"Now class, can any pony tell me what this is?"
Half of the young ponies in the classroom keenly observed Cheerilee extend a rod towards the upper portions of a professionally drawn-out map of Equestria. A few of the inattentive ones rolled their eyes at yet another dissatisfying lecture of the history of Ponyville. One filly stretched her head comfortably in the back of her chair. A young colt in the far back was already fast asleep with drool dripping onto his desk. Applebloom merrily picked up her pencil and wrote out the day's subject at the top of her paper.
Sweetie Belle excitedly raised her hoof in the air. "Oh! Oh! Oh!" She thrilled at the chance of giving out correct answers whenever she could in class.
"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"
"Cloudsdale!"
"That's correct," Cheerilee congratulated the young filly. "Many pegasi grow up with their parents in this city. There, they learn how to fly and control their wings."
A pony in the back shouted with a hoarse voice, "But Cheerilee, we see pegasi come down here all the time."
Cheerilee retracted her pointer and stepped closer to the class. "Yes, and do you know why?"
Diamond Tiara lifted up a block eraser and twirled the corner on top of her desk. Without raising a hoof, she threw a glance towards Scootaloo. "Is it because they have nothing better to do?"
Unamused, Cheerilee turned to the apathetic filly. "Why would you think that?"
"Rainbow Dash just lays around all the time," Diamond Tiara stated while aggressively planting her hoof on her desk.
Applebloom interrupted, "Now wait a minute! Rainbow Dash helps with the weather!"
"Yes, Applebloom," Cheerilee complimented, "that is correct. Cloudsdale houses one of the largest weather factories in Equestria. Each section is designated a season with a specific element in mind. They provide rain clouds to help with the crops. Snowflakes are delicately checked each winter. On certain occasions, you'll see pegasi form rainbows out from the clouds - like the one from yesterday. Does any pony know what they do during the first day of Spring?"
The classroom fell silent. The only interested filly was the one sitting in the front row raising her hoof for the second time.
"Any pony else want to try an answer?" Cheerilee asked with a disgruntled look on her face. After a brief moment she called upon the anxious unicorn. "Alright, Sweetie Belle. Go ahead."
"They bring back the summer birds."
"That's correct," Cheerilee happily replied.
Diamond Tiara slipped closer and pointed directly at Scootaloo. "But Cheerilee, why aren't all the pegasi in Cloudsdale?"
Scootaloo's temper flared. "Hey!"
Cheerilee posed a rebuttal to the snarky remark. "That can be answered through our genealogy. In rare cases, certain ponies grow up to be different than their parents." After noticing our presence outside the classroom she concluded, "But we'll have to save that topic for another time. Why don't you all take the next few minutes drawing one thing you are thankful for having that comes from Cloudsdale."
The five of us patiently waited outside the schoolhouse, careful not to upset Cheerilee's instructions to the young ones. No doubt a teacher's job is already hard enough keeping twenty young ponies in line. There was no reason to add to that stress with a heavy-handed interruption. Cheerilee placed the rod inside the drawer on her desk and motioned us to come inside the classroom. Only our leader, Twilight Sparkle, physically entered through the open door. The rest of the merry band, myself included, stayed outside not to crowd an already crowded classroom.
"Thanks for waiting," Cheerilee sighed.
"We didn't mean to interrupt," Twilight replied, "but can we talk to the girls real quick?"
"Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle. Applebloom. I believe there are some ponies here to see you."
The three fillies hopped out of their chairs and strolled towards the front of the classroom. The pace in their steps tattled on the girls. Though our reason for visiting was to extract information, the way their ears drooped down made it feel like we were there to scold them. Not sure what kind of trouble the Cutie Mark Crusaders could make in one day. Perhaps it had to do something with the scratch on Scootaloo's ankle. What could they have known that we did not?
Applebloom scratched her mane. "What's going on?"
"I think it would be better if we talk outside," Twilight suggested.
The three fillies meandered outside the classroom before Twilight Sparkle closed the door. Sumica and I played with the grass in the shade under a nearby tree when Fluttershy approached the trying threesome.
Fluttershy politely lowered her head. "Girls, have any of you seen Rarity?"
"She isn't at home?" Sweetie Belle questioned.
"No." Fluttershy explained, "I went to the Boutique like we planned this morning. The door was open, but there was no one inside. I had hoped you all might have known where she had gone."
Sweetie Belle recounted, "That's strange. Her door was shut on our way to school. She's probably just still mad about-"
"Shh!" Scootaloo sibilated.
