//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: The Rescue Party... // Story: Close Encounters of the Sixty-Third Kind // by Yoshirocks341 //------------------------------// “This is never going to work you know...” “Shhh! I’m trying to listen in!” Dusk Shine rolled his eyes. Spines had begged him to cast a spell to magically increase their hearing. She had come up with a plan that involved eavesdropping on random ponies’ conversations in order to find out information relating to their missing friends. Her certain target was two mares gossiping next to an average wooden bench. “I’ve crunched the numbers,” Dusk explained to Spines, who were both hiding behind a nearby building, “and even if we eavesdrop successfully on five different conversations for five minutes each, there is only a 32.3 (repeating of course) percent chance that we’ll find any important information. I suggest that we…” Spines whipped around from her position at looking at her target to blow another “Shhhhh!” into his face. “I’m trying to listen here!” she complained once more. “This is just the sort of thing that had me upset at you before. You being all the boss and what not. Why don’t we just go with my plan for once, forget about all the math and science who-haw have to say. Just trust me on this.” Dusk looked down to see Spines’ serious expression. He cracked a small smile and nodded his head. “Okay,” Dusk replied calmly, “even though I’m pretty sure I could figure out a better plan, I’ll trust you on this one.” “That’s all I want,” Spines spoke as she turned her attention back to the gossiping mares, “a little truth and respect.” Dusk walked up next to Spines and tuned his own amplified listening skills onto the conversation happening across the road. “And that’s why I know, like, the difference between a mouthwash and toilet cleaner very well!” The first mare explained. Her hair was a rich blonde color and was laid in bumpy chunks. Her skin was a pink with a hint of purple. The other mare laughed. “I would imagine so! That’s seems like a real crazy event!” Her hair contained two different tones of hair color, one was a dark blue and the other was your average pink. Her hair stayed perfectly straight, until it reached the very end when it curved back upon itself. Her skin’s pigment was a very light beige. “Ooh that reminds me,” the blonde mare exclaimed, “have you heard what Pinkie Pie is doing today?” “Let me guess,” the two-toned mare replied, “is she, like, throwing another party?” “Yes, but that isn’t the interesting part!” The blonde mare explained. “What I’ve heard is that it’s for a random colt that, like, no one has seen before.” “Really?” “You know what else I’ve heard?” The blonde paused for dramatic effect, “I heard that he’s totally a cutie.” “Really?” the two-toned one replied once more. “I wish I could, like, get into that party…Why didn’t she invite us?” “Phff, who needs an invite?” the two-toned looked at the blonde with confusion. “I was going to totally go over there right after I was done talking with you and, like, walk straight in there. I don’t think Pinkie Pie, like, even cares who shows up, as long as ponies are there.” “Hey that’s right!” the two-toned mare smiled. “She, like, totally won’t mind if we drop in. Let’s go right now! I really want to see how cute this cutie is.” They stormed off, leaving the spying duo behind. Spines turned around and gave Dusk a gigantic toothy grin. “And you said it wouldn’t work,” Spines gloated. “See, this is what happens when you listen to my genius.” “Hmm, I guess I do need to place a little more trust in your abilities,” Dusk pondered out loud. He motioned for Spines to follow. “Come on now, we have some party crashers to follow. They are our only lead.” Dusk started to leave when he heard an “Em hem!” behind him. He turned to back to see Spines with her arms crossed across her chest. “What did I just talk about?” she asked kiddingly. Dusk smiled and gave a soft chuckle. “Do you agree with this course of action, assistant that I should treat more like an equal and give more respect and trust to?” Spines giggled. “Yes I do.” She quickly climbed on top of Dusk’s back. Dusk then hurried off after the gossiping mares, hoping that they hadn’t gotten too far ahead of them. **************************************************************************************** Even if for some reason they weren’t able to follow the gossiping mares, it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out where the party was taken place. When Dusk and Spines arrived at