dunno,” Applejack said, eyeing the door wearily. “But she did seem pretty upset.”
“Even moreso than usual,” Rarity added gravely.
Before they could discuss it further, a streak of pink entered Twilight’s home and ran right into Rainbow Dash, who fell, pinned to the ground before she could even react.
“What? Pinkie!”
“Dashie! It’s horrible!” Pinkie yelled, pressing into her friend.
“Geroff!” Rainbow managed to growl, pushing Pinkie Pie off of her. “What is it, Pinkie?”
Pinkie disguised a smile at her friend’s grumpiness and put on a look of utter horror. “Our Candy Land! It’s being devoured!”
Rainbow opened her mouth to say, Well, wasn’t that the point?, until she remembered that their only clue would be lost if all of it was eaten. She knocked herself in the head for being so stupid as to not think ponies would still be eating the candy. It’s not like the rest of Ponyville stopped because Spike had disappeared.
But before she could manage to create a new sentence, Twilight gasped, “What?! We have to stop them! Pinkie, tell them not to eat another bite!”
“I would if I could but I shan’t cause I can’t!” Pinkie said quickly. Then she barreled on before anypony could ask further questions, “The culprits causing the commotion and crunching on our clues are critters! Fluttershy told me about what you guys found in the frosting. But –”
“Oh no,” Rarity said, realizing something. “That’s right. I had been complaining to Fluttershy about the devastating state of Ponyville… She said she’d have her animals help clean it up, but… They work rather fast, don’t they?”
“Hoo, boy,” Applejack muttered. “Nopony’s gonna make this easy for us, are they?”
“I’m sorry!” Rarity cried out.
“We have to stop them!” Twilight said loudly and determined. But there was also a hint of desperation in her voice.
Rainbow Dash jumped up, ignoring the pain in her head. “On it!” She flew out the door without another word and came to a full on, midair halt as she saw the true massacre before her.
Bunnies, squirrels, beavers, porcupines, birds of all shapes and sizes… Every animal that Fluttershy had control over were wreaking havoc all across Ponyville. Nibbling on cupcakes, sucking on licorice, licking up the frosting…
“Hey! Stop!” Rainbow Dash called, kicking one especially greedy squirrel as it took a large bite out of a graham cracker. “That’s evidence!”
“Please be gentle… Oh no, please don’t eat that…” Rainbow Dash turned to see Fluttershy coaxing a beaver out of gnawing an entire tree in its attempt to reach the cotton candy topping. Rainbow flew over to her friend, a little more aggressively than she meant to.
“Fluttershy! We have to stop this! We’re not only going to lose the evidence, they’re going to ruin Ponyville!”
“I know, I’m sorry!” Fluttershy wailed. “I only told a few of them, to help clean up the place for Rarity, but they must have gotten a sugar rush and then they told all their friends and now… Oh, Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry, this is all my fault!”
Rainbow Dash immediately felt her heart pang for her yellow pegasus friend. Fluttershy was tearing up, her head low to the ground and her entire body shaking, wracked with guilt.
“Hey,” Rainbow Dash said, quieter and more forgiving, “it’s not your fault. You, you didn’t know this would happen. Hay, it’s probably more Pinkie Pie and my fault for even doing a stupid prank like this. We shoulda realized… well, the animals would want a piece of the action.”
Rainbow Dash nuzzled her friend, who looked up at her with a nervous smile. She stood up, sniffling. “We can get Applejack to round these guys up,” Rainbow Dash said. “And you can do that stare-thing you do to get these animals out of here. It’ll be okay, I promise.” Fluttershy believed her and she nodded.

“Yeehaw!” Applejack cajoled the animals, Winona at her side. “Let’s go! C’mon now, Winona, don’t leave any critters behind!” Together, they rounded up the various bunnies, raccoons, beavers, birds, and whatever else was eating Ponyville’s crumbs. Once they had every last one of them, Fluttershy stood among her animal friends and stared them all down in that special way that only she could.
“Now, now, friends. It isn’t good for you to go overboard on snacks. You’re destroying our home and you’re going to make yourselves sick. I suggest we all go back to the forest and rest up now… There, there, that’s right… Go on home…”
“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash whooped as the animals slowly, but surely, stalked off.
“Oh, dear,” Fluttershy mumbled, looking past Rainbow Dash and at Ponyville. With a lump in her stomach, Rainbow Dash turned around to see what her friend was looking at…
“We were too late,” she said, her wings drooping as she plopped onto the ground. “I can’t believe this… We were too late!”
Ponyville looked just like it always did. Without a single shred of candy-evidence to be found.

