"Princess Luna, Spike has gone missing!“
"What?“
Twilight was in a panic, having returned straight from his room.
"He was supposed to be resting, where could he have gone?“ Rarity queried.
"Or, who could have taken him“ Twilight uttered, panic overdriving rational thought.
"I'm gonna find him.“ She flew out, not waiting for a reply.
"They aren't any Royal Guards spare, but we cannot do nothing. Rarity, please assist me in rallying for a search party.“
"Certainly Luna.“
The two dispersed, in a desperate search for Spike, hoping for his safety.
Twilight realised she hadn't checked the whole castle yet, so she searched through quickly, but there was no sign of him. She knew the first place to check would be their house. When she arrived, the whole house was sealed off with tape and protected by Royal Guards. She knew Celestia ordered it, but seeing it herself didn't feel real. She saw a group of three guards carrying out the crystal mirror.
"Hey, erm, are you taking away everything from the house?“
"Oh, Twilight! No, just particular things.“
"Can I come in and se-“
"Oh no sorry, no one is allowed in, under orders of Princess Celestia, not you or even Luna has permission.“
"Right, but what I need to know is whether Spike was here or not.“
"Oh yeah it was weird, did you not bring Spike with you?“
"What? Of course he was, he was with me half an hour ago, but he's gone missing.“
"Well that's mighty perculiar, Spike came out of this house about five minutes ago.“
"Wait, really? Where did he go?“
"Well uh, he went round the corner down there, something about seeing a friend.“
"Great, thank you,“ Twilight shouted as she sped off quickly. The guard tried to shout to her as she left, fell on deaf ears.
"Can you ask him how he got in? He never en-, oh she's gone. Ah well.“
The guard watched the guards above heaving heavily with the heavy mirror, having to fly it in their hooves toward Canterlot Castle.
Twilight tried to generally overlook as many creatures as possible, but the chance of spotting Spike was so slim, but at least she had a general idea of where he went this time.
"Hm, he said something about a friend. What friend could Spike have gone to, especially in this direction? This is East back to Canterlot, but what friends in Canterlot could there be, unless he was coming back to find me? Unless it's somewhere further east, but Fillydelphia is the closest populated place and Spike has no-one to visit there. Could he have gone to Foal Mountain? There's nothing there. Come on think. I just really, really hope he's gonna be at the Castle and I can STOP panicking so much.“
"Hey Twilight,“ Spike exclaimed hurriedly, flying in the air in front of her. "How are you doing?“
"Spike!“ Twilight embraced him tightly. "Spike!"
Twilight begun to cry as she gripped Spike.
"Twi, nice to see you and all, but your grip is a little-“
Twilight let go of him.
"Tight, right. Sorry Spike. Honest though, where were you? I've been looking all over for you.“
"What? Me? I was resting at the castle.“
"But I went and you weren't there.“
"Oh, uh, I mean I went to get some air for a while. You know, some fresh air.“
"But you also went to the house, right?“
Spike's face grimaced for a moment, he had little to say.
"Um, who said-“
"I went to look for you and a guard told me you were there.“
"Oh, um, sorry Twilight. I may have told a little lie, I'm sorry. It's just I- I was feeling really homesick and hoped they were done, but I guess we're not gonna be able to go home anytime soon.“
"Oh Spike, I'm sorry, I should have known that would bother you. I'm sorry for paying more attention.“
"No no Twilight, don't beat yourself up. Let's just move on from this. I mean you found me, so we can just pretend this never happened and-“
"I'm sorry, but I needed to find you, so I told Luna and Rarity about you missing. I don't know for sure, but they might have-“
"We need to tell them you found me.“
"Right.“
They went back to the library and sure enough, Rarity and Luna were no longer in sight.
"Oh no this can't be happening,“ Spike flew around the room aimlessly "We need to get the word out the fastest way possible, how do we do that?“
"We must turn to Celestia, if she lowers the sun, perhaps Luna will realise something is wrong and fly back.“
"I hate to wake the Princess, but we have little choice.“
They both went up to the Princesses quarters, guarded by multiple guards.
"I'm sorry, but we request to speak with Celestia, we urgently need her help. Luna is putting out a missing creatures report and they've been found.“
"Sorry, but we are under strict orders-“
"Come in,“ a powerful but aching voice echoed from behind the door. The guards wasted no time in opening the quarters.
"So Spike went missing, did he? I will try to signal to my Sister, please wait a moment.“
The simmering sun in the sky swiftly descended down, only a small part of the sun remaining to provide some light. After a few seconds, the moon rose up for a moment before dipping again and Celestia returned the sun to its original position.
"Thank you so much.“
"I wish to know what happened to Spike. Were you whisked away by somepony?“
"No, I'm sorry it's my fault,“ Spike apologised. "I went to get some air, but I started to feel really homesick and briefly went to the house, but I came right back, I didn't think Twilight would come and check on me so soon, I feel stupid.“
"I see, you understand how greatly you worried Twilight, correct?“
Spike lowered his head.
"I just ask of you to please not do that again, I don't think Twilight could take it again and lest we need another search party for you. We all care about you, Spike.“
"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I don't plan to disappear again.“
"Glad to hear, you should be safe here, but if something happens, we swear to protect you.“
Twilight updated Celestia to the goings-on in the investigation, Celestia given no more hope than before.
"Celestia, may I ask why these books seem especially important to you?“
Celestia held her tongue at first, but she submitted.
"It's more so one book in the collection if I may be honest. Do you know of somepony named Opal Yodel?“
"I do not.“
Luna suddenly came into sight with another pony by her side, hurriedly flying over.
"Thank you for coming Luna, we have found Spike safe and sound and needed the search cancelled.“
"Oh thank goodness I started to worry you were in danger. Well, I will need to inform Rarity.“
"Who is this pony you have brought, Luna?“
"Ah nice ta meet ya, I'm Love Joyful.“
Rainbow Dash (Her evidence was planted?)Gray Tank Little to offer, never made it past Reception, backed up by AmethystAmethyst Maresbury Seems emotionally incapable and tricked herself
Love Joyful
Discord
Starlight Glimmer Far from bulletproof, but seemed busy and had nothing to add.
Twilight SparkleLibrary staff No suspicious or helpful people
Sunset Shimmer(?)
Spike (Even more suspicious)
Changeling (A changeling seems to be almost certainly involved) What is the motive?