Twilight retorted, "Mad? Why would Rarity be mad?"
Before Sweetie Belle could respond, Applebloom blurted, "No reason! We went home and, uh..."
"Did our homework!" Scootaloo quickly exclaimed.
Sumica surprised me with a small chuckle. She stretched out her wings for a brief moment and approached the kids. Her posture cast a slight shadow over Applebloom's face. "What didn't you do?" she remarked with a coy smirk on her face.
Applebloom panicked. "Well, we thought Moonlight was going to meet up with us after class yesterday, but when he didn't show up, we thought it would be a good idea to have our own little adventure ahead of time."
Fluttershy meekly asked, "You went without us?"
Scootaloo stammered, "We go all the time. We just didn't think... I mean, nothing happened, except..."
"What happened?" Twilight asked like a mother catching her child with their hoof in the cookie jar.
Sweetie Belle recalled, "Well, we went into the woods."
Twilight chastised, "You went into the Everfree Forest by yourselves?"
"And we fell down this huge hole," Applebloom added, waving her hooves out as far as she could stretch them.
"Goodness!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
Scootaloo fretted, "It was dark. Really dark. We couldn't see anything. We got split up and-"
"How did you get out?" Sumica interjected.
Sweetie Belle perked up. "Scootaloo got us out."
Utterly confused, Scootaloo objected, "What, no. Applebloom got the rope."
"What?" Applebloom corrected, "Sweetie Belle was the one who threw the rope down."
Sumica's demeanor shifted to a more serious tone. "Did any of you see who got the rope?"
The way the three fillies looked at each other and shook their heads was very disconcerting. However, I was more concerned with Sumica's reaction. Her body suddenly repelled from the three as if the shade of the tree had pulled on her shadow.
An experienced traveler could have witnessed the event and threw down a piece of rope from their pack. That would be one logical interpretation that would help explain their predicament. Only a pessimist would refashion the circumstances into some kind of conspiracy. But who would simply toss the rope over and leave the scene without saying a word? Could Rainbow Dash, Rarity, or Applejack have come to their rescue? If so, where are they now?
Sumica turned her head and looked directly at me. Without saying anything specific, the tone of her words carried a sense of substantiated fear. "This is odd. Very odd."
Applebloom scrunched up her face. "Do you think Rarity is with my sister?"
"Applejack?" I asked, rising from the tree shade. "I saw Applejack with Big Macintosh out in the fields yesterday."
Applebloom surmised, "They were probably working on another large shipment of apples. When an order gets too big, they usually hire another pony to come help with the delivery. Rarity might have volunteered... but I figured they would be back by now."
Twilight deduced, "They would have passed by Sugarcube Corner on their way out of town. Pinkie Pie, did you happen to see Apple-" She turned her head around. "Pinkie Pie?
It suddenly became apparent that Pinkie Pie was missing from the group. We weren't too concerned for the bouncing ball of fluff since her stealth and guile would rival even some of Princess Luna's students. Fortunately, when Pinkie Pie wants attention, she makes it widely known.
"There!" shouted the sound of a Pinkie Pie inside the classroom.
Cheerilee complimented, "Very good, Pinkie."
Twilight opened the door. In front of the whole class stood Pinkie Pie with a white piece of chalk in her hoof. She drew a crude, yet accurate representation of herself playing in the snow with clouds above her head. It was unclear how Pinkie Pie managed to phase through the closed door, materialize on the other side, knew exactly what activity the teacher assigned the class, and still had enough time to finish her drawing in such a short time span. How no one noticed her sneak past the group was any pony's guess.
Twilight asked, "Pinkie, what are you doing?"
"Drawing snow."
Shortly thereafter, a paper airplane landed by my hooves. A filly resting by the window was trying their hardest not to make eye contact with me. Despite wanting to throw it back, I levitated the paper plane with my magic horn and carried it back to her desk. I flipped back the wings and bent the corners. The piece of paper now took the shape of a swan.
Snails, from the neighboring desk, keenly observed my every move. "Oh look! A duck!" he gleefully shouted once I was done.
Twilight bowed her head. "Thank you for letting us borrow the girls, Cheerilee. We'll let you get back to your lesson."
"No problem," Cheerilee replied.
Twilight commanded, "Moonlight. Pinkie Pie. Come on."
