The small earth pony and unicorn stood at the corner of the intersection right next to Town Hall, glancing around nervously. They'd left the building only a few moments prior, excited about their new lead for their investigations, and were eagerly awaiting telling Scootaloo the good news. The problem was, Scootaloo was not where they left her, and although the pegasus was more than welcome to wander off if she so felt like it, it didn't bode well for the remaining two.
"Do you think she got bored and went home?" Sweetie Belle asked, her eyes instinctively scanning overhead.
Apple Bloom put a hoof on Sweetie's shoulder and gently shook her head, before the latter realized what she was doing and lowered her gaze.
"She's a Crusader. Crusader's never go home."
"Unless it's past our bedtime," Sweetie added.
"Well, yeah," Bloom agreed.
"Ah feel kinda bad that we left her out like that," Bloom said. "We maybe overreacted a bit. She didn't mean any harm by what she said. And she wasn't wrong."
"I know, but she still shouldn't have said it," Sweetie said.
After a few more minutes of searching, the two came up empty. Neither of them noticed the dark shadow that had slipped up behind them, nor the dull green ripple that enveloped it.
A hoof touched Sweetie Belle's shoulder from behind, and the unicorn yelped so loudly that Apple Bloom jumped, and both spun around. The filly standing behind them was not necessarily one that they wanted to see at that moment, and Sweetie's smile vanished from her face.
"What do you want?" She asked.
"Me?" Silver Spoon pretended to look hurt. "I don't want anything. I just thought you might want to... hang out."
"Are you an alien?" Bloom demanded.
"WHATNO!" Silver sputtered. "I mean... of course not." Smooth.
"Good enough for me," Sweetie said. "If you want to hang out with us, we're about to go over to Twilight's Library to continue our searching. You can come if you like." After all, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were an equal opportunity organization, and although Silver Spoon was disqualified from joining, it didn't mean they couldn't be polite to her.
"Yeah. Great," Silver said, smiling a bit.
"Well come on then," Sweetie said, the three of them racing off towards the center of town.
---
"Just a little to the left, Spike."
"Alright..."
The little dragon was straining to push an enormous empty book shelf into place, and had been doing so for about ten minutes. There wasn't much room left in the library for book space, and a new series of shelves had been Twilights gift to herself.
"Now just a little to the right..." Twilight stood nearby, mentally calculating and overseeing this new project.
Spike pushed and heaved the large object to the right, barely able to tell if it was even sliding on the floor or not.
"There! Perfect!"
"But that's exactly where it was five minutes ago!" Spike gasped for breath. "What are you putting on this bookshelf anyway?"
"My collection of books on how to install bookcases," Twilight said eagerly, and Spike groaned before flopping over on the floor. The front buzzer rang, and Twilight perked up. "Visitors!" She squealed. "Once again the task of imparting new knowledge on young minds falls to me! You wait there, Spike," she said, as Spike gave a thumbs up.
Twilight opened the door, her eyes falling upon her guests. "Girls!" She said. "How nice to see you." She glanced in confusion at Silver Spoon, but said nothing regarding it. "Where's Scootaloo today?"
"We're not sure," Apple Bloom said. "We're hoping she catches up with us soon. Do you have any books on-" Her words were cut off by a white hoof in her mouth. Mmm, mini marshmallows!
"Biology," Sweetie Belle interrupted. "We want to know about biology."
"Second floor, third stack from the left," Twilight said. "Can I help you with-"
"Thanks!" All three chorused, before running between her legs and up the stairs.
Twilight brightened, and returned to her assistant. "Are you alright, Spike?"
The dragon was getting to his feet, rubbing his shoulder. "That was heavy, man," he complained. "How come you can't use your horn for that?"
Twilight blinked. "Oh yeah," she sad. Spike glared.
Further conversation was cut short by a shriek from upstairs, and Twilight immediately teleported out of sight.
"Now she remembers," Spike sighed.
Twilight appeared on the second floor landing to find the three fillies gathered around the floor looking at a large, older book. One that had quite a few pictures in it.
"THAT'S how it works?" Apple Bloom exclaimed.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sweetie said.
"Awesome..." Silver Spoon whispered, staring at the pages.
"Girls, what are you-" Twilight took a few steps forward, enough to see what exactly was in the pictures, and all the color drained from her face.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She yelled so loudly that the windows of the library rattled. The book was immediately grabbed with her magic and closed, yanked out of their grasp.
"We told you we wanted t'study biology," Apple Bloom said. "Technically we ain't liars."
"And not a single other pony we asked would tell us where foals came from, they always either shut a door in our face or just refuse to tell us," Sweetie Belle said angrily. "Why would ANYPONY want to mount..."
"That's enough!" Twilight said; so quickly her voice cracked.
"Now... girls... um... there's things, in there, that you saw, we should talk about... no... I have a research paper on... no..." She paced nervously back and forth, her eye twitching.
"We broke Twilight again," Apple Bloom said.
Twilight came to her senses after a minute or two and hissed at them with such severity that all three didn't dare oppose her.
"Wait. Here." She said in a dead whisper. "I need to contact your sisters."
And with that she disappeared in a purple flash, just as Spike came up the stairs. He looked at the empty space where Twilight had been, then at the three fillies. "What did you do? What did you see?"
"I... don't know..." Sweetie Belle admitted. "But the mystery deepens once again. Nopony in their right mind would do the things in those pictures. That's just wrong."
"What kinda things?" Spike asked.
"Well the stallion looked like he was-"
Twilight teleported into existence once more, wordlessly grabbed Spike, and disappeared.