Chapter 1 – Aftereffects
Rock farms are a critical part of modern pony society. In the olden days, the earth ponies mined the mountains of Unicornia to find precious gems and minerals. This, however, created a staggering amount of environmental damage, especially due to the avarice of those such as Queen Crystal and Princess Platinum. Nowadays, rock farming is an infallible science. Rather than stripping an entire mountain in search of a fifteenth ruby, rubies can be grown using a combination of earth pony magic and modern geomancy. It has turned gemstone sales from an elite luxury to an affordable option for the masses. While rock farming may be hard work that most would rather avoid, Equestria would not be the monument of pony success that it is today without it.
~Modern Equestria, volume 4, Agriculture and Production
“Pinkie! There's a letter here from your mother!”
They were words that Pinkie was never truly ready to hear. It was almost never cheerful news that brought Cloudy Quartz to write a letter to her prodigal daughter. If there had been anypony else up for the challenge, Pinkie knew, she would have asked them instead. Pinkie pulled herself from her busy oven to meet Mr. Cake standing by the front door. He held a letter away from the others and let Pinkie take it from him, while he looked at the rest of the letters and murmured, “Bills... bills...” Pinkie opened it, making sure to read every word:
Pinkamena,
It seems we've had a break-in last night. The Child is missing. Were you here when we unearthed it, or had you already run away? In any case, please come immediately. Whoever came here last night left nothing but a few hoofprints and a tiara of some kind. It will be helpful to have the entire family here helping.
Mother
P.S. It may be prudent to bring your friend Twilight Sparkle as well. There are some magical traces as well that we are unfit to analyze.
Pinkie shook her head and laughed. So that was it. They needed the smartest unicorn in the world, not the pastry chef. But Pinkie did remember the Mother and Child gemstones; if one of them was missing, it was definitely important to get it back.
“I'm gonna have to take some vacation days, Mr. Cake!” Pinkie said. “There's been a family emergency.”
“Don't get into any trouble, all right, Pinkie?”
“I'll be back for supper! In two weeks!” Pinkie called back. “Oh, and don't forget to pull those cookies out!”
“Will do, Pinkie,” said Mr. Cake. “Say hi to your mom for me.”
Pinkie made an immediate beeline for the library, where the unicorn of the hour was waiting. Sure enough, a knock on the door brought Twilight right to her. “Oh, good morning, Pinkie!” Twilight said. “How are you this morning?”
“Not good, Twilight! Not good at all! You know my parents, right? They keep a rock farm out west from here?”
“I think you've mentioned them once or twice,” Twilight replied.
“Well, they have this really big ruby, a-and this smaller ruby, and now the small one's missing!”
“That's terrible! Who could have done something like that?”
“They have no idea.” Pinkie wisely held back the mention of the dream she'd had last night. Twilight wasn't the most accepting of things she couldn't explain, like visions. If they could prove it really was the filly from the dream, she'd make sure to bring it up. "My mother wants your help with the investigation. Do you think you could leave the library with Spike for two weeks or so?"
"Of course, Pinkie. I'd love to. Let me go pack." As the two of them headed up to Twilight's bedroom, Twilight asked Pinkie, "You know, you almost never mention your family. Are they all right?"
"They're just fine," Pinkie said, but there was something in her voice that Twilight detected.
"Are you sure? If there's anything we can do..."
"It might be better if you saw them for yourself," Pinkie told her. After that, she wouldn't say another word until they were out on the road. Over the next few days, Pinkie was her normal, fun-loving self, but now Twilight had seen behind the curtain, and there was an undercurrent of tense suspicion behind every playful antic. With each day that they neared the farmstead, Pinkie's humor began to trickle away, until it seemed she was turning as gray as the dusty plains around them.
---
As Pinkie and Twilight neared the farm, they could just make out the drab white figure of Pinkie's mother standing just by the gate. Upon their arrival, she said, "Hello, Pinkamena. I Sensed your arrival." She looked at Twilight and said amiably, “I don't believe we've formally met.” After a few empty seconds, she turned to Pinkie and held back a scowl. “Pinkamena, introduce us.”
“Mother, this is Twilight Sparkle of Vespers, student to Princess Celestia. Twilight, this is my mother, Cloudy Quartz.”
“A pleasure,” said Twilight.
"Likewise." She pointed to the field out in the distance. "The crime scene's out there, when you're ready. But you must be tired after traveling so long. Why don't you stay in the house and I'll prepare your rooms?"
"O-of course, ma'am," Twilight said. As Cloudy Quartz hurried back to the house, Twilight turned to Pinkie. "So... many... questions."
"Yes, the Sense is genetic. No, they're not the same as mine. Yes, she's always like that. Mother taught me how to do proper introductions so that I'd never embarass her. Yes, I know your lineage. I'm in the Sext lineage, actually. And yes, Mother keeps tea in the house for visitors. Now, did you want to go inside?"
"I, uh...right. Let's go."
---
The Pie house was a humble home. Pinkie wondered if Twilight, a mare born in the lap of luxury, had ever seen such a simple way of life. This was not a place of such meaningless things as joy or dreams; it was a place of work and quiet contemplation. If Twilight had harbored any doubts as to why Pinkie had left, they were surely cleared now. The two of them waited in the drab gray living room while Cloudy Quartz prepared their rooms for the evening. Out of all of it, the silence was what bothered Pinkie the most. She would love to start a song with Twilight that would get the whole house bouncing, but that wouldn't go over well with the rest of the family in the slightest. When Twilight began humming, Pinkie almost shushed her right there for breaking the tense atmosphere. And when she began picking up photos off of the side cabinet, Pinkie thought the house was going to implode. That was simply not done in the Pie house.
