She hurried from the apartment after that, barely even stopping to think about what to bring with her as she tossed it into a pack. Her last few days made decreasing sense the more she thought about it. Was it really a good idea to hide from the ponies by remaining in plain sight? By being close to them, she would invite more attention than if she hid in her room and did nothing.
Too late now. I could've got her to leave me alone before.
"You won't need much," Rainbow said, waving a dismissive hoof. "Looks good, let's get going! Whenever we go on trips like this, Celestia pays for everything. You can have a whole hotel room for yourself for the night. You give Twilight and the others the boring stuff about the map, then you tell me about the flight education here in Willowbrook." She glanced back down the hall, where her father had gone.
He wasn't standing in the room to watch them, but she knew he wouldn't be far away. As soon as they flew away he would start pacing, terrified for her future. He would not stop until she returned alive, or—maybe didn't.
They wouldn't kill me. They're too nice.
Firefly tossed the satchel over her shoulder, then hurried after her, following her to the balcony. "Are you going to pretend I'm a prisoner?"
Rainbow nodded. "Rarity will have lots of fun with that, I'm sure. She likes to pretend she's a private investigator sometimes, solving 'crimes'. That's why she wanted to come. Not the scary fights we might be having."
Rainbow struck at the open air with one hoof, then deflated. "I didn't mean to scare you. This whole trip seems like we're just overreacting about an earthquake. There probably won't be any fights, and none while you're around. You're just here for directions."
She followed the pegasus down to the waiting carriage, letting Rainbow lead her inside. If anyone was watching, they would see her escorted out of the apartment again, “prisoner” of the pegasus.
"Ah, you're back!" Twilight was still on her hooves, and she settled dramatically back into her seat as they approached. "Good, good. I don't like the looks some of those ponies are giving us." She gestured to the empty seat beside her, for Firefly to look. "Map's right there, but it's old. Where's the hotel you recommended?"
Firefly leaned down, then saw just what Twilight meant. It was so out of date it didn't even show Brookside. She pointed to the last street that connected. "We need to go left off Yew, on the other side of the water. It's easy to see—there aren't streetlights in Old Town. So if you see light, it means you're going the right way."
"Delightful," Rarity said. "No streetlights. Twilight, I sure hope you're prepared for the danger of this mission. We're risking life and limb in the service of Equestria. Or at the very least, a few weeks without the help of a competent masseuse."
They rode across town, following Firefly's directions.
"One thing," Rainbow said. "Her dad—real weird pony, like all the rest—"
"Quiet," Rarity hissed. "She's right there."
"It's okay, I know." Firefly hopped up into her seat. “It's the friendly kinda weird though, not the spooky kind. He just spends a little too long with his head in the clouds. Forgets how regular ponies think down on the ground."
That was how she sometimes explained it to her friends, anyway. It felt a little like a lie each time she said it, knowing that there was more about her father she couldn't explain. It was probably something about membership in the Lightless Star that had done it, warping his perception of what was normal. Obviously that wasn't something she could share with these ponies.
"He thinks it's best for us to pretend that she's a prisoner," Rainbow went on, oblivious to her thoughts. "Nopony should be helping us willingly. But if she's trapped, her neighbors might go easier on her?"
"I guess that... does make sense," Twilight said. "Very well, Firefly. Consider yourself officially under arrest. For... unkept... public mane. Or something. I'll make it sound really nefarious when I put it in the paperwork. We'll file it with the city when we leave, and everypony will hear about how we arrested you. Okay?"
She grinned back. "Sounds good to me." She reached up with a hoof, trying to straighten her mane. Unfortunately half of it had been sheared off recently, and there was nothing useful her hoof could manage.
Firefly faded into the background, listening as these adult ponies talked about the importance of their investigation, and the various leads they'd gathered other than her. She did her best to be as unobtrusive as possible, interrupting only to give directions.
Shame Lilac wasn't in her place—that pony would probably know most of the locations that these important ponies talked about investigating. Maybe she would even know how to lead them down false trails.
I can't keep them out of the mine, they already know it was where the magic happened. But where should I try to send them after?
There was only one place in the city that might actually lead these ponies to the ones who had cast this spell. Lilac's laboratory, sheltered in the domain of the Breezies. That was where these ponies couldn't go.
Or they could figure out that both of us appeared from nowhere a few years ago. They might connect that there's a filly out of town, right after the explosion. Or maybe they'll ask and find out about how interested Lilac was in magic.
"That's the place!" She pointed at a towering building, lights shining in its crystal windows. It looked entirely out of place at the center of Brookside, like a colonist of a much healthier, rival nation. Some view it would have over brooding old houses and gnarled forests.
Ten minutes later, and Firefly was walking into the hotel room. They had indeed given her a room of her own, though it was attached to the "Royal Suite" on the top floor. With limited exception in the Cumulus Maze, it was the most expensive place she'd ever been.
