Dash avoided the glare in her friends eyes. “I told you, I can't tell you what's going on. Even if I did, you wouldn't thank me.“
And with those words, Dash ran off into the back of the train, trying to hide the tears in her eyes. With the door closed, everypony in the train got quiet, a rare occurrence with the ponies assembled.
“Rarity, was it really necessary t’ push the poor girl like that?” Applejack said, adding a slight glare to the words for emphasis.
“Well, I for one am simply dreading the loss of a work day! I mean, it's half a days ride there, and then half a days ride back. An. Entire. Day. Thats like a week! And that's not even counting the time spent in Canterlot!” Rarity whined.
“Sugar cube, whatever is going on, it's got her in tears. That ought to be worth a trip to Canterlot, if only to find out what's hurting her.” AJ said in a distracted voice, trying to figure out what in the hay was going on.
She knew Dash. She'd never break down over something simple. She was too tough, or at least she tried to act like it. Buck, she'd known Dash almost as long as Fluttershy had, and she'd only seen Dash break down on two occasions, both when her friends were in danger, or were missing.
Once when they were in the Everfree forest she had let her guard down and had gotten hurt. She would've never made it out of the forest alive if it weren't for Dash. Apparently Dash was the only one who had noticed within an hour that AJ was missing. And later, when she still wasn't back, she had gone and searched for her.
They had agreed to never speak of it again. Being the Element of Loyalty, she'd kept her promise, along with others.
And then there was the other time. Scootaloo had gone in for her flight test, the one that would've allowed her to get a job in the weather patrol. Rainbow Dash had absolutely freaked when she didn't come back the next day. Or the next. Or the next.
She still hadn't came back.
Shaking her head to clear the thoughts that were clouding her mind, and of a stray thought that she really didn't want to even be thinking of as a possibility.
“Yes, well. I don't see how a problem of Rainbow Dash's would involve us getting on a train and heading the capital at seven in the morning!”
Applejack opened her mouth to tell Rarity off, but Pinkie beat her to it, in one of her rare, serious moments.
“Of course it would be our problem Rarity. Dash is our friend, and if she's so upset the she's actually crying, which means that she's really sad, then we've got to see if there's anything that we can do to help her smile!” Pinkie said.
Applejack nodded, glad that Pinkie was taking this seriously. Well, as serious a Pinkie Pie could ever be. Rarity actually was quiet. Opening her mouth to add to what Pinkie had said, Applejack was once again interrupted by Pinkie Pie.
“Of course, usually I would try my ways of cheering somepony up but something tells me that they wouldn't cheer her up. I mean, usually a good party would make anypony smile, and in dire cases a song could also be used! Not that you need to be sad to enjoy a song.”
“Pinkie.”
“And like I said, I don't think that the would cut it. My Pinkie-Sense has been going off all morning.”
“Pinkie.”
“What?” Pinkie said, completely oblivious to the fact that she had been talking too much.
“Would ya mind giving me some time to talk to Rarity too?” Applejack said, smiling slightly.
“Okay!”
And with that, Pinkie went back to staring out the window, humming a song that everypony in Equestria knew, but nopony could explain why they all knew it.
Turning back to Rarity, Applejack held a neutral expression, showing neither anger or any other emotion in her face.
“Well, I don't know about you, but when a friend of mine is upset, I would drop everything and go to the extreme ends of the Earth to help them anyway I can. Canterlot isn't too far away. I'm upset about losing a day of work on the farm, but things happen.” Applejack said giving quite a speech, her poker face not extending to her tone of voice
Rarity had the decency to look ashamed, smiling sheepishly at AJ.
“Looks like I've been outnumbered.” She started, getting a look from Applejack. “Don't get me wrong here. I know that I can be a bit... much. Sorry about before.”
“Ah, t’aint nothing that we haven't dealt with 'fore. We've all just gotten used to your whining.” Applejack said teasingly.
“It's not whining! It was complaining!” She replied, rolling her eyes at the old joke. “You know, that was funny, oh, the first fifty times...”
“Sorry, just try'n to lighten the mood. Say, anypony seen Twilight?” Applejack said, voicing the question that they were all thinking.
“I haven't seen her since last night. Have you Pinkie?”
“No I haven't. She came over to Sugar Cube Corner and picked up some cupcakes. Not sure what they were for.” She let out a loud gasp. “What if she was throwing a party and didn't invite us‽”
“I don't think so, Pinkie. This is Twilight that we're talking about.” Rarity said, shaking her head.
