The Status Quo

by AppleJared

Come Hell or Dodge City

Some ponies native to Ponyville had jobs in other cities. For this demographic, train usage was the only viable option of transportation. Of course there were exceptions, but most took the 8:15am to either Baltimare or Canterlot. There was a separation comfort that most in this group enjoyed. They lived miles away from work and once home was in sight, the day was done and it was time for either family duties or leisure. Work was loud, busy and hard. Home was quiet, slow and easy. Ying to the yang, and whatnot.

Twilight never even thought about leaving Ponyville once she ascended. Her home was Ponyville and moving back to Canterlot, though providing an easy access to Celestia and Luna, would ultimately force too much separation between herself and duties concerning Ponyville. That's what she told Celestia at least. Truth was, she just didn't want to leave. Forget about the added benefits the town would receive from a residing princess being ever-present. Benefits such as tourism, population growth, reduction of an already fringed percentage of crime and added jobs; her friends lived there and she was happy right where she was. Would it be stressful, living in her workplace? Sure, but it was worth it to Twilight.

As she sat down at the train station watching all of the working ponies get off of the cars, she again decided that she made the right move by staying in Ponyville. As the rest of the Elements showed up and sat next to her on the bench, this thought was reinforced. She was happy she got to the station early. It was the 20 minute break before the 2 hour ride she needed to get away from the stress of the seemingly never ending situation. Like an actor waiting backstage before the premier performance, she tried to soak up the calm before the storm. A pause before her performance. A break before she would swim out into the most violent, stormy ocean she had ever been in.

Rarity gave her a nudge at 2:56 that brought Twilight back to reality.

"Twilight," the white mare said. "I just want to say that you have done such an excellent job with this case. I know it must be awful to have to deal with something like this so relatively quickly after you became a princess," Rarity said as she extended a smile and a hoof to Twilight's shoulder. "But I am very proud of what you're doing and how you have handled so far. I'm sure the rest of the girls, and even Princess Celestia feel the same."

Rarity would never know how badly Twilight needed to hear those words from someone at that exact moment, but she wrapped around Rarity and gave her a giant, almost painfully tight hug. "Thank you," Twilight whispered in Rarity's ear.

At 3:01 exactly, the train to Dodge City arrived and the Elements went aboard. None more than Twilight, they could feel the anticipation in the air. A few like Fluttershy and Rarity needed the hour after lunch to themselves in order to soak up the courage and mental fortitude required for this trip and the task ahead of them. Applejack and Rainbow just wanted to leave as soon as possible. However all of them, even Pinkie, felt their performance was close to open curtain.

The population on the train was sparse, mostly due to the fact that there weren't any jobs in Dodge City that citizens of Ponyville wanted to work. Though the six talked among themselves, the train ride was quiet. Twilight spend most of the ride looking out of the window. About halfway there, Applejack plopped down next to Twilight.

With a look that mixed friendliness and concern, Applejack asked, "How ya holdin' up?"

Twilight never moved her eyes from the view outside the window. "I'm good, Applejack. I wish this train could go faster."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I bet Spike fumed up good when you told him to stay home, didn't he?"

"Yeah," she said as the two giggled. "Yeah he did."

That was the first time Twilight had a laugh in three days.

---

At 5:16 hooves hit the ground of Dodge City, and they were welcomed by scorching hot dirt, sand, and air. Twilight wished there were a few clouds to provide some temporary relief, only to remember she was the one who ordered skies cloudless until Twist was found. She checked her saddlebags to make sure she didn't lose or forget anything, and took a look back at the others to make sure they all had their saddlebags as well. Twilight took a long, deep breath, closed her eyes and put her head down for a moment. The five behind her wondered what she was doing but not a word was spoken. A few seconds later, her head rose, eyes opened, and she exhaled.

It was go time.

With authority, the wheels in Twilight's brain turned back on as she took command of the situation. "Applejack, we need to make a visit to Cherry Jubilee's farm. Lead the way."