Stepping back outside under the sun triggered a nagging feeling on the back of my neck. A fragmented memory was creeping just above the surface of my hippocampus. With a pinched nerve here and a little bit of pressure there, I tried my hardest to decipher what my body was trying to tell me. Something was scheduled to happen. Something important enough to distract me from fully listening to the group's conversation. Then, inspiration struck. "Isn't there supposed to be a rainbow scheduled to come down about now?"
As if fulfilling my own prophecy, something appeared in the sky - a shadowy speck too close to the sun to properly identify. It grew larger and larger until it landed right next to us.
"There you guys are!" Rainbow Dash shouted in between breaths. The tip of her left wing dragged across the ground when she approached us. Her mane drooped low over her face as if it was recently drenched with water.
Pinkie energetically declared, "Wow, Moonlight! Didn't think you could forecast a pegasus like that."
With a worried look on her face, Twilight remarked, "Where have you been?"
"There was a fire," Rainbow Dash quickly huffed, still trying to catch her breath.
Sumica abruptly galloped closer to Rainbow Dash and tugged on her shoulder. "Where?"
Rainbow Dash pointed up into the distance with her right wing. "Cloudsdale."
Fluttershy clasped her hooves together. "Did any pony get hurt?"
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to respond, but her high-paced lungs prevented her from speaking. She briefly raised her hoof up as her head collapsed from exhaustion. Small water droplets trickled from the top of her mane and the tip of her nose. After a short moment, she shook off the last bit of water still clinging to her wings.
While regaining her composure, Rainbow Dash apologized, "Sorry about that. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find you guys. There was a fire inside the Weather Factory. We tried to control the damage as best we could but... every time we put out a fire in one section, another one would pop up in a whole different department. We had issues just figuring out where to put the rain clouds. The scientists said it was coming from somewhere in the pipeline."
I asked, "What could have caused it?"
Rainbow Dash added, "They aren't sure, but the fire team evaluated each case. They were all completely isolated - caused by short, concentrated bursts. The only thing that could have caused something like that is-"
"A dragon," Sumica imposed.
Pinkie hopped forward. "A dragon? Why would a dragon do that? The only dragon I know is Spike and he certainly wouldn't do something like that."
Rainbow replied, "I'm not sure. They burned right through the safety valves on the main line. The workers are having a field day trying to get things back on schedule."
"We have another problem," Twilight commented. "Both Rarity and Applejack are missing."
Rainbow Dash replied, "You don't think..."
Fluttershy suggested, "If what Sweetie Belle said was true, we should probably check the Boutique again."
"It would definitely be a good place to start," Twilight stated. "We should get moving."
The Carousel Boutique felt more hollow than usual. An unwelcoming cold breeze rattled the window by the store's balcony. The lights weren't on in the entryway. The pony mannequins on display weren't wearing any attire. There were clothes on the floor. It appeared Rarity closed up the shop in a hurry and completely forgot to shut the front door. The entrance left a pale impression of a proper trendsetter.
Twilight nudged the door open and peered inside. A desk was peppered with pins, needles, thread, scissors, and other miscellaneous dress making tools. About ten different outfits neatly hung on a clothes rack by the wall. A few garment pieces covered over half of a circular stage in front of the mirrors. Despite the mess, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Rainbow Dash approached the center of the room. "Rarity? Are you in here?"
Fluttershy asked, "Do you think she might be upstairs?"
The staircase had enough room to fit all six of us in the hallway. Sumica faltered behind when observing a simple vase tucked away in the wall. I held onto the side railing as Twilight and Rainbow Dash approached the door.
Twilight jiggled the knob. "Rarity?" She knocked on the door. "Are you in there?"
Rainbow Dash pounded on the door. "Rarity! Answer us!"
Without a response, Rainbow Dash turned her back towards the door and revved up her hind legs. Sumica intruded up the stairwell and touched Dash's shoulder. In her hoof held a bobby pin pulled from the desk downstairs. In under a minute, Sumica inserted the hairpin into the keyhole, unlocked the door, and swung it open.
A table filled of designer plans, with different ceremonial garments on sketchpads, were prominently displayed in the center of the room. Ripped rolls of silk material stretched across the bedroom floor. A small tapping sound emanated from the open window each time the wind brushed up against it. The window curtains hanging loose on the right side prevented the much needed sunlight to see behind Rarity's bed. A mannequin with obvious scuff marks and a chipped ear laid dormant next to a decorative chest.
Pinkie pushed out the window and looked into the balcony area. "I don't see anything out here."
"Look here!" Sumica stated, approaching the notes on the table.
