Cracking the case
Canterlot Valley, outside the dome...
The evening sun was setting over the Equestrian capital of Canterlot, causing the city's shopkeepers to close up for the night... and the tavern owners to open. Most respectable ponies were clearing off the streets, and mothers were tucking their foals in for the night. It was the kind of night the pony poets wrote words of romance about. But far up in the tower of Canterlot Castle sat a mare who could draw no joy from the night that was just beginning around her...
...for she was not the one who had crafted this very night....
Princess Luna, the sole ruler of the principality of Equestria, stared up at the evening sky in sadness. Hanging above her was a moon that orbited naturally around the planet, sharing the sky with stars that shined naturally from billions of miles away. The natural laws of science now held sway in a sky that was once her own, leaving the alicorn powerless to do anything, except observe the night sky above her.
"Oh, sister... it doth sadden us that mother nature is so much greater a craftspony than we."
Fifty years. It had been fifty long years since nature had returned to controlling the sky and weather, and Ponykind had still not recovered from the sudden inability to shape their own environment. The Princess still remembered that dark day, when the sun rose on it's own, without Celestia. She remembered the cries of agony from her subjects all over the kingdom, as the true sun shined forth and burned their retinas for the first time in a thousand years. And she remembered the powerlessness she felt as many of them went blind from the experience.
"We did fail them, Celestia." Luna tried to hold back tears. "They looked to us for leadership and comfort, when the world did change. And we failed them miserably."
By that afternoon the reports had begun pouring in from Cloudsdale- the city was breaking up, dissipating into the normal clouds that filled the sky. The natural weather over the everfree forest quickly spread to the rest of the planet like a virus, and the Pegasus all over the kingdom found themselves unable to shape the clouds or affect the weather. Over the next several months, the number of Pegasus suicides had skyrocketed into the thousands, a depression among a species of Pony that now felt they had no purpose, no reason for living.
"What good are we to Equestria now, my princess?" A weeping Pegasus mare had once asked her. "Unicorns can still do magic, earth ponies are still tuned to the soil... but we are nothing but pony-birds now! Totally useless!"
But as saddening as these events were to Luna, the worst shock was to come to her that very night. A moon rose in the sky, that was not the magically constructed one she controlled. No, it was that ugly, crater-filled rock that her mother told her existed out beyond the atmosphere. Try as she might, not a star in the sky would even twinkle at her command. Her domain, her special talent, had been taken away by a force greater than she ever would be.
"But this isn't the first time we failed our subjects... was it, sister?" Luna finally let a tear roll down her cheek. "We failed the citizens of Ponyville a hundred and fifty years ago."
Luna looked down off the mountainside, towards the massive black dome that covered nearly a third of the Equestria valley. To the princess's eyes, it resembled an ugly, malformed blotch upon the landscape. A infections growth on the beautiful valley floor. This evil scar was a reminder... a memento of how she and her sister had allowed politicians to close off Ponyville and the surrounding area, out of fear that the plague would spread.
"The plague could endanger our subjects, they said." Luna spat, mocking their tone. "It could render all of ponykind childlike idiots, they said!"
It was only in the last few years, that Luna began to question her and Celestia's decision. Could something have been done to help the infected Ponies in Ponyville? Did she and her sister do enough to try and cure the plague, before condemning the inhabitants of the Harmony Bearer's hometown to an eternity of stupidity?
All of the Ponies involved with that stupid theme park project were long dead, and the court's unicorn medics believed the Plague had burned itself out long ago. She could easily order the dome brought down with little complaint from the populace, but Luna feared what she might find under there. Were a bunch of childlike, mentally deficient ponies waiting beneath the dome? Luna did not want to have to put down any degenerate ponies who might be a threat to the rest of Equestria!
"Oh Sister, we know not what to do!" Luna told the picture of Celestia on her mantle. "How we wish thee were still here to advise me!"
"Princess Luna! Princess Luna!" A Pegasus guard came galloping in, nearly out of breath. "The Pony Republic is under attack! Tirek's goblin hordes are tearing their armies to shreds!"
"What? How did he breach their defenses?" Luna asked in shock. "How are the earth ponies holding up?"
"Coltonville and the frontier towns have been totally destroyed!" The guard replied. "The dark lord will be in the capital in a matter of hours!"
"The Republic are our most powerful allies on the continent of Ponyland! If they fall, only we and Dream Valley will remain! " Luna replied. "Ready six battalions of our best Pegasus! We fly to thier aid at once!"
The Pegasus saluted, and galloped out of the room. Looking back at the dome, Princess Luna frowned.
"We are truly sorry, sister." Luna whinnied sadly. "But the question of Ponyville will have to wait!"
Within the dome...
It was mid afternoon at the Ponyville beach, and several ponies were at play there. It was shortly after noon, however, when two mares came trotting up to Skywishes, interrupting her about an important matter.
"Skywishes, could we have a word with you, please?"
The mare with the kite cutie mark, who was busy repairing a broken kite string, looked up to see Puzzlemint and Fiesta Flair standing in front of her.
"Oh hey girls! Just give me a minute, ok?" The smiling pony replied. "I need to fix this string on Apple Spice's kite."