The orange earth pony lowered the Stetson to keep it from flying off. "You got it, Twi." She rared up and started a gallop towards the cherry farm. Pinkie and Rarity followed suit and positioned themselves on either side of the farmer. Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy took to the skies above the others. The townsfolk that saw this immediately knew that the Elements weren't there for leisure; they had arrived for business. Even Dodge had heard of the disappearance of the filly in Ponyville, and they had heard of what Twilight was doing to find the poor filly. They respected Equestria's newest princess more than ever, and seeing her round up the Elements to find the poor thing caught the hearts and minds of the entire town. To the folks of Dodge, seeing the six rip through the town streets on a mission to find a lost filly was the most exciting thing they saw all month. The younger ponies cheered and waved at the Elements and their parents nodded their heads out of respect. Before, the Elements were something confined to a newspaper read or a tall tale. Now these ponies saw with their own eyes who the brave six were.

To all in the town, they were more than guardians of harmony. They were heroes.

---

Cherry Jubilee was on her porch sipping a hard lemonade when she saw the giant dust trail coming. When it got close enough to see that it was the Elements kicking up that dust, she already knew. Cherry told one of the workers to prepare some beverages for the incoming six. When Applejack got close enough, she slowed down to a trot so as to not have the dust following them hit Cherry's house. The rest followed suit and the flying ponies landed. Applejack and Twilight walked up the steps to greet the cherry farmer. The rest tried to wait outside of the porch, but Cherry would have none of that.

"C'mon you four, it's hot out there. Rest on the porch for a while! I got y'all some drinks."

All of them were dirty and sweaty, and even though they wouldn't stay too long, some shade and a drink sounded great. Rainbow and Rarity looked at each other and shrugged. "Why not?" they said in unison. As the four walked up the porch stairs, Rainbow saw how much dirt and sweat Rarity had on her. "Hey Rarity," Rainbow playfully mocked. "That dirt, sand, and sweat really brings out your white coat." Rainbow had a good snicker.

"Well Rainbow, I'll have you know that dirt is the 'in' fashion right now," Rarity bantered. "Of course I'm not a fan of it, but I can put my needs to be clean aside for a filly in danger. Priorities, Rainbow, priorities."

As the two sat down next to Fluttershy and Pinkie, Rainbow had a half-smile towards Rarity. "You know Rarity, I can respect that."

Dash offered up a hoof bump. Rarity smiled, savoring a moment where she and Dash agreed on something. Then Rarity gave her the hoof bump. Fluttershy was so touched by the moment she almost teared up.

As a worker passed out drinks for the visitors, Cherry took her focus to the two ponies in front of her. Twilight started the conversation with a respectful head nod and hoofshake, as was how Dodge native greeted. Applejack did the same. "Thank you for the drinks, Ms. Jubilee," Twilight said.

Cherry smiled. "Anything for the Elements, Princess Twilight! I haven't seen you since before you became an alicorn." She looked at Twilight's wings. "You sport your wings very well, I see."

The compliment put a smile on Twilight's face. "Thank you Ms. Jubilee, I appreciate that. I can't believe it has been that long since we were out here last."

Cherry turned to Applejack. "And Applejack, always nice to see you. It's great to see another fruit farmer do well, but I must admit that I miss my hardest worker. How are the apples doing? And how are the Apples doing, too?"

Applejack took off the Stetson and tried to hide an embarrassed blush. "Shucks Cherry, now you're just bein' flattering. Apples are in season right now so the farm is doin' great. Family is doin' good too; thanks for asking."

There were a few moments of silence on the porch before Twilight continued.

"I'm sure you can guess why we are here," Twilight said.

"I can," Cherry solemnly responded. "The Dodge sheriff came by yesterday for the same reason and told me the news. After he left I took the entire day and had my workers search the house, fields and barns. Nothing."

"We appreciate that," AJ chimed in.

"We certainly do," Twilight continued. "We're headed up towards Rambling Rock Ridge to look for Twist. Have you heard anything around town that might help us? Even if it seems unimportant, any detail might help."