the party’s destination, the Sugarcube Corner, the party was going in full swing. The music that was booming inside could be heard from roughly half a mile away and the gingerbread themed building was vibrating with every bass beat. Streamers were attached in a random assortment of areas on the lower part of the roof. They hung down, causing themselves to get in the way of ponies entering or exiting. A few lonely balloon animals had separated themselves from the others and had been scattered around the entrance. One balloon animal had even taken encampment on top of the roof. The pink and normally clear windows seemed to take some sort of beating. Some of them had gotten little smudges streaked across them. A small window near the far left side had a small crack going down its right side. Dusk noticed that one of the front windows had a giant red stain plastered to it from the inside. “Umm…” Spines was not sure about the look of the situation, “are you sure we should go inside?” Dusk nodded sternly. “It’s the only lead we have so far. And if my prediction is right, that random colt that the two gossipers were talking about is one of our lost friends. Dusk open the door and walked straight inside. Spines gulped nervously and hurried in after him. She bumped into the back of Dusk as he had paused to look around the partying Sugarcube Corner. The first thing that stuck out to Spines was not the fact that the inside of the Sugarcube Corner had seemed to grow twice its size to fit all the ponies, nor was it the loud blasting music that pumped life with every thundering beat, nor even the wild assortment of activities that were taking place. No, the first thing that caught Spines’ eyes was the almost purely white skinned, fashionably purple haired unicorn that seemed to get a lot of attention from the colts that walked past. Spines grabbed Dusk’s head and pointed it in the direction of the mare. “That’s Elusive’s mare double,” she shouted in Dusk’s ear, just so she could be heard over the sound of the music. Dusk stared at the mare in question. “The resemblance would be uncanny otherwise,” Dusk commented. “She also seems to fit Rainbow Blitz’s description. And, wow, he wasn’t kidding.” Before he could say anything more, the Elusive doppelganger felt Dusk’s eyes staring at her. She casually turned to look in Dusk’s direction and made eye contact with him. He quickly pulled his eyes away, but it was too late. The mare Elusive had already started to stroll over to them. “Why, hello you two,” she said simple, situating a small sway in every step. “I believe I have not seen either of you two before. May I ask where you are from?” “We’re…err…from…emm…” Dusk stumbled over his words. “We’re from a town way far away,” Spines stepped in to help the bumbling buffoon. “We’ve never decided to travel in this direction before.” “That would make sense,” the mare replied. A small smile appeared on her face. “May I ask, what the name of this town is?” Spines was caught completely unprepared. “Err…it doesn’t really matter what the name is. You’ve probably never heard of it…” “Oh, but I insist!” The mare kept on pushing for more details. “I really like to know where my new found friends are from!” “Well, uh…” Spines looked around for some help. Her eyes landed on Dusk, who had seemed to go out of commission since the arrival of Elusive’s counterpart. “Why don’t I let Dusk, our local town expert, tell you?” she asked the mare, as she japed her elbow into the upper thigh of Dusk. “Ow!” he exclaimed in a way that deducted a lot of points from his colt card. “What was that for?” “A town name,” Spines hissed. “We need to come up with a town name!” “Oh, a-a town name,” Dusk eyes darted around, searching for inspiration. When his eyes landed on the questioning mare, he gave a nervous smile and continued on. “The town…our town name is…” Dusk tried to stall this out as long as he could. His eyes finally rested upon something interesting. Then it hit him. “Who brings a beach ball to a party?” Elusive’s doppelganger exclaimed. She turned around to see who could’ve thrown it at Dusk. As she searched the skyline of numerous ponies, Dusk made a small attempt at kicking the ball, but whiffed. “Come on Dusk, think!” he whipped his head around frantically. His eyes caught a glace of the almost pure white perfectly shaped body. After a tiny bit of a delay, he moved his eyes away once more. “Rainbow Blitz was right about what he said about her, that’s for sure,” his thoughts lagged behind his eyes, “She fits his description to a tee.” To