“What? Twilight loves my parties! Well, I guess she loves other pony's parties, but I've never seen her attend a different pony's party before. Maybe while she lived in Canterlot?” Pinkie said in a rush, the time not affecting her at all.
“That's not what I'm saying Pinkie. I'm just saying that Twilight isn't the type of mare to just throw a random party. Even if she did, do you really think that she wouldn't invite her friends?” Rarity said.
Laughing, Pinkie shook her head. “Good point Rarity. Besides even if she did throw an awesomely awesome party, I would know. You ever hear the old saying?”
“Which old saying?” Applejack said, interested now.
“Oh, the one that I've heard the tourist pony telling the tourists interested in the Ponyville Community. 'Everypony knows everypony and almost everything happening in Ponyville.' That one's always stuck with me. Sorta like all the stories and sayings my Grandma told me.”
“Pinkie, of all the things... Oh, forget it.” Rarity said, grinning.
The contrast between her words and her tone of voice broke the tension in the moving train. Looking at each other, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity all burst out laughing, their earlier argument forgotten.
//|b0d|\\
On the outside of the train, Dash rubbed at her eyes, which were wet with tears still threatening to overflow. Laughter floated out from inside.
“Sounds like they're having a good time.” She said to no one in particular.
Would she ever laugh again if they couldn't find Twilight? Would any of them laugh for a long time? Ever since Twilight had come to Ponyville, Dash had met her best friends, when before she had only talked to Fluttershy, and even then only sometimes.
What would happen if the glue that had brought them together disappeared entirely? Being the Element of Loyalty, could she handle her friends no longer being... friends?
Could Equestria make it without the Element of Magic?
Could Dash's friendship survive?
Could Dash take it?
//|b0d|\\
Dear Princess Celestia,
Hello again Princess. I know that my friendship report isn't due until next Monday, but I've been thinking about events in the past. You remember the incident involving the changelings? What if we were too harsh with them? What if we punished an entire species for the act of one? Studying the scant knowledge we have of them, it seems that changelings are born with a Queen controlling them, akin to the way that an ant's nest is set up. A Queen is in charge of an entire colony.
But as with ants, perhaps there's more than one colony of changelings. Perhaps we've taken the action of essentially one, and judged the entirety of them by that? What if we were wrong?
In the course of studying friendship, I've learned many things. I've learned about friends in general, the way that you can get through anything with your friends. I've made many friends, as well; but one lesson in particular sticks with me at the moment.
Do you remember the letter I sent you a while ago about forgiveness? About how one of the most important parts of friendship is to remain friends throughout times of strife and anger?
The letter ended quickly, and left the point open. Sighing, the sun Princess set the letter down gently, letting it slip from her magical grasp.
It was an unfinished letter, sent by Spike, clearly meant to be finished later. Smiling for a moment, Celestia remembered a time when Twilight would have never left a letter unfinished. Twilight would have never left anything unfinished, for that matter. She had changed.
Oh, she was still the mare that Celestia had chosen so many years ago from the magic school; still the same pony. She still loved to study, loved her books, and had a devotion to her friends rarely seen in all of Celestia's time on the planet.
That said, in many ways she was different from the pony that had left Canterlot all those years ago. She was removed in Canterlot, preferring to stay in the library and study. The only ponies whom could get her to open up were herself and her family. In Ponyville, she was thrust into a place where that wouldn't happen. She just couldn't remain a recluse. The citizens of Ponyville counted on one another for many things. Everypony in the town was friendly, as well. She couldn't think of a better place at which Twilight could have ended up.
The time she spent in Ponyville was good for her. She loved Twilight as a student, and in many ways she thought of her as a daughter. Now she was gone. Taken by those vile creatures that Twilight was writing about.
Celestia was angry.
She was angry at herself for letting this happen. She was angry at the creatures that would dare take somepony as important as Twilight. She was angry at the universe for letting this happen. She knew her little ponies thought of her as a goddess, but that view was flawed. She wasn't. Her sister wasn't. She didn't know if there were such things as gods, but she knew that she and her sister weren't.
If they were, things like this wouldn't happen.
If they were, things that required Twilight and her friends to be put in danger wouldn't happen.
If they were, creatures like Discord and the changelings wouldn't even exist.
Twilight would still be here, safe.
Sighing, Celestia rose. She needed to prepare herself for the inevitable: telling her friends what had transpired during the night.
She was fairly sure the news wouldn't kill them.