Cherry tilted her head down, took a sip of her drink and shook her head. "I'm afraid not. The whole town has been putting in time to help the finding of that Twist, but not a thing has come up. If I may, Princess, what do you think happened to her?"

There is was.

The question that no one had actually asked Twilight until right now. The question that she didn't want to answer, but one that all had on their minds. It had an answer that no one wanted to hear. Twilight put her front hooves on the metal railing and turned to look out from the porch. Any conversation the other four friends had was immediately stopped to listen. Applejack places a hoof on Twilight for comfort.

"I think she was taken," Twilight forced out.

Fluttershy made an inaudible whimper.

"I can't say that I am positive how it happened because there was no evidence left, but I think she was taken."

"Who would do such a thing?" Cherry asked.

Twilight took her hooves off of the railing faced the rest on the porch. "The problem is, again, there is no physical evidence to go by. But... after reviewing what we do know a few times, I picked up on a few things. There is a theory that Twist ran away, but I don't think that is the case. She was doing great in school, she was turning a new leaf with her social life by making more friends and even attracting one of the colts in her class. There were no arguments or problems within the family at the time and her father brings in ample money, so they aren't in need. To top it off, her speech therapist even said she was making leaps and bounds overcoming some of the words she finds difficult to pronounce. I mean, she even has her cutie mark now. Why would a filly run away from that life? It doesn't make sense."

She continued. "As far as clues go, I had to look at what evidence wasn't left behind, starting with the front door. Keep in mind that this particular house doesn't have a back door. The door to the house wasn't jimmied or tampered with, and the family never heard anything the night she went missing. Now, sometimes, criminals can break into a house without being heard. Some think that whoever took Twist was just quiet. The problem with that theory is that it is an old fashioned house. The stairs creek when even a light pony traverses them. No one, not even the most careful intruder could be silent in that house at night. The bottom floor windows were shut and locked as well. Twist's father went on record and said he does that in the spring to keep the pollen out of the house. None of the windows on the bottom floor were opened or broken. And there were no prints on the windows, door, or floor on the inside...

"... in fact, there were no foreign prints anywhere in the entire house. Not even a hair left behind in Twist's room. Nothing was out of place in the entire house. There was a thought that the intruder could have gotten in through the chimney, but if that were the case we would have found soot in the house. That basically leaves two options. The first scenario is where she is teleported directly from her room to the outside. This option is viable until you realize that teleportation would definitely wake her up and scare her quite badly, especially if it was her first time going through the process. She would have, most likely, screamed quite loudly and woken up her parents. This is what some of the detectives still believe. They think that whoever did it could have done a silence spell immediately after teleportation, but that's high level magic and also impossible to activate quicker than she could scream. Even so, most of the ponies who are known to be capable of that level of magic have been interrogated and have rock solid alibis."

Rainbow spoke up with, "So where does that leave us? What do you think happened, Twilight?"

Twilight looked off into the distance again, then back at the group. Even the farm workers were now on the porch listening.

"I think whoever did this went in through Twist's bedroom window, second story. It's too high to jump into and there weren't any markings to indicate something like a grappling hook or ladder was used to get up there. I think it was a pegasus who did this. Many ponies never open their windows for whatever reason, and if Twist was like that I could make a stronger case for this theory. Windows left unopened for weeks or months at a time have a tendency to collect large amounts of dust, dirt, and small debris that can attract bacteria after a rain. If there were large amounts of this bacteria on the outside portion and trace amounts on the inside portion of the window, we could use that as evidence that the criminal knocked some off of the outside by coming in. We could also test to see how long the bacteria has been there, and if the bacteria on the inside is fresh, we would have a stronger case for my theory. The problem is, her mom told me that Twist often opens the window to stargaze at night. After testing it myself, I found that there was little bacteria build up on the outside, and a decent amount of old bacteria in her room around the window as well, supporting what her mother told me and not giving any viable evidence that her window was used for entry..."

Twilight realized that she went pretty technical and by the looks she was getting, she decided to simplify it a bit.

