//------------------------------//
// Sign of Things to Come 
// Story: Princess Sweetheart and the Bitter Witch 
// by supersaiyanmikito 
//------------------------------//

Pinkie Pie awoke the next morning stretching her from hooves into the air. She looked over at the clock. She didn't normally wake up this early but the Cakes put her in charge so she wanted to get up bright and early. First thing she did was walk down the hallway and check on the foals. She peered into the room to see they were still sound asleep so she slowly closed the door making sure to not wake them. After that, she went down to the first floor and into the kitchen. Every morning, Pinkie would bake a fresh batch of muffins. Whenever the shop opened, she would place to new batch near the front door and put a fan behind it to blow out the smell and attract customers. Of course, her first customer every morning was her favorite grey pegasus.

"Hey Derpy, every morning at 8 like usual." Pinkie greeted.

"Never go to work on an empty stomach I always say." The pegasus replied.

"I say that too!"

"Well, I have to go, can't be late to work."

"Ok, see yah around!" Once the pegasus was gone, Pinkie came out from behind the counter. "I should probably go wake up the foals now." As she was about to start going up the stairs, she heard a knock on the front door. She turned back to see the new pony from yesterday standing in the doorway. "Hey Fire Tongue, how are you today?"

"Pretty good… Oh hey, I brought the recipe for the Gumball like you wanted." Fire Tongue reached into his saddle bags and pulled out a piece and paper and handed it to Pinkie. She looked at it for a moment in question. The paper was really worn out and tattered. "Like I said, I invented it years ago.

"Why didn't you just copy it onto another piece of paper? It doesn't seem right to give me the original recipe."

"Forget about it. Somehow, I feel it belongs with you anyway. So, what are doing?"

"I was about to go wake up the Cake's foals, want to see them?"

"Sure." The two ponies went upstairs and into the foal's room.

Pinkie Pie leaned in close to the tiny ponies. "Wakey Wakey Pound and Pumpkin…" The two foals started to slowly wake up, making very soft yawning sounds. As Pinkie was picking them up, Fire Tongue noticed the book on table besides the crib. He picked it up and looked through it. "Hey, you like Princess Sweetheart too?"

He jumped a little at her interruption. "Uh yeah, my parents told me this story a lot as a kid. This story is kind of the reason I started making sweets. I wanted to bring ponies together by testing the limits of every pony's tastes." Fire Tongue continued to flip through the book, and then he noticed something odd. "Hey, Pinkie Pie?"

"Yes?"

"What's all this writing in the back?" He revealed the back to show that there was some kind of writing on the inside of the back cover. "I'm not sure exactly what it says, looks like it's written in some foreign language."

"Granny Pie told me it's some kind of nursery rhyme she found when she a little filly. Not exactly sure what it means though, she never told me."

"Hmm… Odd…" He set the book back down. "So, Pinkie, when did you say your birthday was again?"

"Tomorrow silly! I kind of want to introduce you to my friends before then. Would you mind coming back later tonight to meet them? I have some things I need to do first."

"Sounds good to me." Fire Tongue turned back and nearly left the room before looking back at Pinkie Pie giving her a smile. Pinkie couldn't help but blush as he closed the door.





After the previous night's theft, many guards were now stationed all around the royal treasury. Princess Luna was the first on the scene this morning talking with the other guards. "Do you have any idea what the criminals were after?" The Princess asked.

"As far as we can tell, only one item was stolen. Everything else is completely untouched." The guard replied calmly.

Luna rubbed her chin. "That's odd… Why would somepony who had just broken into a treasury filled with some of the most dangerous items in Equestria only steal one item? What exactly was stolen?"

The guard looked down at his clipboard. "I don't know the details; the stolen artifact, codenamed SWT-001 is almost entirely redacted. There is not much known about the object as it was supposedly recovered by Princess Celestia herself approximately 15 years ago and she hasn't spoken a word about it."

Luna nodded. "Anything else to report?"

"Yes actually, come look at this…" The guard led her inside to where the theft had taken place. At the end of the hall was a glass display case with a dresser's mannequin in the center. It looked like a hole had been melted through the glass. "The object inside this case was what was stolen. As for how they got through we are still figuring out. This case was enchanted with extremely powerful magic, a barrier spell your sister casted personally. It couldn't have been broken physically or magically. At least in theory…"

Luna inspected the melted hole in glass, looking at all the edges. She rubbed her hoof along the edges to find a clue. Finally, she looked down and noticed some sort of white powder on the ground. She wiped it up with her hoof and sniffed it. "Hmm… Run a sample of this substance at the lab. It looks like we may be dealing with an alchemist."

"Yes ma'am." The unicorn guard pulled out a clear plastic bag and lifted a small amount of the unknown substance and put it in the bag. Just then, another guard approached Luna.

"Princess Luna, your sister has arrived and wants to know the situation."

"Thanks for the information." Luna quietly left the building avoiding all the guards. When she got outside, she saw her sister.

"Luna, what happened here last night?" She asked.

"Sister, it would appear a thief broke in and stole something from the treasury. My night guards heard the noise and came to investigate but they were ambushed and knocked out. Afterward, the intruder uses some sort of chemical to melt through the glass protecting one of the artifacts and then stole it. Considering the nature of this attack, I have reason to believe we might be dealing with a potion maker or alchemist."

"What exactly was stolen?"

"They couldn't give me the details but they claimed it was an artifact you would be familiar with. Codename: SWT-001." At that moment, Luna saw her sister completely freeze up. Celestia's face was frozen at a state of pure terror.

"SWT… 001?"

"Sis?" It was rare for Luna to see her sister make the kind of face she was, and it only meant one thing…

"GUARDS!" Celestia screamed. All the guards suddenly stop to look at her. "Place Canterlot on maximum alert and send a platoon to Ponyville immediately! I want eyes and ears on the Element of Harmony bearers at all times!"

"Yes, Princess!" They all shouted. All the guards scrambled to get things into place but Luna was confused.

"Sister, what's going on?"

"That item they stole was not just some random artifact. It's something I picked up while visiting a land outside Equestria." She held up her hoof and it starting shaking. "I wanted so desperately to destroy it but I was told not to because it's a precious object and a holy symbol where it came from."

"Then why did you take it if it's so special to them?"

"Because it's only one piece to something greater and it needs the other pieces to work. After much discussion, we agreed to split all the pieces up between our kingdoms to keep them safe. They got half and we got half."

"And the Elements of Harmony?"

"Twilight and her friends are very much involved in this, even if they don't know it. They are one of the pieces to this puzzle and the one we put the most care into hiding. However even if the thief knows they are involved, it won't exactly do them much good unless they know how to use them."

"So, what exactly do all these pieces do?"

"If all the pieces fall into the wrong hooves, it could mean breaking a promise I made many years ago…"