All was quiet in the tower. Countless shelves, which used to house thousands of lovingly-maintained books, now stood looking forlorn and empty. The shelves themselves were painstakingly dusted and cleaned several times a week by the castle's staff but there wasn't a single living thing to appreciate that fact.
That is, until seven brightly-colored ponies appeared out of mid-air, shaking their heads and attempting to find their bearings.
Twilight, naturally, was the first to recover. She momentarily forgot their situation as she glanced around the room. "Wow," she whispered, mostly to herself. "This place just doesn't look the same without all my books."
The others were equally as distracted by their new surroundings. "What is this place, Twilight?" Pinkie asked, peering inside an hourglass that was bigger than her, idly tapping the glass.
The unicorn shook her head, coming back to the present. "This is my old library in the castle. Well... it wasn't technically mine, but I was in here so often that the librarians practically gave it to me. In fact, since nopony was reading the books in this section anyway, they let me bring almost all of the books to Ponyville when I moved."
Applejack cocked an eyebrow at that. "Now ah'll be the first ta admit that ah don't do much readin', but ah don't think that's how libraries are meant ta do things."
"Oh it's fine. Nopony was reading them anyway," Twilight assured her, while waving a hoof, not at all assuringly. If one strained their ears, they might have heard the lavender mare mutter something sounding suspiciously like "Philistines."
This prompted Rarity to speak. "Twilight, darling, do the librarians... know that you took the books?"
"Can we focus on what's important here?!" Rainbow Dash demanded, having never moved her severe glare from Shining Armor, even during the teleport. "Or has everypony just forgotten that Shiny, here, wants to put the flock behind bars for no good reason?!"
Immediately, the group was refocused on the poor captain, who now found himself on the receiving end of six very powerful, and very irritated mares, with one of them being his younger sister. Understandably, he gulped.
"Listen, that is just something I have to say for the press. It... It's more of a formality than anything. They're just wanted for questioning so we can get the real story. I've informed the Guard to be as gentle as physically possible when approaching and apprehending them. Besides, you have to admit that this whole situation looks pretty suspicious to somepony who hasn't met them."
Twilight didn't look convinced. "Shiny, you haven't met them."
In an instant, the captain's demeanor changed from timid to indignant. "Oh come on, Twily. I can clearly see how strongly you girls feel about the flock. If you don't suspect them then I don't. What kind of older brother do you take me for?"
"That doesn't... um... seem like an unbiased execution of... uh... your responsibilities as Guard captain," Fluttershy mumbled, cautiously raising her hoof in the air. She was ignored.
"And another thing," Shining Armor continued, oblivious to the nervous pegasus's concern. "Don't you think that with the Guard searching for the flock, we'll have that many more resources to devote to finding them and the Princesses?"
Rainbow Dash seemed as if she were trying desperately to find a way to stay angry. "That... sounds..." She steamed for a moment, then deflated. "Like a pretty okay idea, actually."
He shot her a smug grin. "Great. I was just dying for your approval."
Unfortunately, his sarcasm was lost on the egotistical mare, and her head very nearly swelled visibly. "Heh, thanks. I..." The look of dawning comprehension on her muzzle resembled the author's when he realized he wasn't as great at making comparisons as he thought he was. "You know..." she drawled, as the group shared a chuckle at her expense.
Twilight attempted to get them all back on track. "So..." she began, turning to Shining, "Where do we start looking?"
The grin faded from the captain's muzzle and was replaced by a sheepish expression. "Uh. Actually, we were planning on waiting for you six to make a decision and then follow your lead. There aren't exactly a ton of ideas floating around the Guard."
He wilted as the incredulous gaze of his sister and her friends fell upon him. Shocked silence reigned for several moments before Twilight exploded... literally.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" she roared as flames burst from her mane and tail, bathing the room in heat. "You have nothing?! No plan?! Just 'follow Twilight and her friends?!' That's it?!" The mare took a deep, steadying breath and most of the fire in her hair extinguished, but a few flames still remained as she glared at her brother, silently demanding an answer.
"Look," he began, only the slightest bit terrified by his sister's outburst. "It's not my fault. Every time some monster-of-the-week shows up, the Princess has you and your friends take care of it. Yes, that one time at my wedding it was Cadance and I, but even then the 'battle wasn't won with force or any kind of tactical planning. That's the thing with the Guard. Other than general peacekeeping, we're essentially worthless, because we're never called upon. We were lucky that those monsters weren't interested in fighting any longer, or we would be in a lot more trouble." At this point, Twilight had almost completely calmed down, but Shining knew he ought to watch his step.