Upon closer inspection, three distinct claw marks, five inches wide and one inch deep, tore open the edge of the table. After shuffling through all the papers, one bearing a thinly-stretched layer of black leather near the top and bottom of the note stood out from the others. Written on the scroll with black ink and a fine-tipped brush were two indistinguishable rows of letters and symbols:
wi |*| ma ogiV .|`| xokovnu ogut aeC
.niuvu jxnoikw kaec ooj eh hnuf kogo aec
Pinkie pointed at the document. "Hey look. It's more of those squiggles."
Rainbow Dash inquired, "What does it say?"
Twilight stepped closer to the table. "I don't know. I never was able decipher their language."
Sumica placed her hoof over the parchment, spent a few seconds staring at the words, and then closed her eyes. "It says, 'If you ever want to see your friends again, you will give us the artifact.'"
I shrilled, "You can read that?!"
Fluttershy creased her eyebrows. "Artifact?"
Sumica abruptly pushed the note off the side of the table. She leaned in and grabbed both sides of her head. "Why is this happening again?"
I asked, "It's that necklace they want, isn't it?"
Sumica opened her eyes and instinctively grabbed hold of the jewel hanging around her neck. She flipped the gemstone around and caressed the metallic casing. "Why did it have to come to this? If only you told me more, Day Star."
Rainbow Dash shouted, "Alright, spill it! What's going on?"
Twilight exclaimed, "Dash!"
Sumica's breathing deepened. "It's alright. I haven't exactly been forthcoming about what has been happening." She seized the moment to peel back the curtain and examine Cloudsdale in the distance. "An enemy, a dark shadow has been chasing us for awhile now."
Twilight asked, "What enemy?"
Sumica responded while looking at the group, "Maybe I should start from the beginning. We can all agree that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna watches over Equestria. However, where I come from, things are much different. To protect their cities from invaders, the princesses enacted the Guardian Act. Day Star's duty was to protect Manestone. Night Star was stationed in Canterlot. Princess... Twilight, due to her age at the time, was charged with maintaining the castle grounds with the assistance of her brother, Shining Armor. And, for a time, I was given the order to keep an eye on Cloudsdale.
"That all changed when a rumor spread of a traitor in our midst. We dismissed it at first. Then the attacks started. Ponies started to go missing. A few unicorns accused Night Star as the perpetrator behind the strikes, saying that they personally witnessed him set fire to the town house.
"We held a council meeting on what to do, Night Star included. Princess Celestia presented us with the knowledge of what the enemy was after, a stone said to have the power to change the world. Princess Twilight quickly dismissed the claim, stating the stone had gone through some metamorphosis. Whatever the case, Day Star enacted a plan to lure the criminals out of the shadows. But then suddenly the attacks stopped. And we never did figure out why."
The sudden importance of the necklace drove me closer for a second look. The golden shapes wrapped around the jewel still eluded me. Yet the colorful swirls inside the gem appeared much bigger than this morning as if they erupted on their ends like flames inside a torch. One could mistakenly identify the stone's build as a heart if only the curvature slanted a little more inward.
Fluttershy bluntly stated, "Should we panic?"
Sumica's posture wilted as she touched the claw marks imprinted into the table's edge. Her eyebrows drew closer together as her hoof rubbed against one of Rarity's notebooks. Twilight followed suit and circled around the table. She leaned her head closer to the splintered wood.
"What is it?" Pinkie asked, keenly observing the two detectives.
The gears in my mind churned as well as I attempted to piece together the crime scene. The rough indentations on the mannequin suggested it was lifted up from its side. If the assailant threw the mannequin at Rarity, she would have deflected the blow with her magic. This inferred that something else was previously pinned underneath.
Though what really puzzled the three of us was how all the immaculate designs and notebooks ended up on top of the table without a scratch on them. If a struggle occured, they would have easily slid off just like the parchment Sumica pushed over the side. This denotes that they were intentionally placed on top afterwards. But why would the enemy purposely examine these sketches? Were they looking for something in the outfits?
Another problem troubled me. It was how the letter was presented to us in its entirety. Only Sumica could have possibly read the writings, but they deliberately left it in the Carousel Boutique. Why state "friends" when Sumica only had a day to become acquainted with us, little known never meeting Applejack and Rarity? Could they be referring to some other ponies?
Before I could draw any conclusions, Sumica picked up the ransom note lying face down on the ground. "Curious. This material. I've seen this before."
"You have?" Twilight asked.
"Yes. And I believe it leads us to our next destination."
I asked, "Where might that be?"
"A little place inside a mountain. It might just hold the answers we're looking for."