"You know seniorita, it's funny you mention Apple Spice." Fiesta replied calmly. "She was in Twinkle Twirl's dance troupe, de one you were kicked out of, Si?."
"W-what of it?" The earth mare whinnied nervously, sweat trickling down her mane. "I don't care what Twinkle Twirl's dumb old dance troupe does!"
"Blimey, you know what the one mistake a would be assassin could make, Miss Skywishes?" Puzzlemint smirked, staring at Skywishes through her magnifying glass. "Trying to get back at ponies she was angry at by framing them for the death of her target."
"Which iz exactly what you did with making sure the dancers were on site when you and your partner rigged de coaster, seniorita."
Skywishes's eyes darted around nervously, and she put her face her her hooves and looked like she was about to cry. But suddenly, the earth mare charged straight at the two detective ponies, knocking them to the ground.
"You two ignorant mares!" She screamed, as she turned and galloped away. "That dragon will kill us all!"
"After her!" Puzzlemint called, and she and Fiesta followed in hot pursuit.
As the ran near the beach, Sunny Daze and Sparkle Works saw them, as they were waxing thier surf boards.
"Hey, what're you dudettes doing?" Sunny asked in surprise, as the two friends galloped out in front of the fleeing Skywishes. "This some kind of new game?"
"Sunny! She's the one who rigged the coaster!" Puzzlemint yelled. "She tried to kill Spike!"
Sunny Daze looked at Skywishes, the sweet and kind pony she had known her whole life, not wanting to believe it was true. But as soon as she saw the flash of guilt in the mares eyes, Sunny's Daze's face contorted into a look of rage.
"HOW COULD YOU!?!" The beach pony screamed in anger, spinning around and horse-kicking Skywishes back against the beach's boardwalk rail. "YOU TRIED TO KILL A FRIEND! YOU'VE BETRAYED EVERYTHING IT MEANS TO BE A PONY!"
Sunny tried to charge at Skywishes again, but another mare rammed her from behind, surprising Sunny Daze, and knocking her out.
"Et tu, Sparkleworks?" Puzzlemint shook her mane, as the other mare helped skywishes up. "I can't say I'm surprised, really."
"Que? Spakleworks?!?" Fiesta snorted in surprise. "Why you... you traidor podrido!
"How do you think she knew how to sabotage the coaster? And who do ya think convinced Spike to ride?" The two detectives thought they had the two mares, but Sparkleworks suddenly threw something down, and there was a large puff of smoke. "Later, losers!"
"Hey!" Fiesta asked angrily, looking around. ""Whered dey go?"
"It doesn’t matter now!" Puzzlemint snorted angrily. "Just help me get Sunny up, and let's get back to celebration castle!"
...
"Skywishes..." Star Catcher said in shock, shaking her mane sadly. "The very pony who brought our tribes together in the first place... I just can't believe it!"
"I wish it weren't true." Princess Wysteria replied, looking at the two community leaders who had come to see her. "Skywishes has a lot of earth pony friends who were hurt by this betrayal deeply."
"Blimey, Sparklework's betrayal was just as bad."
"What of the Pegasus traitor?" Lily Light asked, trying to be sensitive, but at the same time keep things on task.
"Cloud Climber has disappeared." Star Catcher told them. "I have as many Pegasus as I can spare out looking for her."
"This conspiracy goes deeper than any of us realize." Wysteria looked at the other two seriously. "Anything suspicious you two see in your communities, please inform me at once, all right?"
"Understood." The other three leaders agreed in unison. Star Catcher did not mention, however, that another world-altering conspiracy was going on behind the earth pony princess's back, and she was a part of it!
"Let us hope we can capture all of these would be- assailants, before they seriously hurt somebody." The queen of butterfly island added nervously.
...
"We have to get that blasted dragon, now!" Skywishes yelled angrily, string at the other four mares who had reluctantly agreed to meet them. "He is a threat to all that we hold dear!"
"If he breaches the dome, it will awaken Twinkle Wish- the park's backup maintenance magic construct." Sparkleworks added. "And you ALL know what that means..."
"We don't need those tiny terrors running loose in Ponyville." The first Pegasus shuddered. "Those.... those unspeakable creatures will overrun and destroy our misguided friends, before they even have a chance to fight back,."
All of the ponies present shivered at the thought of the miniature, pony-like horrors that Twinkle Wish would unleash. These six, along with the two dead unicorns, were the descendants of the investor ponies, who stayed behind to watch over the park. The tales passed down from each generation of their families to the next, about the park's darkest secret... they were too terrifying to even speak aloud!
"It was Twinkle Wishes' duty to make sure that there were always ponies to greet guests that came to the park ." The two Breezies said in unison, reminding the others of what was at stake. "If there was something that would allow the Town's population of Ponies to freely leave... then that magic construct would make 'ponies' to first eliminate them, then replace them."
"Then let us lake one for last opportunity to try and make sure that does not occur." Cloud Climber finished. "We must stop their foolish plans to bring down the barrier! For if the dragon and the 'smart' ponies succeed, then this tiny world, as we know it, shall end forever."