“She’s been at this for a while.”
Rainbow glanced down at Spike with a frown as he said that. The two were standing a modest distance away from the scene of the incident. Briefly glancing up at the sky and the position of the sun, Rainbow guesstimated that it was about nine in the morning right now. If that was right, then Spike wasn’t wrong.
Rainbow returned her gaze to the debris, her keen eye locking onto the subject of Spike’s concerns. Twilight emerged from behind the fallen tower Pinkie had been in, a plank of wood drifting behind her in her magic. There were some very evident signs of wear and tear on the alicorn. She had been getting up rather early to come here and examine the wreckage for the last couple of days now, and there were rings under her eyes as proof. Add onto that a few strands of her mane that had seemingly sprung up of their own accord and how she occasionally talked to herself in hushed voices, and one could almost be forgiven for thinking she had lost it.
Almost, for this was not the first time Twilight had experienced an ‘episode.’ This did not, however, mitigate the concern that Rainbow felt for the mare. Twilight had been growing increasingly intent on coming out here and examining the scene of the incident, insisting that there was something here for her to find. Rainbow’s muzzle twisted into an even more concerned frown as she thought back on Twilight’s behavior after they had left the hospital.
She was fine, at first, but as the night dragged on, she became increasingly… distracted. It was as if she were trying to listen to multiple ponies talking to her at once, often asking Rainbow or Spike to repeat something they said, even if it wasn’t directed at her. It didn’t help matters that Twilight had tossed and turned for quite some time that night, and all of these symptoms had been growing steadily worse over the last few days.
Rainbow gave off a quiet sigh and nodded down at Spike. “Yeah, she has…” she muttered, finally answering him.
Spike crossed his arms over his chest, one eyebrow lifting up skeptically. “What is she even looking for again? I mean, from what you all said it just kinda fell apart, didn’t it?”
Rainbow turned back to the debris, her brow furrowing. That was a good question, and one she had given plenty of thought to. Twilight had been tight-lipped about the whole ordeal, simply claiming that she had a ‘hunch.’ A gut feeling that there was more to the collapse then they all first thought.
“But if there is more to it, then what could it be?”
“I dunno, Spike. Wish I did. All we can really do for now is just let her work it out of her system,” she eventually said out loud with a noncommittal shrug.
Spike sighed. “Yeah, that sounds about right,” he admitted.
Before the two could say much more, Twilight called out to them. “Rainbow! Spike! Come here!”
Immediately, Rainbow was on alert. It sounded like she had found something. Moving quickly, Rainbow scooped Spike up onto her back and took to the air. She spotted Twilight near the base of the tower Pinkie had been in, her eyes seemingly glued to one of the snapped support beams.
Rainbow came in for a landing, allowing Spike to hop down before focusing on Twilight. “Hey. Did ya find something?” she asked eagerly, already casting her keen eye about for anything out of the ordinary.
Twilight turned to face her. She nodded emphatically and jabbed her hoof at the base of the tower. “Yes! I did, finally! Look, right here, at where the wood broke!” she instructed, all but grabbing Rainbow and hauling her over.
Rainbow yelped from the sudden momentum but otherwise did not resist. Once she had her bearings, she examined the break in question for several seconds. Her lips drew into a thin line. “Uh… Twi? What am I looking at?” she asked skeptically, unsure of where the revelation was. It was just snapped wood, near as she could tell.
“Rainbow, we saw the tower fall to the side after this plank snapped, right?” Twilight asked intently, leaning into view from the side.
Rainbow nodded.”Uh-huh. What about it?”
“Look at the way the wood broke. It’s completely inconsistent with how it should if it was simply under the weight of the tower itself!” Twilight said, gesturing at the base.
Rainbow squinted at the break pattern. She was no carpenter or architect and didn’t have the first clue about how this sort of stuff worked. As far as she could tell, the tower just broke and fell over. She wouldn’t have been able to tell the cause unless it was something incredibly obvious, like fire or magic.
Spike, who had come up to her side, looked at the break himself, a dubious frown on his face. “I… I’m not seeing it. Dash?” he asked.
Rainbow sighed and shook her head. “Nothin’. Twi, you’re gonna have to walk us through this one, cause I’m lost.”
“Ugh!” Twilight groaned in frustration and stomped a hoof, the sharpness of her voice taking Rainbow by surprise. There was a flash of regret on the alicorn’s face, but she was quick to shake her head and press on before a big deal could be made of it. “Okay, okay, look. The tower fell over, we assumed, because it was poorly made, and the weight of the top of the tower was too much for the support beams down here to bear. With me so far?”
