As the friends trot back into ponyville they chat about the strange events of the night. Rainbow seems especially obsessed with Serene's "Did you see them? it's like they were attached to her body by one of you spells Twi I don't think they were hers, they were two big, like they were from a pony much larger than her." Twilight sighs "Grafted Rainbowdash, I think she stole them off a corpse, probably from a graveyard."
Just as they pass the first few houses a voice calls out "Halt" as a dozen Royal Guard materialize out of thin air, the tips of their spears inches away from the pony's. Moments later a battery of anti-changeling spells hit them, but even after that the spears stay firm. "By order of the Sun and the Moon you are in our custody." A large stallion with the rank of Captain says, somehow managing to sound bored.
The way Applejack and Rainbow tense up hints at a future conflict, but when Twilight waves them down they relax "Oh is Celestia here?" she asks, the soldiers remain silent and lead her back to the town hall.
Despite only having been in the forest for 2 hours, the town interior has changed greatly, soldiers march down every street, guards watch from aloft, keeping the entire town in their sight. They arrive at a massive tent set up outside the town hall and after a moment one of the guards steps forwards and addresses Twilight "If you don't mind we will escort the children to their homes while you talk to the other Princesses." Twilight nods and even as the troublesome crusaders start complaining they are led away.
Both Celestia and Luna sit inside, at the head of a huge table, a map of ponyville and the surrounding areas on display. Three generals sit around it who look at the new arrivals Stoically. Celestia doesn't even glance over at them two engrossed in a conversation with one of the generals. Luna however perks up from what must have been a bored expression, and standing she trots over to the Five Elements, her huge form spilling several of the chairs, including one unlucky general who barely scrambles out of the way.
Luna dismisses the guard, though does not react when they fail to obey her order "Twilight Sparkle, Dost thou know why we are here?" she asks simply, a concerned look on her face "I hast heard only the name Valley, I am concerned when my sister does not telleth me these things." Her concern is infectious as the expression quickly spreads to the whole group. Twilight opens her mouth to explain, but a sharp rapping sound of Celestia placing a large stack of paper on the table stops her. Celestia look directly at the group, gesturing to the seats.
As they all sit she begins "I am afraid few of you are used to this, as of an hour ago ponyville has been place under a state of emergency: Truth, until further notice rumours and gossiping are illegal, if you don't get the information from me or one of the royal guard, than it is to be considered a lie. If you have important information you must bring it to us. This is backed up by several magic spells, most of the time you will not be able to vocalize rumours."
"A bit of an exaggerated reaction isn't it?" asks Twilight "Serene Valley wasn't much of a threat, she fled without even attempting to engage us..." she trails off seeing the intense stare Celestia is giving her "I did say in my letter not to pursue her didn't I, I'm sorry Twilight Sparkle, your wrong, Miss Valley is the most dangerous liar we have ever encountered. She has an uncanny knack for getting good pony's to believe in her." Celestia glances at one of her generals "She was good enough to deceive my royal guard into believing her to be dead 20 years ago, and thinking of her having free reign on Equestria gives me shivers."
She glances around "We need to know what she was doing in ponyville, so I would like you to go around town and find out if anything has changed. No matter how insignificant it might seem it might be part of a larger hidden picture. When you get back at lunch tomorrow we will together piece together the puzzle." dismissing the pony's she turns to Luna she speak softer, "I'm sorry I've kept you in the dark, I have a few more things to do then I will fill you in." can be heard as they are ushered out of the tent.
Each of the Elements separate and start heading towards their respective homes, noting that they are being escorted by half a dozen guards each, each of them has a deep look of concern on their faces as they are escorted through the heavily militarized Ponyville. Even the Library has a temporary guard-post set up on top of it, where several Pegasi Guards glare at passers by.
The next day is worse, the number of guard seems to have doubled overnight, and even as they gather a search squad comes out of the forest, rotated for a fresh squad.
Each spend the morning checking up on the people they know, searching to find anything odd as Celestia requested, all five head back to the Tent, noting that it not long is alone, as several smaller tents have been set up to care for the troops.