"Do you like that picture?" said Cloudy Quartz. Pinkie waited for the wrath of Celestia to come down on Twilight, but strangely, she seemed almost amiable to the purple rulebreaker. "It's the six of us at Ghastly Gorge on vacation. This is my husband, Igneous, and our daughters. The youngest is Marble, and those are Limestone and Sandstone next to me."
"I bet the pink one is Pinkie, right?" Twilight joked.
"Pinkamena, yes," Cloudy Quartz said. "It is also the name of Igneous' mother; we thought it was appropriate, given her... demeanor."
"Err...right." Twilight shuffled about, unsure of what to say after something like that. “Did you find rooms for us?”
“Your room is upstairs next to Pinkamena's. I assume that won't be a problem for you.”
“Of course! Why wouldn't it be?”
“I think that's enough questions for now, Twi! Let's go check out your room, right now!” Pinkie swept Twi up and got her away from Cloudy's constant glare. Once they were in the safe bedroom, Pinkie released a pent-up sigh. “Phew! I think we can talk about whatever now,”
“Can you just explain what you're being so jumpy about?” Twilight asked.
“My mother and I don't see eye to eye. I like fun, she likes order. Please, please don't step out of line, or I'll get in trouble.” Pinkie gestured to the barren rock field just outside. “We should probably start investigating before Mother gets mad.”
Before Twilight could protest, Pinkie was already dragging her along to the back door. When they made it to the backyard, Twilight forced Pinkie to stop. “Please, Pinkie, just stop!”
“But we really need to start with the--”
“Look, right now I don't care about that!” Twilight said. “There must be something I can do to help with you and your mom!”
Pinkie shook her head. “Sorry, Twi, but Mother and I have tried and failed before. We're just two sides of the same pancake. I'm the sweet, tasty side with all the syrup, and she's the flat, boring side on the bottom.”
“I've been hanging out with you too long; that made sense,” said Twilight. “But if you and your mom don't agree, why would you agree to help her?”
“Because she asked me to!” Pinkie replied.
“...Okay, then,” Twilight said. “So what are we going to look at first?”
“Right this way!” Pinkie called out. Before Twilight could blink, her pink companion was already bouncing through the rock fields. Twilight only laughed and picked up the pace. When they arrived at the spot Cloudy Quartz had mentioned, Pinkie began to twist back and forth. “Oooh...” she moaned.
“What's wrong, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.
“I don't know! I just feel really weird for some reason. It's sort of in my tummy, but sort of through my sides, too.” After a moment's pause, she added, “I think it might be my Pinkie Sense.”
“I see. And what does 'sort of in your tummy, sort of through your sides' mean, then?”
“Dunno. We'll have to look around some more, won't we?”
“All right then.” Twilight turned her gaze from her reeling friend to the scene of the crime. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. It was merely a rock formation with a large ruby in it. The light glittered across its facets, but otherwise, Twilight couldn't see anything unusual about it beyond the broken section where the Child had rested. There was a trail of hoofprints coming towards it, but only two or three coming away from it; they simply vanished. While Twilight was looking around, Pinkie pulled out the tiara from her saddlebags. As she passed it over, Twilight said, “Thank you, Pinkie. Do you know if anypony nearby owns a tiara like this?”
“Doubt it. We don't grow diamonds like that around here! That's farther north. Oh, and Inky said that the craftsmanship on this is at least 1000 years old.”
“Inky?” Twilight didn't remember Cloudy Quartz mentioning a filly named Inky.
“My sister, Limestone. She has a really dark coat, and... oh, forget it. Anywho, she's an expert in that stuff, so she's probably right.”
“I see.” Twilight began to pace back and forth. “So, we're looking for a pegasus, probably living nearby, with access to thousand-year-old jewelry.”
“Why a pegasus?” Pinkie asked.
“See these tracks? They disappear right here. I'd bet if we go to the beginning of the track, we'll find the same thing where the pegasus landed.”
“But Twilight! If a pegasus took off here, wouldn't they have blurred the tracks with their wings?”
“Oh.” Twilight hadn't thought of that. “But if it wasn't a pegasus, then how...?”
“Twilight, Twilight! Come over here! I'm getting that same feeling over here!” Pinkie stood a ways down the field, waving her hooves to get Twilight's attention. She ran down, noting subconsciously that the hoofprints had increased in speed about halfway through. There, just as she predicted, was the other end of the tracks, randomly in the middle of the field. However, something was very strange about these prints: instead of being perfectly elliptical, these were brushed in a radial motion. Twilight knew she recognized it from somewhere...
“No... it can't be...” With Pinkie watching nearby, Twilight began a simple magical detection spell. The spell would have been cast a week ago, but some of the magical residue was probably still there...
When Twilight stood up again, Pinkie asked, “What is it, Twilight? What did you find?”
She was silent for a moment. Then, she said, “I would never have expected something like this. This is... this is big time. With this, I think I've just proven White Crest's Theory of Critical Segmentation!”
“Okay, now tell me in a way I'll understand!”
“The thief arrived here, as well as escaped, using time travel!”