get his attention away from the mare who was still searching the surrounding ponies with a scowl on her face, his eyes searched around once more. This time he caught not something interesting, but someone. Two ponies standing around one of the many punch bowls were the same two ponies that had started the chase scene before, with Dusk being the victim. He managed to focus in on their conversation, due to his hearing still being souped-up from the magic. “Want some more, doc?” the younger colt with the thick brown hair asked. “N-no thank you,” the older colt with the thinning white hair responded. “We need to focus on f---“ “As I was saying…” Elusive’s doppelganger had seemed to have given up finding the culprit of the ball situation. She turned and looked straight at Dusk. “What is your town’s name?” “Umm…” he stuttered once more. He knew he had to make up something, no matter how bad it was. Stalling was just making it more obvious. “Err…” he sputtered. He looked once more at the beach ball at his hooves. “It’s b- ball…” He looked back up to see the purple haired mare once more. “…tee…” He whisked his eyes back over to the strange two colts that had chased him before. “…more. Ballteemore.” The sound of a slap soon followed. Dusk looked down at saw that Spines had indeed face palmed. She slowly removed her hand and nodded with a shipped in smile. “Ya,” she repeated sheepishly, “Ballteemore.” Elusive’s doppelganger just smiled and nodded. However, after a moment, she suddenly exclaimed, “Really? I have a friend that lives there!” Dusk and Spines just looked at each other in shock. “You do?” they asked simultaneously. “Yes!” she continued right on. “It’s right next to Baltimare, isn’t it?” “Umm…yes, yes it is,” Dusk decided to go along with it, “the original founders got mad with some of the neighbors…so they spilt the town in half. Sadly, Baltimare had access to Horseshoe Bay and Ballteemore didn’t, so the latter never really grew in size.” The purple haired mare shook her head a little bit, “That’s really sad. However, the town does have a very quaint charm, doesn’t it?” Spines nodded her head. “Ah…yes, yes it does.” She looked at Dusk once more in surprise that this mare had actually known the town Dusk had made up. The purple haired mare nodded back. “Oh, how rude of me!” she exclaimed. “I should introduce you to the host of the party! I’m good friends with her and I know she would love to meet you two”! She turned away from them and called into the mess of partying ponies, “Pinkie Pie! You have more guests!” After a short moment, a sudden ruckus appeared. Ponies dodged and twisted quickly to try to get out of the way of a pink pony. She bounced along happily, paying no attention to the ponies diving every which way. When she finally arrived in front of Dusk and Spines, she threw her front legs into the air (which spilled anything left in the red plastic cup she had rested on her hoof) and sang, “Ta-dah!” Spines eyed the pink menace. Her hair was kept in organized chaos, with the reddish-pink strands falling down her back in curvy and mangled manner. Her tail poofed out in the same color, which twisted and curved its way downward, before stopping right before the floor. Her joyous smile, filled with happiness, gleamed from her light pink face. Spines looked over at Dusk, who now displayed a great look of concern. He had perfect reason to, because his first meeting with one of these party ponies had gone so well. “Are you two new guys too!” the pink party pony exclaimed with excitement. “That makes three so far today. Well, really four because of the one Rarity talked about, but I haven’t met him yet but hopefully I do because I would really love to make another new friend and he might not have any and he might love to have me be his!” “Umm…” Dusk tried to recover from the blast of words that had just been shot into his face. He decided that he should at least try to bring the conversation back to a more logical level. However, if this new pony was anything like Berry Bubble, he knew there was no chance of any of that. “Are you Pinkie Pie, the host of this party?” Dusk asked slowly. “You betcha!” Words just kept on spewing out of her mouth. “And this here is my friend Rarity, but you probably knew that already. I’m throwing this party for a new friend I just made not too long ago, just an hour in fact! I wish he could enjoy this party as much as I am right now, but sadly he really needed to take a nap, so I let him sleep on my bed upstairs. I made sure it was nice and comfortable for