“THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!”
“Be silent chancellor.” said Celestia at the Canterlot castle meeting room.
“Your highness! Just look at these headlines!” the chancellor said as he put several newspapers on the meeting table. The newspapers headline were all about the Rainbooms stealing the Golden Gem of the Sun. “Don't you see?! This is an embarrassment on all levels!”
“Calm down!” said Celelstia in an impatient tone. “That's enough! I understand the situation!”
“But your highness...just look at this.” he said as read the newspapers, “Like this one: 'Thieves steal royal artifact! Military incompetent?' or this: 'Rainbooms strike again! Biggest steal yet!' This is an embarrassment!”
“I know! And if you do not be silent I will remove you from this meeting immediately!” yelled Celestia.
“My apologies your Highness...” said the chancellor, lowering his head.
Celestia rubbed her eyes with one of her hooves and then spoke up, “Alright, I know you want to use the military to catch these thieves immediately, but we are not going to do that.”
“But-”
“HOWEVER, we will start the search after the peace talks are done with Saddle Arabia, we must make sure we don't go to war! Understand, Chancellor?!”
“Yes...Your Highness...”
“Alright, you're all dismissed...I need to talk to my returning student.” said Celestia as she returned to her throne room. She walked back and saw Sunset just standing there, shivering in her throne room. “Sunset...”
“Princess...I...I...”
“It's fine Sunset.” said Celestia as she began to sit down on her throne. “I am not mad at you.”
“But.....I failed....” said Sunset with hesitation.
“I said it is fine Sunset. It is not your fault.” said Celestia as she then got up and put her wings around Sunset. “It's okay.”
“....Thank you princess...” said Sunset as she began to cry.
“There there, its okay to cry, its fine...”
Sunset began to wipe away her tears and looked up to Celestia. Celestia then spoke up, “Now Sunset, I need to ask you something.”
“Huh?”
“Why do you think I sent you away from Canterlot?”
“I don't understand...”
“I wanted to go out and find friends. This was supposed to be your next lesson.”
“Friends?”
“Yes, now I am going to ask you something. Will you go out and find friends or stay here for more studies?”
Sunset froze for a second, pondering over the question and then answered it, “I...want to go.”
Celestia eyes widened, “Really? Good, that's very good. Well, I will let you leave on one condition.”
“What is it?”
“You will take Spike with you and have him send me friendship reports at least every two weeks.”
“Okay.” said Sunset as she then left the throne room. She then went to her room and alerted Spike of what they were about to do.
“We're leaving? Cool!” said Spike. “Where are we going first?”
“Well, Celestia doesn't have any preference, so I have an idea where to go.”
Meanwhile back in Celestia's throne room...
Celestia's adviser entered the room and then asked, “Do you think this will help her?”
“Sunset? I'm not sure.” said Celestia with concern in her eyes, “I still believe she will not be able to inherit the power... I hope she will be able to inherit it though.”
“What about the other one? The one with the six pointed sparkle?”
“Yes...I think I will need to start the search for that pony...”
“How would you like to proceed with the search?”
“Let's start a census, and make sure we try to look for that cutie mark.”
“Understood, I will have the census started immediately.”
“Start in Canterlot adviser.”
“Canterlot? But if the pony was in Canterlot, wouldn’t we have already found them?”
“No, but we must check everywhere.”
Meanwhile in the Rainboom hideout in Baltimare...
“Well girls, we are now officially one hundred percent famous.” said Twilight.
“No kidding Twi...look at all the headlines.” said Applejack as she looked at the Baltimare newspapers.
“Aw yeah! We rock!” said Rainbow with a giant grin.
“My my darling, that is simply fabulous.” said Rarity.
“YAY!” said Pinkie while dancing with Scootaloo.
“Okay girls. Enough celebrating!” said Twilight with a serious face. “Let's talk about what we are going to do next.”
The others looked at her and then all sat down.
“Okay girls.” said Twilight, “I am hereby splitting up the team for now.”
“Splitting up? But why?” asked Rainbow.
“Right now, due to peace talks the military is currently busy. However, once those talks are over the military will most likely come after us.”
“So, you're suggesting we split so they have a less of a chance to find us?”
“Yes. We will split for a while till the military calms down.”
The others looked at each other and then nodded.
“Alright darling, if that's the case I'll go back to my boutique in Ponyville.” said Rarity.
“Um...I'll go back to Ponyville too, I would love to see my animal friends again.” said Fluttershy.
“Same here, I need to go see mah family again. That and do some apple bucking.” said Applejack with a grin.
“Hmmm...I don't know what to do...” said Rainbow, “Oh I know! Wanna go on a trip little sis?”
“A trip?”
“Yeah Scoots! Let's go traveling!”
“Okay!” said Scootaloo with enthusiasm.
“Oh!Oh! Can I come?” asked Pinkie.
“Uh sure.” said Rainbow.
“Okay, well I will soon return to Manehatten.” said Twilight. “I may need to find a place to hide this gem for now though. It may take a while to find a good buyer...”
A few days later in Manehatten...
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Who is it?!” yelled Trixie as she heard the knocking at her apartment door.
“I am somepony looking into the Rainboom case.” said the pony outside her door.
“Come in.” said Trixie as she used magic to unlock her door. The pony then entered and saw the massive amount of newspapers, strings and pins around the apartment. All of them were about the Rainbooms.
“I see, so you are an expert about the Rainbooms...” said the pony.
“What do you want with Trixie?”
“I was sent here after I went to the Manehatten police department, apparently they gave up on finding the Rainbooms.”
“Indeed they did.”
“They said you never gave up though...I can see that now that I'm in your apartment...”
“I'll ask again, what do you want with Trixie?!” demanded Trixie.
“Simple, my name is Sunset Shimmer and I want your help to catch the Rainbooms.”