Rainbow nodded along, trying to predict where Twilight was going with this and failing spectacularly. “Uh-huh. The whole thing was kinda wobbly and just kept swaying around. Looked like it’d fall apart from a stiff breeze.”
Twilight continued, gesturing at the break point again. “Right. But tell me, then, Rainbow. Assuming something rigid but slightly flexible like this wooden beam broke under an intense weight, pressing down on it vertically, how would it be affected, and what would happen first?”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Uh… I dunno? Uh, I guess it’d bend a bit first?” she guessed blindly, shrugging her shoulders.
To her surprise, Twilight nodded emphatically and jabbed her in the chest with a hoof. “Right, exactly! But look at the break, and the wood around it.”
Rainbow frowned and looked again, closer this time and taking Twilight’s words into consideration. After several seconds of staring, she blinked. There wasn’t any bending that she could see and very little splintering. It wasn’t as if anyone took a saw to the material or anything, though. If anything, it was more like there was a very sudden application of pressure all at once, causing it to break in a moment.
She leaned back and turned to Twilight. “Okay, uh… so, there isn’t any bending or anything. So… What does that mean?”
“It means,” Twilight said eagerly, jabbing her hoof into the plank with her eyes shining. “That the tower didn’t fall because Pinkie built it wrong! It must have been sabotaged!”
Rainbow’s eyes flew wide open. She furrowed her brow, her muzzle scrunching up in confusion. Sabotage? That seemed like a bit of a jump to make with only one oddly broken plank to go off of as the most critical piece of evidence. If Twilight were some kind of master defense attorney, maybe Rainbow could see her finding some clever argument to prove her point with it, but right now? And with her looking this frazzled?
Spike summed it up perfectly with a raised eyebrow. “Uh… huh?”
Twilight stomped her hoof into the grass again. “Ugh! Come on, you two, work with me here! If it didn’t snap under the weight or poor construction, then what else could it have been?!” she demanded, her voice rising in volume.
Red flags went off in Rainbow’s mind. Twilight’s temper was flaring again. They didn’t want her blowing up at them, especially not so soon after they all just about had a heart attack fearing for Pinkie. A haunting laugh echoed into Rainbow’s mind from the depths of her memory, and she remembered the ghostly blue magic that had been leaking out of Twilight’s eyes. She shuddered at the memory and spoke. “Twi, I think you might be overthinking this just a little bit. I mean, there were eight of us there. If there was some other pony present to sabotage the whole thing, we woulda seen them.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Rainbow Dash…”
“Dash’s got a point,” Spike noted, looking around. “This place is pretty empty. Not a lot of places to hide. Just a bunch of grass and hills.”
“I’m telling you, somepony tried to sabotage Pinkie’s obstacle course!” Twilight snapped, her ears folding back and her eyes narrowing in frustration. “Someone was trying to get her—and maybe even us—KILLED!”
Rainbow frowned and quickly put her hoof against Twilight’s chest. “Twilight, stop,” she said in as disarming a voice as she could. “Take it easy. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just not sure if a weird piece of wood is really proof of something that extreme.”
Twilight paused, going rigid under Rainbow’s hoof. A few seconds later, she took a deep breath, seemingly calming down, and gently brushed Rainbow’s hoof away. “Alright, fine, fair enough,” she relented, though her tone hinted that she wasn’t happy about it. “I guess you have a point...”
Rainbow’s brow furrowed. Something about her tone didn’t seem right. Several seconds passed before Twilight shook her head and cleared her throat. “I’m going to keep looking around and see if I can find any more clues. There has to be something mixed in among all this.”
Spike sighed, taking a few ginger steps forward. “Twilight, you’ve been obsessing over this for days already. Are you sure you aren’t just overthinking things?”
Twilight paused but did not answer right away. For a few seconds, she didn’t speak, though her ears swiveled to face some sound that Rainbow didn’t hear. She raised an eyebrow and turned to look that way, but before she could spot anything, Twilight spoke, drawing her attention back to the matter at hoof. “Yes, Spike, I’m sure. I know I might seem crazy right now, but I know there’s something more going on here. I just have to find out what.”
Spike’s shoulders sagged. He clasped his claws behind his back and idly kicked a stray pebble. “Well… can you at least take a break for now?” he asked solemnly.
Twilight turned back to him curiously. “Huh? Why?”
Rainbow frowned. Did Twilight not know? “Twi… Pinkie’s gotten out of the hospital. The doc let her go home yesterday evening. She’s back at Sugarcube Corner right now, and the rest of us were planning on heading over to spend some time with her and make sure she’s getting on alright. I told you about that this morning, remember?”