him!” “Aww, that’s where he is?” Rarity replied. “I was wondering where he was, I wanted to meet him. Say, Pinkie Pie…” Rarity slid next to her and nudged Pinkie Pie with her shoulder, “can you show me upstairs and see if we can wake him up?” Pinkie Pie whipped her head from side to side, causing strands of her hair to swing back and forth rapidly across her face. “No can do. I promised myself that I wouldn’t wake him until he felt like waking up by himself. Don’t want him to feel bad during his own party!” Rarity stepped back, a tad shocked by the rejection. “Are you sure?” she pleaded once more, “But, I’ve heard great things about him…and a lot of it from the appearance department.” Pinkie Pie this time turned into a huge pink bobblehead. “I’m sure,” she repeated the “sure” in the same manner that Rarity had done and giggled. “But I can describe to you what he looks like!” Pinkie Pie began to slowly stroke her chin. “Let’s see,” she thought for a moment. She stayed still, holding her hoof halfway down her chin. Suddenly, she popped back to life. “Oh I remember now! He was purple, just a little bit darker than Twilight, but a little bit lighter than a well picked grape. He had a cutie mark, but I don’t remember what the shape was exactly, some sort of animal I think. Anyways, it was the color of a classic jelly donut, maybe just a little bit lighter. His hair color reminded me of green frosting, the good kind, not the bad kind. His hair also curved a little bit, and his tail reminded me of a mop when it’s wet and you pick it up and it starts dripping a little bit onto the floor because you didn’t dry it out well enough.” “Ookay Pinkie Pie,” Rarity responded. “Thanks for that…lovely description.” “Umm, yes thank you Pinkie Pie,” Dusk repeated. He knew that they should really get out of this conversation, before more ponies got involved. “I think…umm I really need to get a drink. I…had some…pretzels before and I haven’t had anything to drink since then, to wash away the salt. Boy,” he smacked his lips to emphasize his point, “those pretzels are making me thirsty. Come on Spines.” Dusk scrambled away awkwardly, almost bumping into a pony walking the other direction. Spines hurried off after him in pursuit, shaking her head a little bit at Dusk. Pinkie Pie whipped around and waved after them energetically. Suddenly, she gave small hop, looking like she remembered something she was going to do. She then blasted off to whatever or wherever she needed to be. ************************************************************************************* “Really Dusk, Ballteemore?” Spines questioned. After getting away from Rarity and Pinkie Pie, they had snuck through the masses of partiers and had made their way quietly to the steps at the back of the first level’s main room. They had scampered up the steps and had arrived in front of a normal oak door. “I panicked, okay?” Dusk answered defensively. “You of all ponies should know that I do horrible under pressure!” Spines giggled softly, remembering embarrassing moments from Dusk’s past. “Besides,” Dusk spoke up once again before Spines had a chance to talk about those moments, “she believed us, didn’t she? We’re in the clear now.” Spines shrugged. That stumbling to make up a name had gone over with Rarity really well. Too well in fact. She must have gone along with what Dusk said, even though she knew it was made up and not a real town. “But why?” Spines pondered. “Why wouldn’t she accuse us right on the spot? Maybe she was being nice, showing that she respected the reason for our secrecy. That’s probably it. I know Elusive would do the same thing if he met a stranger like that. He’s sweet like that…” A crisp knocking noise brought Spines out of her thoughts and back to reality. Dusk had gone the polite route and had begun to rap on the door. “If my calculations are correct,” he waited a moment before starting another round of knocks, “the colt behind this door should be Butterscotch.” Dusk knocked once more. No response. He gave a hard push against the door. It didn't move an itch. “Here, let me try,” Spines stated, gesturing Dusk to move aside. Spines reared back and sprinted toward the wooden door as fast as her little legs could carry her. *Bang* Spines tumbled back and collided into the side of Dusk. She slowly gathered herself back to her feet only to see that the door had seemed to go under no changes. Suddenly, a voice growled out from behind the door. “Who goes there?” it asked in a raspy tone. The voice would be somewhat terrifying, if it didn’t