//|b0d|\\
“Where's the Princess? Wasn't she supposed to be here by now?” Rarity asked, shifting her weight to her left side.
Indeed, the Princess was late. A rare occurrence, as she raised the sun, and could never be late in her duties. But this one time she was late.
“Weird.” Pinkie stated, and, of course adding, on to it. Gasping loudly, she continued: “Wait! Do you think that something happened to her? Like what if Celestia and Luna had an evil brother that was banished somewhere else, and he's back! And is getting his revenge on them!”
Running to Applejack, she grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking.
“What do we do? We don't have the elements of harmony to defeat him! What if he's immune to the elements of harmony?!”
“Pinkie! It's okay! Nothing's happened to the Princess, 'kay?” Applejack said, shrugging Pinkie off and walking over to the table.
“What!? How can you be so sure?!” Pinkie said, stunned that Applejack was so certain.
“ 'Cause she's right there.” Bowing slightly, she spoke to the Princess who had just walked in.
“Princess.”
“There is no need for that, Applejack. There are more important matters to attend to at the moment.” She nodded at Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, acknowledging them. “I'm sorry about having Spike and Rainbow Dash pull you out of bed at an early hour, but something has come to my attention, and needed an immediate response.” She paused for a moment, glancing around the room. “Where are Spike and Fluttershy?” She asked, puzzled.
“We left Spike in the old nursery after he fell asleep on the ride over. Fluttershy stayed back at Ponyville to take care of some sick animals that she couldn't leave. You want me to go grab Spike right quick?” Applejack said.
“No, Spike already knows what happened last night. Let him sleep. He is a baby dragon, after all.” She stopped, glancing at the four ponies that were half asleep in front of her. Sighing, she continued.
“This matter does not involve you as the holders of the Elements of Harmony. It involves you as you as Twilight's friends.”
There. It was out in the open.
“Twilight? Is she here? Is that why she's wasn't on the train?” Rarity asked.
“She's not here Rarity. I would've found her already!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down on her hooves.
“Okay Pinkie.” Rarity replied. “Sorry Princess. Continue, please.”
“Last night I received a letter from Spike and Rainbow Dash. From what I can tell, Rainbow crashed into Ponyville library.”
The ponies in the room shot a quick glance at Dash, who looked stricken.
“I don't have any other way to say this. I'm sorry for my lack of tact, but there is simply no way to put this nicely.”
Looking up from the ground, she made eye contact with them. First Dash, then Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack came next.
“Last night, Twilight Sparkle was kidnapped. We are currently unaware of her location, or what is being done to her. All we know is who took her. The changelings have effectively declared war with Equestria. They have taken a citizen of this country, and if anything happens to Twilight, then nothing can save them.” She finished, watching the reactions of the ponies carefully.
Silence filled the room. You could have heard a pin drop. Each and every face in the room wore the same expression. Shock. Horror. Worry.
“What do you mean? Taken? As in, she's been kidnapped?” Rarity asked, hoping that she had misheard the Princess.
“Exactly. All we have to go on is a note that Twilight managed to write out, presumably while it was happening.” Celestia said, bringing the note out, floating the golden-aura-encased parchment towards the group. Setting it down, Applejack went over to it and read it aloud.
“But, Princess. This doesn't make any sense. The changelings haven't been seen in, well, years. Why would they pop up now?” Rarity asked.
Rainbow Dash got up quickly, startling everypony.
“I'm sorry, I have to go. I'll be in the main hall if anypony needs me.”
And with those words, Dash ran out of the room, turning the wrong way to go towards the main entrance. Pinkie stood up, and went to the door.
“I'd better go and make sure she's okay.” Pinkie said. She had been quieter than usual and her normally curly hair was slightly straighter than normal. That was never a good sign. Going up to the door, she turned briefly. “Meet me us at the donut shop at the center of Canterlot later. Bye Rarity. Bye Applejack. Princess.”
Then she was gone.
“Princess Celestia, what are we going to do? What can we do?” Applejack asked, worry seeping into her voice. Rarity's eyes asked the same question.
“We sure as hell will do what we can to find my little sister.” A new voice said.
Whipping around, Applejack and Rarity found themselves facing Shining Armor, whose facial expression was one of pure determination.
“How do we accomplish that?”
“You two aren't part of the Royal Guards, but seeing as you're my sis's best friends, I'll tell you everything that we know, which isn't much. We know the changelings have her, or at least had her. They will know where she's is.” He paused, taking a breath.