"In common terms it means I can't prove anything, but there is more. The fact that there are no prints suggests that something was put on the assailant's hooves to prevent leaving prints behind. Something like the type of hoof-protection you can buy for either medical use such as surgery or maybe outside work such as farming or gardening. Whoever did this made no noise whatsoever, but more importantly, Twist didn't make any noise. This to me could be the most important part.

"The first possibility is so impossible that it is practically nonsensical, and that is that this pony could fly and do magic as well. As you all know, only alicorns can do that. Obviously none of the Princesses, including myself, would ever do such a thing. One thought is that... and Celestia forbid... but that she might have been killed and then taken. I don't think that is what happened. Why go through all of the effort to take her after you killed her? It would make more of a statement to make a mess and leave her there. I count that one out. Another possibility is the usage of some type of gag, but even then, one can still make noise with a gag, just not coherent words. I think she could have been loud enough to wake her family if that were the case. Again, I counted that possibility out.

"The last possibility is the one I'm sticking to. I think whoever did this used some type of drug to keep her from waking up. To me, this is the only course of action that makes sense. At first I thought that maybe this drug was given by needle, but no drug could work so fast that she wouldn't wake up from the pain of the needle, at least for a few moments, before the drugs kick in. Then came the idea that maybe it was given orally, like on a rag that could have been stuffed in her mouth, but again, she could have made noise before it took effect. I believe that if drugs were used it had to be nasal insufflation, aka, through the nose. Most likely, this drug wouldn't have a smell, so it wouldn't wake her up at all."

Rarity's face showed disbelief. "Wait, Twilight, you're telling me that there are drugs out there that can be sniffed and they will make a pony sleep? How would you be able to detect it if such a thing were used on you when has no smell?"

"You wouldn't," Twilight somberly answered. "That's why these types of drugs are illegal. If they were used on you, from your perspective you would just come-to after the drug wore off. Most likely you wouldn't remember what happened either, or what you were doing while under its influence.

"It gets worse. There are different strains of these drugs. Some cause a deep sleep. Others cause a short coma. Others are made to be lethal. Some others even cause the effect of being susceptible to mind control, and depending on the strain, the effects of these drugs can last between 5 hours and a week."

Clearly a bit disturbed, Cherry asked, "So who are we looking for?"

"Good question," Twilight responded. "My profile of who did this is built completely off of assumptions and gut feelings, but this is what I think. Again, none of this is fact; only my opinion. I could be totally wrong, but...

"...to me, we aren't looking for your run of the mill pony. Whoever did this is not like us. Though there is nothing to point that this is the case, for ease of explanation and using the fact that these crimes are mostly committed by males, we'll say this criminal is a stallion. I think whoever did this also would also be considered very smart by his peers, possibly genius level intellect. While at the same time, he would need to have decent, if not well-balanced social skills. I don't think he would look weird either, because that would attract unwanted attention to himself. I think he will be able to blend in well with a crowd and not stick out. I feel like he is decently good looking, but not model status. He would need to be a good liar without cracking under pressure, so he might have an acting background. If I am right about the drugs, then he would have some kind of medical experience as well. He left no evidence behind, so he is careful and strategic. This leads me to believe that it is not his first time doing this.

"One more thing. I think he's alone. I don't know why, but if I'm right, I think he's doing this on his own. That's all I have," she finished.

Stunned and in disbelief, the rest of those on the porch took in everything that Twilight said.

"Twilight?" Cherry asked.

"Yes?"

"If what you say is true, you six need to get to the Ridge right away. I'll tell the sheriff what you just told us and we'll continue the search in and around town. If you come back tomorrow and haven't found her, see me again and I'll tell you if we found anything."

Rainbow jumped up and nearly hit her head on the porch awning. "I'm with the cherry farmer on this one. Let's get a move on!"

Twilight nodded her head and the rest got their saddlebags back on, got up, and off of the porch. "Thank you for the drinks, and for your help on this," Twilight said as she was leaving.

Cherry waved goodbye. "Good luck to you Twilight. If anyone can find the poor filly, it's you and your friends."

As the six said their final thank-you's and goodbye's, they got back into formation and galloped/flew towards Rambling Rock Ridge.