start at such a high pitch before going lower in tone. Dusk and Spines looked at each other. That was definitely not Butterscotch’s voice. “Umm, we’re friends of a colt that we have been told is up here,” Dusk replied nervously, “can we see him?” “No, no you cannot!” The throaty voice replied. “He must be protected until his party is done.” “Please?” Spines pleaded. “We need to talk to him and get going. I mean he—“ Spines was cut off by a low growling sound. It got slowly louder and louder until “No one takes the guest of honor!” rang out. Dusk and Spines exchanged glances. The shout that had ringed out had flipped on and off from the gruff voice from before to a non-menacing squeal. Soon after the yell had diminished, a soft thump could be heard from the other side of the door. “I’m…” Dusk started, a tad puzzled about what just happened, “I’m just gonna teleport inside now…” “No, no please don’t,” it was the voice inside’s turn to plead, “it is very *cough* *cough* *sputter* *cough* dangerous to come inside!” But the voice’s warning was completely ignored. Dusk’s horn began to shine and he enveloped himself in bright light. When the light had faded away, he found himself in a poorly lit room, with all the outer light being closer off by the light blue curtains. Directly in front of Dusk, there was bed, with alternating light and dark pale green checker pattern. The bed seemed to bulge on one end, and there was a slight shiver periodically. “Please stay out!” the voice called once again, this time behind Dusk. “Pretty please?” Dusk curiously turned around to find out who the owner of the suspicious voice was. He was greeted by the backside of a grayish pink mare. Her tail’s hair was completely straight, well it would be if it wasn’t taken over by gravity and forced downward. Her hair color was a dull, dreary pink and the hair on her head followed the straight design as her tail. Most of the hair fell off to the right, making her right eye live in darkness. “I hear no more noises,” the gruffness slowly lifted from the voice. “Yay! Good job Rosy!” She went over and patted the chair that was propped up against to the door, “Thanks for helping me keep them out! You know your work is always cherished by me.” Dusk cleared his throat to let the mare known that she was sadly mistaken. The mare whipped around to see who had made the sound. After seeing Dusk standing there, she gave a quick smile, turned back around, and whipped her head back to Dusk once more, this time with a serious look on her face. “Get out before it’s too late!” she warned, back in her old, raspy voice. “This is…oh, forget it.” She slumped down unto her haunches and looked glumly at the floor in defeat. “Umm, is that you Pinkie Pie?” Dusk asked, as he slowly made his way over to her. “You betcha…” Pinkie Pie replied with none of the joyous enthusiasm that she had when she had said that line moments ago. “May I ask what was with you and talking in that strange voice?” Dusk inquired. “I was trying to scare away you and your little dragon friend from this room and prevent you two from taking Butterscotch…” she motioned slowly to the budding bed, “my guest of honor, from the party. I put so much effort and heart into this party, and now you’re going to ruin it by taking him away.” She looked at floor once more and sighed. She continued on in sadness, “When I saw you and your friend, I guessed that you would end up coming looking for him,” she looked up at him and cracked a half-hearted smile. “We don’t get a lot of new ponies in Ponyville, and I figured one new colt in town is probably looking for the other one.” Dusk gave a small smile back. “That’s good deduction on your part. Maybe you should become a detective,” he joked, trying to brighten up the depressing mood. “Heh, ya,” Pinkie Pie responded with as much excitement as a charter accountant’s job. “Anyways, I gathered up some friends here and even requested a post that was an over exaggerated foreshadowing of this event in the chapter before…” Dusk ignored the ending of the last sentence and focused on the “friends” that she had mentioned. He surveyed the room for any pony that he somehow had missed, but he didn’t find anyone to speak of. “Err…what friends?” Dusk asked. “Well, I have Rosy here keeping the door shut,” she gestured her hoof towards the chair she was talking to before, “and I have Donald on look out,” she pointed to a book with glasses taped onto the front, “who didn’t do a very good job at it!” Dusk looked from Pinkie Pie, to the book, and back again at Pinkie