The Status Quo

by AppleJared

The Disappearing Act

"Well sug, I don't know," Applejack replied. "It seems awful strange... and just plum awful as well."

There was a silence around the table at Twilight's place. All six friends were together. On any other day, it would be fun to have a meet up. Truth be told, none of them wanted to talk about what they had gathered for.

Twilight looked around the room. Somber faces and eyes at the floor.

---

At first it was just a domestic incident, and as bad as those may be, it usually ended with the foal coming back in a few hours. Statistically it would happen once or twice per foal in even the best parts of Equestria. Even the best of them had rebellious stages. The police chief, named Chief, even had an outline for how these things usually went down. Runaways in Ponyville rarely went outside of his outline.

1. Dispute with parents and family.
2. Frustrated; confides plan to run away with best friends.
3. Leaves note for parents to scare them or provoke remorse
4. Leaves with must-have personal belongings
5. Becomes scared and/or homesick
6. Returns home

On occasion, the foal would stay away long enough to warrant a search party. Even then, they were found within hours. Chief was so confident with his outline that if any incident went outside of his outline, he bought a round of drinks for the entire search party after the foal was found. Eventually Mayor Mare found out about this and seriously reprimanded him for betting on lost foals. He never saw it that way, but conceded.

This disappearance didn't line up with Chief's outline.

Twist's family lived on the east side of Ponyville. It was a good trot to get to the marketplace and there were no immediate neighbors, but her parents liked the open air and plentiful space. It had a nice country feel to it, much like Sweet Apple Acres except no farm and less land. The best season in Ponyville was early spring. The cool mornings would start with a dark blue sky before the sun came up. As Celestia lifted the giant star, pinks and oranges would be seen in the clouds and the horizon bloomed with life. The tall, two-story home would cast a long shadow over the fields behind it as the wildlife awakened. As the sun became higher in the sky, one could smell the dew on the ground start to evaporate. On a Tuesday morning much like that, Twist's mom came upstairs to wake her filly up for school. She had made her a great pancake breakfast to start her day before school, and the smell was palpable. She knocked on the door. No response.

"Oh I bet she stayed up reading that book again..." her mom quipped. Again, she knocked harder this time. After another lack of response, she entered the door, only to find Twist wasn't there at all.

There was no argument the night before, there were no problems at school, there was nothing missing from her room, there was no note, or even an open window to climb out of. She was just... gone.

Immediately the police were contacted. Chief talked to the nearly hysterical mother and heard the entire story.

"Ma'am, has your daughter shown any recent changes in behavior? Are there any habits she has made recently that we might consider out of the ordinary?" Chief asked.

"N-- No sir," she replied in tears. "Twist is a great filly. She would never do something like this." The mother tried in vain to hold herself together.

"P-Please find her."

Her husband behind her, she let Chief find his way out and let her body shake with worry and pain. Pancakes cold and ruined, the spring morning didn't feel as good anymore.

From the mother's perspective, this wasn't Twist acting out. From Chief's perspective, this wasn't a normal runaway. Chief's gut tightened as he got back to the station. He had seen something like this go sour before, and it wasn't something he wanted to experience again. This was the hard part of his job. Search and Rescue was called out to broad daylight and regular officers knocked on doors to ask about the missing foal. Everyone knew her, but none had seen her since the day before. At the end of the day, they hadn't made any progress.

Chief had a sixth sense about police situations. His gut feelings were nearly prophetic; it was what separated him and all of the other candidates in the academy for faster promotions. This is what enabled him to be calm and still in situations that required patience and strategy. However, this time he felt his gut churn. "This is going to be a nasty one."

That night, no one found any clues. Twist was just as much missing as when he visited the family. In the middle of day two, Chief made the painful visit to Princess Twilight. He had to report what was going on, and he also wanted any help or insight she might provide.

Part of Twilight's first project as a princess was to personally meet all residents of Ponyville. As such, she knew Twist fairly well. She was a sweet little filly who was very interested in books and her education. Her social skills weren't exactly as high as her grades, but most in her class liked her anyways. From similarities alone, Twilight liked Twist. It made it that much worse when she heard Chief give the news. It was difficult to hide her emotions as she heard the news. She wanted to make an outburst, but she learned from her mentor Celestia that a ruler must be calm and collected especially when having an audience.

Twilight converted all of her fear for Twist into pure focus and energy. As soon as chief left, Twilight had Spike write down her orders. She wouldn't lose Twist. She couldn't.

Immediately, all off-duty weather pegasi were ordered to help the S&R teams. Weather would be sunny pending Twist's return, as to help visibility. If she wasn't found by that night, she would have to be more drastic. Neighboring cities would allocate a portion of their police until Twist was found. All home and shop owners would be required to thoroughly inspect their houses once in the morning, afternoon and night. Local beast hunters would be brought in and deputized as "specialists" for their tracking skills and Everfree knowledge.

Chief questioned if the Princess had put too much into this, maybe she was calling the cavalry a bit pre-maturely; then again this was her first major domestic incident since ascending. She would have to not screw up and he would follow her orders. As young as she was, Chief had no problem taking orders from her. She had done more for Equestria than he would in his entire life. Some of the former Royal Guards like Chief hated the officers above them due to their young age but every once in a while there would be a young one that actually knew what they were doing. Twilight, should she have entered the guard, would have been in the latter group.

