"That's not possible!" Rainbow yelled. "I don't even have a brother!" Twilight began stepping back a little bit.
"Calm down Rainbow," she said "We don't want you to get all angry and wreck the library.
"How am I supposed to calm down? This pony thinks he can just go around saying he's my brother and not end up in the Everfree Forest?"
"Look, you said something about a 4:45 train, right?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah. He said he'd be coming to visit. I guess that means he gave me a time and place for his beat down."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Dash. What if he's telling the truth?" Twilight tried to explain. "What if he really is your brother and you just didn't know about him? And what if he's coming to visit you so he can explain why you never knew about him."
That makes sense, Dash thought. But then why didn't he tell me in my letter? "I don't think that he would hide that from me," Dash commented. "If he really was my brother, he would have told me in his first letter."
"First letter?" asked Twilight. "Exactly how many letters has he sent you?"
"About two or three each year," Dash replied.
"And how long ago did this start?"
"I don't know. Maybe three years ago."
"Three years ago?" Twilight continued. "You started getting these letters before we ever met? Have you told anypony else about these?"
"Of course not!" Dash said. "I would lose my reputation if anypony found out I was letting a stranger mail me things. Especially if they knew about the packages. Come to think of it, the packages arrived on my birthday."
"And that has what to do with you not telling anypony?" Twilight said, reverting them to thier previous topic.
"Well he seemed so cool. But he's been posing as my brother? Now I really need to find out when that train is."
"What did he say, exactly?" Twilight asked. "His exact words could mean something if i can get the information to blend properly."
"Here's the letter," Rainbow said, handing over the letter. "Maybe you could figure out whatexactly it means."
"Alright, let's have a look.
'Dear Rainbow Dash,
I have decided to stop with this secrecy. Within the month, I will be coming to visit you and your friends. More will be explained once I get there. You will find me at the train station at 4:45 pm. Don't be late. We have a lot of catching up to do.
-Nightwolf'
"Aha!"
"What? What did you figure out?"
"The reason he didn't tell you he was your brother is so he could use this double encryption technique!" Twilight explaned. "He used limited information in each letter to say exactly when and where he was going to be. It's an ingenious idea!"
"Um, Twilight," Rainbow started, "What exactly does that mean?"
"He sent more than just these two letters! We have to go find the others and tell them about this!"
"Hey, do you think I could take a look at your letter?"
"Sure," replied Twilight. "Here you go." Once Rainbow Dash had the letter, she looked back and forth between her own and Twilight's. They were almost identical, but something else was added to Twilight's.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
You probably don't know me, but that won't last very long. I'm coming into town on the 4:45 train within the month. if you need more information, ask Rainbow Dash. She migt be able to help.
By the way, I'm her brother.
-Nightwolf
Why did this pony tell Twilight but not his own sister!? That is if he even is my brother, Rainbow thought. If he really is my brother, then why didn't he tell me? Why did he tell my friend? Why hasn't he said anything about our past? "Rainbow?" came Twilight's voice, interrupting her thoughts.
"What?"
"You've been staring at those papers for five minutes. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just thinking about how this guy could tell such a strong lie. He really must think you wouldn't have asked me anything."
"Twi!" came the accented voice of their farmer friend. "Twi! Do ya happen to know where Rainbow Dash is? She has some explainin' to do."
"I'm up here, Applejack!" yelled down Rainbow. She didn't even remember going upstairs.
"Well what in tarnation is going on with ya? Why haven't ya told us that ya have a brother?" Apllejack started. "Were we not important enough to ya? Why don't we know about any of this?"
"Because I didn't know about it either! He's just a lying colt! That's why we need to find him. So I can buck his stupid face in!"
"Apllejack!" yelled down Twilight. "Would you happen to have a letter with you from somepony named Nightwolf?"
"That's actually why ahm here," the farmer said. "Ah was goin' ta get some answers from Rainbow here. But it looks like ahm just goin' to have ta wait."
"Let me take a look at your letter. You and Dash should go get the others. And tell them to bring those letters!" Twilight yelled after them. She had to find out what was going on. She had to figure out where exactly this Nightwolf colt was going to be.
Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were on thier way to Fluttershy's house. She must've gotten a letter. That's probably why she had asked Rainbow in the first place. "Fluttershy!" Rainbow screamed as she knocked on the door.
"Fluttershy! We need to talk!"
The door opened and thier timid friend appeared. "What do we need to talk about? I hope you're not still upset about earlier. I didn't mean to upset you."
"It's not about that, sugarcube," Applejack began, glancing at Rainbow Dash. "We need ya to come with us to Twilight's house. If ya have a letter from somepony named Nightwolf, bring it." It was almost identical for their other two friends. But once they got back to the library, they were almost surprised at what was going on in there. Almost.
"Twilight," Rainbow Dash started, "What are you doing?"
"I'm going over the three letters that are here. Now that the rest of you are here, I can figure out exactly where he is really going to be and when."
"So he could be anywhere at any time?" Rainbow asked.
"Not exactly. He used a specific double encryption to make it seem like that buthe really gives you different pieces to the location in each letter. The train station is a big part of it. He's going to be at a train station, we just don't know which one."
"What have you figured out other than that?" Pinkie Pie asked randomly. "I need to know!"
"Pinkie," Twilight said. "Why do you need to know?"
"He's going to be new so I'm going to have to throw him a party but I need to know when to throw it so he won't be confused and I think it should be a spy party because of how he coded the message-"
"Pinkie!" everypony said at once.
"What?"
"What else have you figured out Twilight?" Rainbow asked.
"Well I need to see the other letters before I can be sure," she replied. Once she got the other three letters, she began studying them. After about 20 minutes of waiting, she jumped up and ran to her room. "We need to go now if we want to be there before him!"
"What? Where is he going to be?"
"Manehattan," came the strained reply. She came running down the stairs, throwing coats and scarves at them. "The 5:44 train to be exact. You might want to put these on. It gets really cold this time of year."
"See you guys when you get there!" Rainbow yelled as she threw on the coat and flew out the door so fast they barely heard her.
"What in Equestria is she in such a rush for?" Rarity asked as she slid into her coat and wrapped her scarf. "We have planty of time if we call a carrage."
At about 5:23, Rainbow Dash came to a stop in front of the Manehattan train station. Looking around frantically, she finally found the clock, and decided to wait. About 17 minutes later, her friends finally showed up. "It's about time you guys got here," Rainbow said. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to make it in time."
"What exactly would we be late for?" Rarity asked.
"Me showing this colt what happens when you go around lying about being my brother," Came Dash's quick reply.
"And what exactly did you have in mind for that?" Twilight contiued the questioning. "You can't just attack him for no good reason in front of all these witnesses." At that moment, a train pulled into the station.
There he is, Dash thought. She didn't know exactly how she knew, but it was him.
Nightwolf had a black mane styled very similar to that of Rainbow's. His coat was ash grey and he had some aura or something around him. Not visible, but everypony around him could feel it. His cutie mark was the yin-yang symbol. His wings were a little larger due to his own size. There was something about him that seemed comforting, though.
Without warning, Rainbow lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. "You have 10 seconds to tell me who you really are and why you're here before I buck your flank all the way back to where you came from!" She yelled at him. Everypony turned to see what was going on, making the loud environment almost silent.
"Hey, sis," Nightwolf replied calmly. "It's good to see you again."