“At least we know the general direction they went in,” Fluttershy said meekly. They were all back at Twilight’s. Heads down, thinking. Everypony looked burnt out and depressed.
“But who knows when he was taken!” Rarity said loudly. “Who knows how far they have gotten with our poor Spikey-wikey by now!”
Twilight weaved through the pile of fallen books, looking, perhaps, for something, anything, that could shed light on the art of discovering a dragon-napper. She looked at her library. Spike hadn’t even gotten a chance to finish it. She remembered walking down that morning to see his half-finished work and absentmindedly wondering where he got off to. At first she thought perhaps he fell asleep and was very quiet that morning, careful not to wake him.
But then she never found him. Not under piles of books as she shifted them, not in his bed, not out and about… She looked at her bookshelves. Empty, after Rainbow Dash had crashed into them. How long did it take Spike to get all that hard work done? He was her dutiful assistant. She knew he would have been working hard that entire time, there was no time for slacking off. He would have worked until he fell asleep. She considered cleaning the place up without magic, just to honor him and his hard work. Until they found him, of course, which they certainly would do, and then everything could go back to the way it was before…
“Wait,” she muttered, thinking. “Wait, wait, wait…”
“What is it, sugar cube?” Applejack asked curiously.
“The books…”
“Twilight, not every answer is in books.”
“No, the books. Spike was putting them away before he got dragon-napped!”
“Oh,” Rarity said, looking around at the mess they were surrounded in. “Well, uh, he did a… quite a job he did… At least he tried, I’m sure.”
“He had this whole wall done,” Twilight said, thinking. She walked over to the wall, where she remembered Rainbow Dash had crashed into it and sent everything falling to the floor.
Rarity turned to Applejack, who was sitting next to her, and whispered, “Has she finally… broke? That shelf is empty.” Applejack shrugged, watching Twilight intently.
“No, I crashed into that wall and the books all fell,” Rainbow snapped, fur bristling. She was stuck between defending her friend and admitting to a moment of clumsiness. She had chosen loyalty to her friend, but her own embarrassment manifested into anger at Rarity.
“That’s my Dashie, always being such a silly filly,” Pinkie Pie piped up, smiling. Her words had a soothing effect, and Rainbow immediately calmed down. It was like the pink pony could tell when a dangerous rift in the bond the six shared was about to be broken, whether by Rainbow’s brashness or another pony’s error in judgment, and she saved the day with a few light-hearted words.
“That’s it!” Twilight exclaimed, stomping her hooves. They all turned to look at her. She had been studying that wall for the entire time, ignoring her friends as they had their trivial argument behind her back. She turned to face them, finally. “He must have worked on this wall the entire time I was reading. I suspect that he was taken probably immediately after I fell asleep. The culprit must have waited, watching through the window, and when they saw me doze off…” She stopped and made a painful swallowing sound. Then went on, confessing her true feelings. “If, if only I’d… Maybe if I pulled an all-nighter this wouldn’t have happened.”
Each friend immediately went into comforting mode.
“No, why that’s ridiculous! You can’t blame yourself for what happened, dear!”
“If somepony wanted to dragon-nap Spike, there’s nothin’ you coulda done ta stop ‘em! And not sleepin’ sure wouldn’t have been the solution!”
“Especially with no sleep, silly! You would have been all delirious and been an unhelpful, unhelping, unhappy pony!”
“Yeah. Now you’re the smart one figuring all this stuff out. Leave the staying up all night and kicking intruder butts to ponies like me!”
“Besides, Twilight… What if you had been awake and they took you, too? I’m just glad nothing worse happened…”
Twilight sighed, but smiled at her friends. “Thanks, guys. You’re absolutely right. Worrying about past mistakes won’t help Spike now.” She began resorting her books, trying to ease her mind with trivial tasks. “What we need now is a new lead, since we lost our last one…”
“A new lead?” Pinkie asked, her brows furrowed as she thought. “Does this count?” She picked up a piece of parchment that looked eerily similar to the one the dragon-napper had left earlier. It had revealed itself in the pile of books as Twilight had began sorting everything out, and Pinkie had noticed as it floated onto the now clear floor.
“Is that…?”
“Another note!”
“The dragon-napper must have came back while we were all out!”
“They came back to the crime scene? Oh, now they’re getting cocky… Just wait until I get my hooves on ‘em! They think they can just come back here and leave more notes and nopony’s gonna notice? Come on, how dumb can you get?”
“Well, it’s worked so far,” Twilight pointed out grimly. She magically retrieved the parchment from Pinkie and unfolded it in front of her. She gulped and then took a deep breath before reading what was written on it out loud:

“You waste your time searching for silly clues
Meanwhile the game is afoot and you will lose.
As I stated rather plainly in my letter before,
Each of you lacks a trait, but there’s more…
Finding what it is that each of you six seek
Is what will make this game appear less bleak.

“For Twilight, who remains rigidly transfixed,
Is there a way to make her less affixed?

“Pinkie Pie, the one who has all of the fun,
What is it that makes her so undone?

“Although Applejack relies on the honest truth,
There must be more to this stubborn youth?

“For Rainbow Dash, who is concussed,
Does she even know what she deeply lusts?

“Rarity may have beauty and generosity,
But what keeps her from becoming a monstrosity?

“And while Fluttershy may stay true to her name,
Doesn’t she need to become more to win this game?

“The Elements of Harmony are more than one thing,
But it is to those labels that each of you do cling.
I promise that each of you will only find me dismissing,
Unless you can find the pieces each of you are missing.”

Twilight finished reading the note, and Rainbow could see the ferocity in her eyes as they darted across the page, reading it over and over again in her own head. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but find her own mind lingering on the passage about her… That one word that was written on the page had obliterated any other thoughts and left her with one nagging question… So, this mysterious dragon-napper knew she was concussed. But who could have known that? The doctors at the hospital, sure, but who else? She looked around the room at her friends. And a sickening feeling entered the pit of her stomach.

It has to be one of them.