A crowd of ponies had assembled outside the house of Ponyville's prosecutor, a little blue pony with magenta eyes and a purple palm tree as her cutie mark. Inside the building was also the former mayor and some of her posse. They had just placed their "evidence" on the prosecutor's desk and she studied the badger's skull with a disgusted frown. She prodded it with her pencil.
"This is like totally garbage," she said.
"Evidence," Mare corrected.
"No. This whole case... I will not accuse Fluttershy of murder based on this crud."
"But I think the evidence is very strong..."
"Then you're like totally dumb. Now go away."
"Isn't there anything we can do?"
"The only possible crime here is littering. Rarity threw litter in the river which is like totally forbidden. That's it."
"She littered the river?! What a crook!" Mare shouted and grabbed the wet piece of cardboard. "We must go and teach her a lesson!"
"Destroy this mad beast!"
"Chase her from the town!"
"We must arm ourselves!"
"Reinstate mayor Mare!"
Spike watched the stars from the balcony of the Town Hall together with Luna and Fluttershy . He started to feel a little cold and a little tired. The young dragon excused himself and went down the stairs, preparing to go home and get some much needed sleep. Twilight was still snoring on the sofa and he didn't feel the need to wake her up. Fluttershy wouldn't mind letting the tired unicorn sleep over at her place, he thought.
When he walked trough the empty streets of Ponyville Spike saw a towel and a bathrobe hanging from the sign of a bakery which was famous for its muffins.
"Strange stuff!" he said to himself.
Meanwhile Rarity had just brushed her teeth and was preparing herself to go to sleep. She had filled her mane with hair rollers and put on a red dressing gown. The unicorn made sure that Opalescence had plenty of food and water for the night and then she crawled into her bed. Rarity decided to read for a while in her book before turning off the light and falling asleep. The book was about a happy, friendly pony that lived in a house with no ghosts at all. Fluttershy had recommended it, but Rarity had found it a bit disappointing. There was no tension, no drama and no danger.
"What a boring book," she said out loud and put it away on the bed table.
Then she heard some commotion from outside her window. Ponies were shouting and she could see the glow of torches. "Litterer! Litterer!" they yelled.
Rarity got up and trotted to the door, annoyed by the disturbance of her sleep. When she opened she saw a big mob of ponies standing at her doorstep. They were armed with pitchforks and torches.
"What is going on?!" she demanded.
A tomato hit her right in the face.
"No! What are you doing?! How dare you!" she cried when the mob pelted her with rotten vegetables.
"This is for throwing litter in the river!" somepony shouted at her.
"What?! That's not a crime!"
"But it's like totally is," the prosecutor said and shoved the old "Book of Pony Jurisdiction and Law" in her face. "Read here at page 453 part 4B..."
"And I like throwing things!" Lyra said, taking the last bite of an apple.
"Rarity!" a voice shouted.
It was Spike who came running and threw himself in front of the angry mob.
"I will defend you with my life!"
"Spike?"
"At your ser..."
He then got hit in the eye by an apple core. Spike was so shocked by the sudden attack that he let out a green puff of dragon fire from his mouth that engulfed Lyra right where she stood. When the flame went out, no trace of the aquamarine unicorn was seen!
"AAAHH!!" Spike cried with bottomless terror in his eyes. "She is gone! I destroyed her! NOOOOO! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! What have I done?!"
At the same time princess Celestia was in her dining room at Canterlot Castle, having a midnight snack. She couldn't sleep and she still was a bit upset over her younger sister's ridiculous antics. Throwing mud and threatening to run way! That Luna sure had some nerve... But at the same time she cared deeply for her sister. Maybe she was to hard on her? Celestia decided to write her a letter next night, when Luna had cooled off a little. Now she would have a slice of cake from the delicious strawberry cake that her servants had placed on the table in front of her. It was Celestia's favourite dish and she had promised herself to save it for brekfeast, but this cake was too good not to taste... just a little slice couldn't hurt she thought.
She grabbed the royal silverware cake spade and slowly moved it just above the cake. Then suddenly there was a puff of smoke and she was splattered with her own cake!
"What the...?!" Celestia cried, with cake in her eyes and all over her face and coat.
When she had cleared her view the princess saw there was a pony lying in her food! The aquamarine unicorn looked as shocked and surprised as she probably did herself underneath the layer of cream, strawberries and squashed parts of cake bottom.
Princess Luna and Fluttershy were now alone at the balcony of the Town Hall. The yellow pegasus was very happy that the princess seemed to enjoy her company and that she had managed to stay awake this long. Luna wasn't interested in animals at all, but she couldn't stop talking about the stars. Fluttershy had a talent for getting along with most ponies and most of them liked her because of her niceness. Sometimes ponies could be a bit annoyed by her, but that did not occur as frequent as one might think.
"Thank you for inviting me to your home, dear mayor Fluttershy," Luna said.
"And thank you for coming. You... um... honor me with your presence, dear princess Luna."
Fluttershy realized that she was beginning to speak like her, maybe because she was getting drowsy. She was indeed very tired and it was long past bedtime, but she didn't want to risk to offend the princess.
"I will drink some more coffee," she said and filled up her cup with coffee from a little coffeepot. "Do you want some more coffee, princess?"
"I am fine, but thank you... Wait! What is that strange noise coming from the street below?"
They looked down from the balcony and saw a lot of running ponies coming from the Mane Square. The ponies screamed and shouted and they seemed very upset over something.
"Citizens of Ponyville!" Luna yelled in her most royal of voices. "What is the matter?"
"Fire! Arson! It's so terrible!"
"The horror! The horror!"
"D... Dra... Dragon! Like totally dragon!"