"All I'm saying is that, sadly, you girls are more prepared for this kind of conflict than we are. We'll help in any way we can, but we're gonna have to defer to you on this one."
Twilight shook her head as the last few tongues of flame went out in her mane. Her brother visibly relaxed, as his chances of getting out of this without being castrated and/or burned in the third-degree had just doubled. "I guess I can understand that," the mare said. "But I'm having a serious discussion with Celestia about how the Royal Guard is run as soon as this is all over."
Shining Armor chuckled lightly, staring at his hooves. "That's all I can really ask for."
Rarity looked around for a moment, searching for a way to tactfully dissolve the tension that had been building for the past few minutes. She raised a hoof to her mouth and was about to daintily clear her throat when Rainbow Dash opted for a much more direct approach.
"Sooo... Not that seeing all of Twilight's family drama hasn't been just loads of fun, but does anypony have any actual ideas about where to find the Nightmare and by proxy, the princesses and the flock?"
Applejack shot her a sideways glance. "Proxy?" she asked, raising a questioning eyebrow and smirking slightly.
The pegaus wilted. "Just because I used to think reading was stupid doesn't mean I can't enhance my vocabulary now."
"You better be careful," Pinkie teased, poking Rainbow in the side. "You don't want to become some crazy egghead like Twilight."
The unicorn in question blushed and looked her hooves, but she giggled, regardless. Shining Armor, however, looked as if he desperately wished he had chosen a different line of work.
"Um... Girls, I think we've gotten a little off track," Fluttershy pointed out, and for once she was not ignored.
Twilight' blush faded and she looked up, a much more serious expression on her face. "You're right, Fluttershy. Our friends and the princesses are in trouble while we're just sitting here laughing."
"You got something against laughing?" Pinkie demanded, invading the last surviving shreds of what Twilight liked to call her "Personal Space Bubble" and fixing the lavender mare with a soul-chilling glare.
"N... no," Twilight stuttered uncomfortably, levitating the earth pony away from her. "I simply mean that there's a time and a place for it, and right now we should focus on rescuing the flock and the princesses. Now, does anypony have any ideas about where they could be?"
Several shrugs, some shaking heads, and one utterance of "Beats the buck outta me," indicated that there were, in fact, no ideas.
She sighed. "I thought so. Well then. Let's think this through logically. Obviously, the flock, the flyboys, and the whitecoats arrived in the Everfree Forest. Since, so far, there haven't been reports of bipedal machines anywhere else in Equestria, we have to assume that they're still in there somewhere. Knowing that, and how many of them there actually are, that only leaves one logical place they're hiding-The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters."
She smiled as she said this, waiting for the inevitable applause for her deductions. Crickets chirped.
"Rather cliche, isn't it?" Rarity said, interrupting the insects' beautiful melody.
If Twilight had been taking a drink, she would have spewed water all over Rarity's perfectly coiffed mane. "What?"
"Well, think about it. The Nightmare just happens to show up again, and then decides to go back to the same place she waas defeated last time? In fact, it's not just cliche, it's downright idiotic."
Rainbow Dash groaned. "Ugh. Who cares? She has to be pretty dumb to go up against us again. If we know where they're hiding, then let's go take 'em down."
Collectively, the seven ponies came to an agreement to, "just roll with it," and Twilight fired up her horn. Before she was able to finish the teleportation spell, however, she was interrupted by Pinkie's screech of "Twilight, wait!"
The unicorn panicked and killed the energy around her horn, eyes wide and frantic as she darted them around, expecting an attack. "What? What's wrong, Pinkie Pie?"
The strange earth pony just smiled her infuriating I-know-more-than-you smile and asked, "Don't you think that constantly using teleportation as a scene change is pretty lazy writing?"
To her credit, Twilight knew better than to question Pinkie's train of thought (even though she was pretty sure the poofy-haired mare had just accused her of being lazy) and simply shrugged before turning towards the door to begin the walk back to the castle and make plans. The rest of the Elements of Harmony bearers followed her, but Shining Armor did not.
His poor brain was still attempting to decipher everything they had said. It took several long seconds for him to notice that he was now alone in the tower, and he quickly trotted out to catch up to his sister and her friends, muttering about how he needed to hang out with guys more.