What started as a hopeful day of searching ended with no progress. There were no clues, no evidence, and no witnesses. The longer the case went on, the worse things started to look. Chief had been in a case like this in Trottingham before he became the head of police in Ponyville. Some sicko took a filly around the same age and...

He didn't want to think about it. Amidst the cool, pitch black night on the way back to the station again, Chief tried to forget that case. He never would forget, but it was always worth another try. Not even the beautiful starry sky could aid in the the escape of his memories.

As chief got back to his office around 2am, he pulled out his lucky scotch and poured himself a drink. Before he could leave, he had to check all officers and S&R teams to make sure nothing was found. He made the calls. Nothing. Then he had to make the call to the Princess Twilight. The next day would be hell.

A rookie came in his office and asked, "Hey Chief, you okay?"

"Yeah," he gruffed out after a nice gulp of the fine liquor. "Just thought I left this shit in Trottingham."

---

2:17 am: Twilight gets the call. Twist has still yet to be found. Twilight holds her own fore-hooves to try and repress the urge to have a panic attack. Tomorrow she lets the cavalry loose. The press would probably go wild and would breath down her neck until the case was over. The citizens would probably panic soon.

9:36 am, Day 3: After only 4 hours of sleep, Twilight calls her friends over to discuss this. She would need them now more than ever.

---

The morning on day 3 wasn't nearly as beautiful as it was on any normal spring day. The sun was out and the sky was cloudless, as per Twilight's order. But there was a stuffiness in the air. It was hot and humid and generally unpleasant outside. A few minutes after the call, the girls arrive. Applejack is the first to enter and the first to sit down at the large round table. There is a tingle of sweat on her, as she's already been up for hours doing work on the farm. Rarity comes in second, just freshly woken up in time to put her makeup on, but not with enough time to eat breakfast. Rainbow literally just woke up, and visibly tired. Fluttershy and Pinkie come in at the same time, both early risers because of work, but not to the same degree as Applejack. The awkwardness in the room could be cut with a knife. Spike makes highly caffeinated coffee for Twilight and slightly caffeinated tea for the rest. As Pinkie Pie sits last, even she feels the weight of the situation. After some mumbled greetings and awkward small talk, Twilight spoke up first.

"I'm sure you all have heard of the, erm, 'incident' that is still ongoing?" Twilight manages to get out. The girls all nodded their heads; Rainbow added an obligatory and solemn "Yes", speaking for the entire group. Twilight looked up again at the group again.

"Then you all understand what this means." Her anxious appearance morphed into a commanding, confident and somber tone. "Whatever has happened to Twist is no doubt a tragedy in itself. The fact that she hasn't been found yet leads me to believe this could be a worse situation than what we previously expected it to be."

Fluttershy looked up with misty eyes and a faint lip quiver, but she said nothing. Applejack took off her hat out of respect and kept her eyes either on Twilight or the floor. Rarity put a hoof on Fluttershy's back to try and comfort her. Rainbow's typical nonchalant mannerisms were nowhere to be found. If anything, Rainbow was angry that something this awful could happen to a little filly. Pinkie's hair became noticably more straight as Twilight updated them on the situation.

Twilight continued, "And as tragic as this is for Twist, there is more on the line than just her. As the local princess, it is also my job to look at things like this from an objective... political even, point of view. These types of situations affect small communities like ours on a greater scale than it would for a city like Canterlot. Ponies here will remember Twist's disappearance and be scared to live their lives here. If fillies and colts just start disappearing in Ponyville, everyone will leave. On top of that, everyone's trust in me as a princess will fade substantially. If I lose the faith and trust of Ponyville..."

Twilight turned her head away for a moment. "I don't even want to think about what could happen."

Fluttershy looked up at Twilight. With eyes slightly more dry than before, "Oh Twilight, you know we'll always trust you."

The other four nodded their heads in agreement and gave a "Mmhmm."

Twilight, touched by her friends, kept going. "I know that, and I can't even begin to thank you enough for your non-stop belief in my abilities as not only a ruler, but a friend as well." She pointed a hoof to the door. "But they don't have that same blind faith, and for good reason. That's why I need your help. Chief and the local police have done an excellent job so far. So we need to think outside of the box to try and find Twist. Anyone have any ideas?"

Rainbow stomped a hoof on the table. "I don't know what we need to do, but we need to start doing something NOW."

Twilight nodded her head. "As much as I usually disagree with Rainbow, she's right. There isn't time for time-wasting. Twist is out there somewhere and we have to find her. Anyone else?"

"Well sug, I don't know," Applejack replied. "It seems awful strange... and just plum awful as well."

There was a silence around the table at Twilight's place. All six friends were together. On any other day, it would be fun to have a meet up. Truth be told, none of them wanted to talk about what they had gathered for.

Twilight looked around the room. Somber faces and eyes at the floor.

Author's Note:

I know some people will disagree with me on this, but I haven't put the AU tag on here. I know this isn't the exact happy-go-lucky Ponyville that's in the show but in my opinion there aren't enough deviations to add the tag on here. If you disagree, let me know.

Also I only wrote this out of boredom and a strange sense of inspriation, I'm not writing regularly on here again. More to come soon.

Comments

[StumbleDore]

That was great. I always like to see a darker fic every once in a while.