If my jaw had dropped any faster it would have split the table in half. I could only stare at Nightshade continued to explain what they had found. He explained to me that the there was no way to know what exactly happened to Pinkie, but that they would do everything in their power to find her.
I sat there and took in everything he said, my mind racing trying to sort out the evidence, hoping I could figure out something. However there were too many holes in the story for me to make heads or tails of anything.
We sat in silence for a few moments, Nightshade bracing himself waiting for another outburst from me. My face showed an expression that was a mix of fear, confusion, and anger as my mind sorted out the details.
"He said that there were no clues to what had happened and that there was no true way of knowing what exactly happened. But there has to be a...”
Suddenly and idea popped into my head. “Gummy!” I screamed out loud causing the detective to jump out of his chair.
“E-excuse me?” He stammered.
“Gummy!” I repeated, “Pinkie’s pet alligator! Maybe he knows what happened in that room.”
Now the detective was looking at me as if I was a mad mare.
“Where is he?” I said jumping up and standing on the chair.
“Well you see Miss Sparkle, we were informed that there was to be an alligator in the room, but we were not told that it would be as rowdy as it was. It got in the way of our search and even tried to attack some of my men so he had to be caged.”
“You CAGED him?!” I exclaimed.
“Yes, but it didn’t last long. He kept getting out. We don’t know how but he escaped the cage without even opening the door. I even had one of my men watch him and he said that he was there one second and then when he blinked it had disappeared.”
I sat back down when he said that with a smile on my face. That is definitely Pinkie’s pet.
“So where is he now?”
“I have no idea, he just, disappeared.” Nightshade said shrugging his shoulders. “And what good would he be anyways? There’s no way to get any information out of him.”
“I have a friend who can talk to animals and I’m pretty sure that she could find out-”
Suddenly, from the main lobby of the bakery came a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood. Then sounds of flapping wings and bodies colliding with the floor could be heard. Both Nightshade and I looked at the door behind me listening to what was going on.
“Hey you can’t be in here!” A stallion yelled.
“Hey get your hooves off her chump!”Said a familiar voice.
“Ah think it would be in your best interests if ya did.”
“Do you know who you’re talking to?” This time a different stallion.
There was another voice but it was too quiet to make out over the sound of the others yelling.
“Darling, there is no need to apologize; these hooligans need to learn proper manners when talking to a lady. And their sense of fashion is so depressing. Such dark colors on a beautiful day, simply horrid.”
The sounds of arguing continued outside of the kitchen and I turned back to Detective Nightshade.
“Well it looks like this interview is over.” I said as I got up and went to the kitchen door.
When I went through the swinging doors into the main lobby the first thing I saw was that the front door of the bakery was laid flat out on the ground in splinters with hoof marks in the wood. Fluttershy was curled up in a ball with her wings wrapped around her face in front of two guards. One of them had her by the tail and was trying to pull her out of the building, but seemed to have been stopped by a hovering Rainbow Dash in his face. The other had a face full of Applejack and the surprise on his face was priceless as she overpowered and pushed him back against the wall continuing to tell him off.
In-between insults, Rarity was trying her best to comfort Fluttershy. However it didn’t seem to be working.
I was about to say something when Nightshade pushed me aside and yelled, “WHATS GOING ON OUT HERE?!”
The guard that was grabbing Fluttershy snapped to attention at the sound of the detective’s voice, letting go of her tail and turning away from Rainbow. The other fell flat on his face as Applejack turned almost away from him from where she had him pinned on his hind legs against the wall.
All eyes in the room except for Fluttershy’s were on the doorway. It took a moment but Applejack was the first to see me.
“Twilight? What’s all this fuss about?” Applejack asked.
Rainbow and Rarity looked in my direction and Fluttershy peeked between her feathers at me.
“Twilight what is going on here?” Rarity asked next stepping closer to me.
“What are these guys doing here?” Asked Rainbow.
“Is everything ok?” This time Fluttershy.
Looking at all of them I realized that I would have to tell them everything. With a sigh I began, “No, everything is not ok, you see…”
**
Five minutes later and one less Rainbow Dash I had finished telling what I knew. I had only made it up to the point where I began to describe what Pinkie’s room looked like when Dash tried to rush upstairs to check it out for herself.