Twilight’s face fell, her eyes widening. “Oh… N-no, I don’t. I’m sorry, I just… I guess I was thinking about other things,” she mumbled guiltily. She glanced back to the debris, ears resting flat against her head. After a few seconds, she sighed and went to return to the rubble. “I’ll come by later, okay? I wanna cover my bases as long as I’m here.”
“Twilight…” Rainbow called gently after her, but Twilight didn’t seem to be listening anymore. Rainbow watched the alicorn turn and vanish around the pile of broken wood and plastics, leaving her alone with Spike.
The two didn’t linger long after that. In spite of all their concerns, they knew there wasn’t a whole lot they could do to make Twilight stop for now. All they could do was head back and wait for her to show up at Pinkie’s place later.
The trip was made in silence, and Rainbow’s thoughts wandered aimlessly all the while. The ponies they passed gave her and Spike respectful nods of their heads, which she answered stiffly in turn, though she was not really paying them any mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about Twilight: the frustration in her voice when they had doubted her claims of sabotage.
Her frown deepened. Thinking back on it, she wasn’t so sure if it was a good idea to leave Twilight all on her own right now; a concern that only grew in intensity as Rainbow recalled a time from long, long ago, when the two were mere fillies, during which Fluttershy had first come to see Rainbow in her new home in Canterlot.
“Well, here’s hoping this isn’t gonna be a repeat of that,” she thought before putting the situation out of her mind for the time being. Sugarcube Corner finally came into view up ahead.
“Right, let’s go,” she said, ducking down to let Spike hop up onto her back. He did so without a word, and once he was settled, Rainbow flapped her wings, soaring up toward Pinkie’s bedroom window. Sure enough, once she reached it, she could see the back of Applejack’s head, making it pretty clear that the group was gathered upstairs.
Putting on a friendly smile, Rainbow knocked on the glass. Applejack turned to face her and gave an incredulous frown as if to ask her why she couldn’t just use the door like a normal pony. Rainbow just smirked and shrugged before gesturing for Applejack to open the window. With an exaggerated sigh, the farmer did just that, allowing Rainbow to swoop in and touch down gracefully in the center of the room.
Everypony was here, as expected. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Maud, and, of course, Pinkie. Rainbow’s eyes settled on the last, and she had to resist the urge to wince. Pinkie’s barrel was encased in thick bandage wrappings, making her look almost like she had been trying to put on a mummy costume and gave up halfway through.
However, in spite of her injury, Pinkie grinned. “Rainbow Dash! You made it!” she cheered, bending her legs to jump. Maud shot her an intense look, and Pinkie immediately slowed to a stop and carefully stood back up, now with a grimace of discomfort.
“Yeah. Sorry, we’re late,” Rainbow replied, crouching down to let Spike hop off. “We get held up for a little bit.”
“Think nothing of it, darling,” Rarity assured her with a warm smile. She glanced past Rainbow at the window, frowning. “Though, I hope you don’t mind my asking, but where is Twilight?”
“Probably taking the door like a normal pony,” Pinkie guessed with a chirpy nod.
Rainbow winced. “Er, actually… Twilight’s gonna be even later. She stayed back at the, uh… ahem, scene of the crash,” she said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.
A heavy silence fell over the room for several moments before Applejack broke it with a sigh. “Really? That filly’s still fussin’ over all that junk? What’s she even lookin’ for?” she asked in mild dismay.
Spike opened his mouth to answer, but Rainbow stopped him by placing a hoof on his head, her eyes darting to Pinkie. The last thing they needed right now was to upset everypony even more by sharing Twilight’s insane hunch. Unless she found some more tangible evidence, it wouldn’t do anypony any good to stress out over it.
“Eh, just give her a little bit. You know how she can get,” Rainbow answered with a simple nod. “She’ll be around later. If you wanna grill her about it, do it then.”
Applejack narrowed her eyes at Rainbow, but she held her ground. A few seconds passed before Applejack sighed and shook her head. “Alright, whatever ya say,” she said before closing the window.
Pinkie looked down, a forlorn frown on her face. “Oh… Well, I hope she shows up soon,” she said, perking up again, though not as much as before. She turned and nodded over at her desk, and Rainbow saw an assortment of cookies and cupcakes spread out on it. “I can’t really throw a full-on party with my ribs like this, but I can still bake, and I’d hate for Twilight to miss hers.”
“Is there some for us?” Spike asked eagerly, his fists bunching up over his chest.
Pinkie shot him a sideways glance and gave a wink followed by the obvious answer. “Haha. Please.”