“We think that this is an attempt at revenge, for the events that transpired at my wedding a few years ago.” Shining continued, only to get interrupted.
“What do 'ya mean, revenge? They invaded. We were only defending Canterlot!” Applejack said, outraged.
Shining looked at her.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” Applejack said, looking down.
“Yes, well. To answer your point, yes. Revenge. You have to remember that even though they were the aggressors, you still foiled their plot to overthrow the rulers of Equestria. They had to be angry for that, thus the want for revenge.”
“But the point remains. What else do we know?” He said, preparing to make a point.
“Nothing. We know next to nothing. We know almost nothing about the changelings, themselves. We only have a vague idea of where their country is. We don't even have a way to get there if it's past the borders of Equestria.” He said, laying down their grim prospects in one fell swoop.
“Now, things may seem a bit hopeless. We've got the best crime unicorns on their way to Ponyville to check it out. You know how changelings feed off of emotion? We figure that if we can lock on to the latent feelings in the area, and search for any latent disembodied emotions, we can at least find where they came from. Even if they teleported away we can get a tracer on the spell, especially if it was a long range spell.” He said, stopping to look at the two remaining mares sitting by the Princess.
“Hold on a sec. You're saying that we can get a tracer on that long spell doo-hicky? I ain't an expert in magic, buck, I ain't even a unicorn, but couldn't we get a trace and just use that to teleport over there?” Applejack said, looking at Shining Armor.
“Well, normally. Even Starswirl the Bearded was unable to perform a long-range teleportation spell without one key component: an object belonging to the place of interest. We'd need to have something from over there to even get there. If we get a magical lock-. No. Once we get a magical lock on it, we'll have to send over a scout force to grab something from there.”
“I won't bore you with the details of a Royal Guard operation. I need some time to think. I'm sure you'll need some time also. Sorry to lay this on you and go, but I've got to go and break this to our parents. I'll come back later and ask you some questions."
“You may go Shining Armor. I have one last thing to discuss with Rarity and Applejack,” Celestia said, giving him a nod.
Nodding back, Shining walked back through the door that he had entered through. Turning towards Twilight's friends, Celestia broached the matter once more.
“I know that this is going to be hard on you. It's going to be hard on all of us. We need to stay strong. For Twilight and perhaps the fate of all of Equestria, we must remain strong. Can I count on you to keep your friendship strong during these times of strife? I've seen many things in my time, but the worst thing to see is friendship die.” Celestia said, her voice becoming said towards the end.
Applejack and Rarity looked at each other, shocked.
“Your highness, we came together because of Twilight, and we are all friends of Twilight. But we're going to remain friends no matter what.” Applejack said.
Rarity came next. “I'm not usually one to have a serious serious moment, but this time I am. We won't let this hopefully temporary absence of Twilight tear us apart. If anything, it might make the bond between all of us stronger.”
“Good. We could all us some cheering up. Why don't we head down to that donut shop and meet Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash there?” The Princess asked.
The trio nodded. They knew that it would be a long time before donuts cheered them up, but it was the act, the simple mundane act of getting a donut that would help them slightly. Make them think that maybe, just maybe everything would be right in the world.
If only for a little while.
//|b0d|\\
“Hello Twilight. You ready to begin?” Chrysalis said, walking into the room that housed Twilight.
“Go away.” Twilight said, cowering in the corner, holding her hoof to her head, where she had gotten a gaping wound, still seeping blood.
“Oh, what happened there?” She asked, sounding genuinely concerned about Twilight.
“One of your goons threw me in here. Hit my head on the overhand.” Twilight spit out, attempting to avoid Chrysalis’s gaze.
“Oh dear. I’ll have to talk to them about that. Anyway, that gash will heal right back up after the first transfusion.”
This got Twilight’s attention. Looking at Chrysalis, she wore a terrified face, but underlying that was a slight expression of curiosity.
“I probably should explain that. We are going to make you one of us! Won’t that be wonderful? No more barriers to stop you from helping us. Why, that very ponies that you put so much trust into won’t accept you for who you for who you’ll become.”
Twilight jumped up, yelling.
“You monster! Why would you do this! Why can’t you just leave us alone!? We were only protecting our country! Our way of life! Our freedom!”
“The first transfusion is tomorrow. I’ll see you then.” Chrysalis said, ignoring Twilight’s outburst.
Turning around, she left the room, leaving a sobbing Twilight on the floor, gasping out a word over and over.
“Why.”
“Why!”
“Why!”