Inside their appear to be 4 more generals and a bunch or other officers preforming duties that non-military personnel would hardly comprehend. Whatever it was, it involved the map on the table, pins and metal discs being moved across it in seemingly endless patterns.
The room goes silent when they enter, one of the generals turns to face them and with authority in his voice orders them to "Report!" Only to bow his head and move out of the way when Celestia coughs, a moment passes and she requests gently "So what have you found out my little pony's."
As each of them speaks the military personnel move around the table making notes and moving things, appearing to dance to what they say, the first to speak is Pinkie as she says "She came into town yesterday around lunch, and asked me to make a birthday cake for her, she told me not to through her a party because she was leaving to go home. Later Scootaloo came and I threw her a party anyways!" She giggle madly. "Yes that coincides with what we know, her birthday should have been yesterday." Celestia says looking on to the next.
Rarity sighs at her fiends laughter "When I found something interesting, Despite it's rusty appearance, that armor was not actually old, the style is quite a recent creation, I suspect it was made by a griffon blacksmith, I have his details if you want to follow it up."
One of the generals raises an eyebrow and again things move on the table, Celestia speaks again "Griffon, I hope it's just a purchase and not a sign of something bigger."
Applejack speaks up "For the first time no mysterious force have harvested our apples, it could be because of the military, but...."
"No that's right, you produce food, something her magic is incapable of, so it make sense that she looted some from you, probably thought she'd pay you in labor."
When eyes turn to Rainbow Dash she crosses her arms "Not like I could do anything, not aloud to leave Ponyville to track her." Every one looks at her expectantly "Alright, the wings kinda bugged me, so I snuck out to cloudsdale and found that seven pegasus burial sites have been desecrated, and all seven corpses are missing their wings." The inside of the tent goes silent, the only sound the odd twitching sound of Pinkies Mane. The pegasi officers in particular throw looks that could indeed kill.
Finally Luna breaks the silence, quietly speaking, though it could be a shout for how clear she speaks. "Well... I guess it was to be expected, she did have to get those wings somewhere after all."
Twilight speaks up carefully choosing her words because of the dangerous look on the Pegasi's faces "Other than the desecration, what has this Serene really done? she's withdrawn from every fight, and from what you have said worked to pay off her food. Isn't bringing the entire royal guard a little bit of an overreaction?" Luna looks at Celestia, expectantly, after a pause as Celestia reflects on something she says "Twilight, I need to speak to you in private." motioning for her student to follow her into an adjoining tent. Luna turns to continue the discussion with the other elements.
"That was a bad time to say that Twilight." is the first thing her mentor says as they enter the tent seeing Twilight starting to cringe into a panic attack she adds "Minor mistake, but the Pegasi will think less of you for a time until you impress them, you'll do it eventually." She pauses and just before Twilight speaks up Celestia continues "No need, your questions are all related to the quality of information you have, and your uncanny penchant for analyzing the situation without feelings. Let me tell you about Serene Valley, the truths that I feel I must hide from almost all, don't let it spread into gossip and rumors."
Another break "The truth is, Serene is my failing, as you well know you were not the first student I have had, in my lifetime I've taken countless foals under my tutelage. Let me tell you about the last students, the most important being a Foal from the once famous Valley Unicorns. I look her under my tutelage young, younger than you. After her I didn't take another pupil for 300 years." Seeing Twilights eyes open wide she nods "Yes, from what I've been able to gather she is far older than she appears. For years I trained her, taught her, but she was unlike you in one major fashion, she didn't have her cutie mark, and had an unnatural craving for knowledge, yes even more than you. I didn't see it at first, but giving a foal unlimited access to knowledge, giving her infinite resources to find her Cutie mark was a grave mistake."
"She got it, late, and I'm afraid I didn't witness it, all I know is she had broken into the restricted section of my personal library, where ancient treaties and knowledge was stored from my oldest ancestors. The only knowledge she had not read lay within those tomes, even I have not read them. Five years later we were in a war, one of the wors..."
Suddenly a shout rings out, interrupting Celestia "Oh Crud, WHERE'S FLUTTERSHY!"
Celestia and Twilight look at each other "Oh Right, Element of Kindness." Celestia says "You think?"
"Yep."