It took the two door guards, plus Applejack and Nightshade to hold her down. Even with me and Nightshade trying to explain that anything she touched could mess up the scene, she wouldn't calm down. Nightshade had to give the order to detain her and with the four of them, they tied her down and took her out. He promised us that she was only going to be held until she calmed down enough not to try and do anything like that again.
By the time I was finished, plus the details Nightshade added in, calling Fluttershy broken would have been the nice way of putting it. She was curled up in a ball, cradled in Rarity’s arms. What scared us the most about it all was the fact that she wasn’t even crying. As Rarity rocked her back and forth, her face streaked with mascara, Fluttershy just stared off into space. Not blinking, not moving.
Applejack was crying, mumbling and blaming herself for what happened. I couldn’t make out everything through the tears and sniffles except for something about a late delivery and a broken cart.
Up until that point the only thing I had felt was anger and confusion. However seeing all my friends so upset was the last drop in the water that made the dam burst. The tears flowed free, and I let it happen. I collapsed to the floor and cried. All four of us were completely broken right in the middle of Sugar Cube corner.
Nightshade offered no comfort to any of us. And yet, even though he did nothing it felt like he was doing the right thing.
A few minutes passed before I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Looking up through my tears I saw Mrs. Cake standing there.
“I-i- I’m so sorry.” I stammered. “I should have told you sooner, it’s just tha-”
I was cut off as she grabbed me and pulled me into a hug.
“It’s ok dear, you did what you thought was best. It’s not your fault.”
I could feel the tears on her face as they soaked into my neck and it only made me want to cry harder.
She pushed me away and held me at arm length as she looked me over.
“It’s getting late, you should get home.” She said to me.
I wiped the tears from my face and nodded. My mind was blank and everything felt dull as I stood up. Looking around the room I could see Mr. Cake leading Applejack to the door saying something to her as they went. Rarity was still with Fluttershy, and with the assistance of the two door guards was carrying the comatose pegasus out of the shop.
As Mrs. Cake led me to the door I heard Nightshade say that he would take over. As much as I didn’t want him to be around I didn’t have the energy to protest. Outside the shop was now surrounded by news ponies trying to get interviews with the guards that were posted along the border. When they saw Mr. Cake and Applejack walk out together first, they began to push the line yelling out questions. The guards could only do so much as the mob forced itself forward.
A unicorn was able to jump over the mob and make it into the inner circle and rushed towards the pair as they went for the hole the guards had opened up for them. With microphone poised and camera snapping pictures he began to harass the two with questions. Mr. Cake was doing his best to shield AJ who just kept walking with her hat over her eyes and head down.
The unicorn knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of the stallion and went for the element of harmony instead. Trying to push his way around Mr. Cake, the unicorn bombarded AJ with questions. Despite his best efforts AJ wouldn’t even look up.
It wasn’t until he pushed Mr. Cake down after blocking another photo did she respond. She stopped walking to help up Mr. Cake and pushed the unicorn out of the way.
“Get out of the way.” Applejack said to him, yet the reporter still insisted.
They were almost to the opening of the crowed when the reporter knocked down Mr. Cake yet again and used his magic to lift Applejacks hat off her face to get a better shot.
Instead he got a chin full of hoof and camera as AJ smashed the camera up into his jaw.
“MOVE!” She screamed this time, as the unicorn dropped to the ground, unconscious. Her hat fell back down over her face and she kept on walking past the crowd of stunned reporters and guards and headed in the direction of the farm with Mr. Cake in tow.
After that, there were no more pushy reporters trying to get interviews with us.
With the two guards at their sides Rarity and Fluttershy didn’t have any trouble getting through the crowd as they went on their way.
Nightshade and I made it through without a single problem. I don’t know if it was because I had the most menacing looking guard at my side or just because many of those reporters knew who I was and the havoc I had caused since coming to Ponyville, but they seemed to be backing away as we passed through.
As we walked down the street, I kept my head down as we made our way to the library. Nightshade was quiet and would only say something if I started to stray off the road.
After a short walk, I could see the library from where we were a block away. I could go inside and sleep and hopefully wake up in the morning to find that everything was back to normal.
I started to speed up thinking of how maybe Pinkie would be back in the morning perfectly fine.