Pie. As Pinkie Pie randomly cringed, he could have sworn that the area behind her changed from the normal door scene to a strange image that was a pure green color with random bright red dots smeared in all different locations. He blinked, and the green mess was no more. “So take him,” Pinkie Pie threw her arm up lazily in the direction of her bed. “Take him and leave me alone in my partyless misery…” Dusk slowly turned around and started to head for the bed. He only took a few steps before he suddenly stopped. “I can’t leave her like this!” his thoughts exclaimed. “Mare doppelganger or not, she still is my friend Bubble Berry . I’ve got to help her out of this! But how? What would Prince Solaris do?” Dusk stared to pace back and forth between Pinkie Pie and Butterscotch. After a few moments of elaborating ideas in the almost darkness, he began to give his speech to Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie Pie,” he stated, trying to get the mares attention before he started. She looked up at him with sorrow filled eyes. “I’m sorry that Butterscotch has to leave with me, but you shouldn’t focus on that fact. Nothing good will come out of that attitude. You should instead embrace the time you got to spend with him and cherish those memoires. I know Butterscotch would not like to see you all upset over his departure.” Silence filled the room. Dusk wasn’t sure if he had said the right thing. He had never really been good at the whole “talking with girls” thing. Pinkie Pie suddenly sprang to her feet, “Does that mean I should throw a going away party of Butterscotch?” “Umm…” Dusk wasn’t quite sure if that was really the main measure behind his spiel. “Sure…why not!” “Yippee!” she screamed, throwing her arms into the air with pure excitement. As soon as the word escaped her lips, her hair suddenly poofed back to its normally curly self. Her skin also brightened back up into its normal joyous pink color. “Thanks Dusk!” “Err…you’re welcome?” He was going to say more, but he was stopped in his tracks by a surprise hug from Pinkie Pie. It lasted just a moment, because Pinkie Pie was soon on the move once again as she blasted out the door, with Rosy falling to the side. Pinkie Pie came roaring back as soon as she left however, and flew past Dusk to go to her bed. She yelled, “Have a nice trip Butterscotch! Hope you enjoyed your one of a kind party!” Dusk felt a breeze go past him and he looked around to see that Pinkie Pie was no more. He glanced at the door and could still see it moving back and forth. Spines peered through the open door way with a puzzled look. She cautiously stepped inside and started to head over by Dusk. “Umm…,” she glanced back at the doorway, confused, “what just happened?” Dusk chuckled. “I have no idea. The important thing is that Butterscotch is safe.” They headed over to the quivering bed. Dusk magically levitated the thick covers and moved them aside. Underneath was a trembling and confused purple colt. “Hey Butterscotch, it all gonna be fine now,” Spines comforted. “We’re here to help!” “Oh, am I glad to see you guys!” Butterscotch stopped his shaking and peered back up at them. “I was going to hide in this bed until the party was over. It was all going well until Bubble Berry ’s mare version started making that scary voice…” “Well, she’s gone and so is her scary voice,” Dusk explained. “That’s good to hear,” Butterscotch stumbled out of the bed and carefully placed the covers back where they belong with gentleness. “I was so nervous when she started to list off all the ponies she was going to invite. Especially when she listed her best friends.” “Us you mean?” Dusk asked. “Do you remember their names?” Butterscotch nodded both times. “My mare version’s name is Fluttershy, Elusive’s mare version’s name is Rarity, and Applejacks’ is Applejack coincidentally. We heard Rainbow Blitz and yours before; Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle.” Dusk nodded back, remembering their first arrival into this Ponyville. “Well, I have good news, only one of them showed up, which was Rarity.” “You are correct,” a voice rang out from behind them. “Pinkie Pie got a tad distracted after she invited me.” Everyone whipped around to see Rarity standing in the doorway. “I had some suspicions that you two were not as you seemed,” she took a step forward and used magic to close the door behind her, which allowed her to keep making eye contact. “I appreciate you for putting any remaining of doubts to rest.” The trio exchanged glances full of worry and fear. “Now, I