Twilight called her in a little while later—not for looking at maps, but with a huge room-service order. "We've been traveling all day," Rainbow said, as she made her way in. "I explained how awesome you were flying earlier, and that you must've worked up an appetite. Come have some!"
She patted the chair next to her, and Firefly obliged, hopping up. The pegasus wasn't wrong—she was starving after flying like that.
"You'll find it's entirely poison-free," Rarity explained. "Twilight here is a bit of a mastermind with her magic. The only danger at this table is being left bloated after consuming more than one should."
She ate in silence, listening to the investigators plan out their next few days. With Lilac here, she might be able to know why they were interested in the “historical society” or what they thought they could learn from the “department of geology”.
Most of it had nothing to do with her, so she kept herself occupied with food. Or talking to Rainbow about pegasus stuff. "What I wouldn't give for a little filly like you back in Ponyville," she said. "I've got this—little sister living there. She wants to fly more than anything in the world, but just can't get herself up into the air. Having somepony her own age to tutor her—that'd be sweet."
Firefly flushed with the compliment. That did sound fun, helping a little pegasus her age. She already sorta did that with River, and the rest of her class. "Not that you'd need me," she said. "I only wish there was somepony as good in the air as you are. I've never even seen a pony move like that. My dad flies all wrong, and at school nopony cares. They've got no ambition, just wanna do whatever they need for weather duty, and nothing else."
It couldn't all be fun conversation about the Wonderbolts and all the interesting maneuvers she could pull off with the right instruction. The leader of this investigation did eventually expect her to help.
"First thing we're looking for is a suspect," Rarity said, as soon as the meal was cleared away, and the table was filled with maps. Most of them were old and out of date, useless for this investigation. But they would still show many of the potentially dangerous parts of Willowbrook. "What kind of spell were we talking about, Twilight?"
The unicorn looked nervously away. "Oh, I don't think that would be appropriate for a little pony her age. We're just—looking for a unicorn. They might be old or young, they might be a mare or a stallion. But they'll be brilliant. The kind of pony who spends most of their time in old libraries."
"Are you admitting to it, Twi?" Rainbow Dash asked, grinning. "That sounds a lot like you."
Twilight flushed, in a way Firefly couldn't tell was annoyed or embarrassed. Was that flirting?
I used to know what flirting looked like. At least she was starting to remember why she might want to get with another pony again. These last few years had been so confusing.
"Obviously not. Would you... happen to know anypony in town like that, Firefly? A smart, methodical unicorn. This pony—they did something incredibly dangerous, but had everything in place to clean up the mess. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."
She let those words hang ominously over the room. But Firefly already knew what they meant, because Lilac had said the same thing. The Unmade creature they had accidentally released—she called it a “city destroyer.”
But we weren't methodical at all. We just got super unlucky, then also incredibly lucky right after.
"I don't know any unicorns like that," she said. She didn't even have to lie, either. "A bad pony would have to be way older than me though, right? I probably wouldn't meet them. I don't go to a lot of libraries."
"Right," Rarity said. "Unless you think our culprit is another prodigy like you, Twilight. I do recall a story about a cactus—"
"We're not talking about that either," Twilight said hastily. "But you're right. We're not looking for a little filly—this would be intentional, and you'd feel how wrong it was every second. The kind of willpower it would take to keep casting is rare even among grown ponies. Starswirl could've done it, or Clover, perhaps a dozen others."
When Firefly looked back, Rarity was wearing a strange hat and a jacket she hadn't been before. She levitated a little notebook in front of her, eyes hardened. "Anything else we should know about the perpetrator, Twilight?"
"Around her?" the unicorn asked. "It might not be—"
"It's fine," Rainbow said, exasperated. "She's a tough little filly, I saw. Besides, she lives here. If we don't find whoever they are, she might be able to keep her eyes out."
"Well..." Twilight hesitated another second. "They're probably completely insane. I won't be able to know for certain, until we've seen the site of the spell. But this pony did really evil magic, the kind that just takes your whole brain and puts it through a blender. If anypony else saw it, they'd have trouble even remembering what happened."
"I'll put in a word with the royal guard tomorrow morning," Rarity said. "But from what we've seen around Willowbrook so far, it might be hard for them to identify any crazy ponies in this town. They're all a little insane—present company excluded, of course."
They continued without her for another long while, listing other leads that Firefly didn't think would ever get them anywhere. She occasionally spoke up with warnings—about what parts of town not to visit, or who might be most cooperative. All insignificant details to Firefly, though they would probably be a tremendous benefit to the investigation.
"Anything else we should avoid while we're in town. What dangers should we be afraid of?" Twilight asked.
They were all watching her again, even Rainbow Dash. This was her chance to prove she could be useful, and maybe earn herself a little more instruction from a master.
She told them.