Just half a block to go and I would be at home.
I was so focused on getting inside I didn’t hear my name being called.
Ten feet from the door I heard, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”
All of my optimism was washed away at the sound of my name, replaced with anger.
I turned around to see Cherilee running full tilt down the street. Even from where I’m standing I can tell she was angry.
I tried to put on a more fitting face to deal with her so that I didn’t show the emotions that I have been dealing with, but all that is gone when she practically head butts in the face as she gets close.
Before I can even get a word out, she began to scream at me.
“WHERE WERE YOU? YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD SHOW UP TODAY TO TEACH MY CLASS!”
I could feel the anger boiling up inside of me. I tried as hard as I could to keep calm.
Nightshade stepped in-between us and tried to push us apart, only to get slapped out of the way by the angry teacher.
“OUT OF THE WAY! I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU THINK I AM BUT I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF, ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS.”
The anger turned to rage and I could feel myself getting hotter. To say that I was angry wouldn’t do it justice.
“YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO CALL YOURSELF PRINCESS CELESTIA’S STAR PUPIL IF YOU CANT EVEN KEEP A PROMISE TO TEACH CHILDREN!”
I was absolutely livid. And so I exploded.
“AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF-”
“WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP! YOU THINK THAT I CARE THAT YOU ARE ANGRY? DO YOUR REALLY THINK THAT I CARE? I HAVE MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH THAT WHAT GOES ON IN THE PATHETIC THING YOU CALL A LIFE. I HAVE A FRIEND MISSING AND NO IDEA WHERE SHE IS OR WHAT CONDITION SHE IS IN. AND YET YOU COME HERE THINKING THAT YOU ARE MORE IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOU ARE ANGRY OVER A MISSED CLASS? IF YOU DON’T GET OUT OF MY FACE AND OUT OF MY SIGHT YOU WILL WISH THE ONLY THING YOU WILL EVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IS A MISSED CLASS. I HAVE BEEN TO TARTURUS AND BACK SO THERE IS NOTHING THAT A MIDDLE AGED SCHOOL TEACHER WITH NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH HERSELF WHO CANT EVEN HOLD ONTO A STALLION WHEN HE HAS BEEN GIVEN A LOVE POTION TO FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU CAN DO TO HURT ME MORE THAN I ALREADY HAVE BEEN!”
By the end of my rant I was panting. Cherilee had dropped into cowering position looking up at me with nothing but fear on her face. The flames of my wrath reflected back as I looked into her eyes.
“Wait, what… flames?”
Looking at Cherilee I saw that her mane was singed and her face was illuminated as if there was a torch being held in front of it.
As my rage faded away into confusion I felt my hooves touch the ground.
“Was I just floating?!”
The glow on Cherilee’s face faded away and dimmed to the normal late afternoon sunlight.
I looked around and saw that Nightshade was on the ground next to me in the same position as Cherilee looking up at me with the same look of fear on his face.
I looked back and forth at the two of them trying to put the pieces together, but coming up with nothing. I looked behind me thinking there would be something there to no avail.
Turning to Cherilee, I stepped forward and stuck out a hoof, and she began to scream.
While screaming she backed away from me trying to turn and run only to stumble and fall multiple times before finally getting her hooves under her and running faster than I’ve ever seen a pony run, all while screaming at the top of her lungs.
I turned towards Nightshade, who had gotten onto his hooves and was slowly backing away. He froze when I turned to him and took up a defensive stance.
“What just happened?” I asked him.
When he didn’t answer I took a step towards him and was about to ask again, when he pointed his horn at me and it began to glow.
“STAY BACK!” he yelled, his voice trembling with fear.
I lifted my hoof to take a step back and he fired at the ground in front of me. The yellow laser pierced the ground leaving a scorched hole only inches away from my planted hoof.
I screamed and ran for the front door of the library. I yanked the door open and slammed it shut and leaned against it trying to catch my breath.
After a few seconds I peeked outside the window and saw the stallion running down the road back towards the bakery. I dropped to the ground curled up in a ball. I recalled the events that just took place trying to figure out what happened and yet all I did was make myself feel terrible as I recalled what I said to Cherilee.
That, piled on with all the emotions from what happened at the bakery caused the dam to burst for the second time that day.