would also appreciate it if you wouldn’t mind just staying up here for a while, until the rest of your friends come looking for you,” a small grin appeared on her face. “If you don’t feel like it, fine. I do however have a nice bucket of water with me here,” she levitated a wooden bucket from behind her and placed it in the center of the room. “I’m pretty sure that my sweet double used a palette swap on you all. This should wipe that silly disguise right off.” Dusk and Spines gulped while Butterscotch returned to his trembling. “W-why Rarity?” Butterscotch asked. “Ya Rarity, why would you do this to us?” Spines snapped at her. “Because, after many years of experience, I have figured out that the only pony that knows how to treat a mare like me that way she deserves would be myself,” Rarity explained. She made some hoof motions to emphasize her points along the way. “And now the opportunity to meet a colt that can treat me as I deserve has finally arrived, thanks to you, and I do not wish for it to be wasted!” Spines eyes grew three sizes that moment. She whipped around to face away from Rarity. “We need to get ourselves out of here!” Spines whispered. Dusk nodded and lowered his head and voice. “I’ve been doing some thinking and I think that I have come up with a fool-proof plan. I’ll distract her, and you and Butterscotch go for the window. If I remember correctly, they open out onto the roof. Butterscotch can then fly you down to safety,” he turned to Butterscotch. “Is that alright with you?” Butterscotch responded with several small and shaky nods. “Oh, but Dusk, how are you going to get out then?” Butterscotch asked. “When you guys are safely outside of the window, I’ll wait a few seconds before doing anything,” Dusk explained. “Then, I’ll hurry out the same window and jump down after you. A levitation spell should slow my falling speed down.” “Oh, okay,” Butterscotch replied timidly. “But, how are you going to distract her?” Spines raised an eyebrow. “If she’s anything like Elusive…” Dusk slowly stepped forward and away from the others. “Okay Rarity, you are clearly too smart for us,” Dusk stated. “As we wait for the others, may I ask how you figured this whole thing out?” “Well, you see this all started when a friend of yours came by to my boutique,” Rarity started to pace back and forth as she reeled off the day’s events. “See, I thought it was a tad strange that a colt like that would come through town today. Also, the reaction he first gave me when he looked upon me was one of…” Dusk turned around and smiled. He gestured to the window with his head. Spines got the memo and hurried over and pushed it opened. She hopped out, with Butterscotch following right on her tail…literally. As Spines pulled it out from underneath her foot, Butterscotch began to apologize profusely. She quickly shushed him, and they headed towards the edge of the roof. Spines mounted Butterscotch and gave him some encouraging words. He started to shake, before gulping and flying slowly to the ground in very twitchy manner. He still was successful however, as he made a perfect four point landing. Spines got off and stared up at the window they came from. “…and then I started work on the suit. The hardest part was trying to figure out what colors of materials I would need to use for it. I had to figure in the wings, because I knew that it would be better if they weren’t cramped up in the fabric. Besides, that would look hideous. So, I went to the drawing board and I had…” Rarity had turned away from Dusk as she continued on with her story of brilliance. Dusk carefully made his way over to the window and gently lower himself down to roof level. He tip-toed across the roof and stopped by its white edge. He was going to jump before he heard a commotion behind him. “…then I sowed…wait. Where did they go!?” Dusk jumped off the roof and casted the levitation spell in midair. As he predicted, the spell reduced his falling speed by roughly half. As he fell to the ground, he tumbled a bit, before getting up and brushing himself off. After a quick moment of celebration, Dusk, Spines, and Butterscotch looked up at the place of their imprisonment to see a white and purple blob sticking out. “Where are you guys going!?” Rarity exclaimed. “Don’t you leave me!” She stuck her head back inside and started to call around. “Pinkie Pie! I need your help wit---!” The trio didn’t wait around to hear the end of that sentence. They hurried off, hoping that they would find the others before Rarity, or any of the other mare doubles, could.