A Prose By Any Other Name

by Jarvy Jared

III: Missing Details

Twilight smiled as she made her way to the Golden Oaks Library; so far, their efforts had far exceeded her expectations. Perhaps soon they would sort through this vanishing pony mess, and return to their normal lives.

She pressed on the door, pushing it open and entering the library. Spike was busy restacking several of the bookshelves, but looked up when he saw Twilight enter. “Oh, hey, Twilight!” he greeted. “How is the organization going?”

“It is going perfectly!” Twilight responded happily. “We’re covering enormous ground, from Ponyville all the way down to Appleloosa. Princess Celestia said that Manehattan has already started its search parties, and Canterlot is sure to follow.” She trotted over to a pile of books and helped Spike put them away. “With our combined efforts, we should be able to locate Opacare Prose in no time!”

Spike nodded. “That’s good to know.” He fixed a slight glare on Twilight. “Though, you sound awfully excited about all this.”

She giggled nervously. “I know, I know… I shouldn’t feel this excited about searching for somepony. But… I don’t know, it’s just so exciting! Straight out of a mystery novel!” She giggled at the irony. “Oh, wow, it would be pretty amazing if Prose wrote about this in his next book.”

Spike chuckled with her. “Yeah, it would. Once we find him, no doubt he’ll be extremely grateful.”

Twilight nodded, then levitated over a scroll and quill over to Spike. “Could you take a letter, Spike? Princess Celestia wants me to keep her updated on what’s going on.”

Spike nodded, and readied his quill.

“Dear Princess Celestia: I’ve managed to organize several search parties, with the help of Mayor Mare. We’ve put various earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies together and designated them to searching the perimeter of Ponyville. We’ve also delegated several groups into searching the Everfree Forest and even the Ghostly Gorge. I’ve also taken the liberty to entrust Steven Magnet, the sea serpent from our first trip into the Everfree, with searching the deeper ends of the Forest and the nearby rivers.

“Furthermore, my friends have done their best to do their part. Fluttershy has had her animal friends group into parties to search the wooded areas around Ponyville. Rainbow Dash has organized the Cloudsdale ponies, with the help of Scootaloo. Rarity and Pinkie Pie, though limited to Ponyville, are doing their best to keep a vigilant lookout. Finally, Applejack has written to Appleloosa, asking for their assistance. Braeburn has organized the town into search parties, while Little Strongheart has the Buffalo Tribe on the lookout.

“As I understand it, the cities of Fillydelphia and Baltimare are also doing their part to search for Opacare Prose. With our combined efforts, we should locate the author in no time.

“Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike finished writing, and peered up at Twilight with amused eyes. “Steven Magnet, huh? Didn’t think he’d get involved.”

Twilight giggled. “Apparently he’s read several of Prose’s books and is absolutely enthralled by his works. He was more than willing to help out. I never thought I’d see the day when an author would reach cross-species fame.”

Spike chuckled at that. “Yeah, me neither.” He held up the scroll in his hand and blew on it, sending it away to Celestia’s chambers. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“Now comes the hard part. Waiting.”

“Oh, shoot!” Rainbow said as she flew away from Cloudsdale. The pegasus had finished organizing the pegasi into search groups, and had been resting with Scootaloo on one of the clouds. “Thank goodness Scootaloo said that offhand comment! Gotta tell Twilight about this!”

She ducked below the cloud layer, zooming for Ponyville. Cloudsdale was on the western end of Ponyville, meaning she had to fly by Sweet Apple Acres. If Applejack was as efficient as I was in organizing Appleloosa, then no doubt she’ll have the same problem I do!

As she flew by the farm, the door suddenly swung open. Applejack rushed out, her head lowered as she galloped towards Ponyville. She glanced up and saw Rainbow Dash flying by her. “Rainbow! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at Cloudsdale?”

“Yeah, but something came up! I need to ask Twilight something!”

“You, too, huh?” She frowned. “Ah reckon it has something to do with the search.”

Rainbow nodded. “Yup. We’d better hurry!” Applejack nodded at her, and they quickly made their way towards the library.

“WHAT?!” Twilight exclaimed in shock.

Fluttershy shied away, slightly frightened by her friend’s outburst. “S-sorry, Twilight! It’s true!”

“No… no! That can’t be! There must be a mistake; an error, of some sort—” Twilight paced around the room, her hooves quickly digging a trench in the wood. She turned back to Fluttershy, eyes slightly ajar. “Are you certain that your animals don’t know who to look for?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, all they know is that we’re looking for Opacare Prose. They don’t know how to recognize him, though…”

“Argh…” Twilight placed her hooves at the side of her head. “No… I was so sure I had told everypony what he looks like…”

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike asked. “Do you even know what he looks like?”

“Of course I do, Spike!” she responded, a bit huffy. “In fact, I’ll show you!” Lighting her horn, she levitated over one of Prose’s books—Storm Song—and opened to the back cover. “Now, here is what he looks like—”

She cut herself off as her eyes loomed over the back cover. Not a single picture of the author could be found. She blinked twice, hoping that her eyes were playing tricks on her. “Huh?” She flipped the book around, then began flipping through the pages rapidly, eyes scanning each page with resolute vigilance. “No… I was sure that his picture was here somewhere…”

She giggled nervously. “Maybe… maybe it’s in another book. Good thing I have his entire collection in the library…” She lit her horn and brought over several other books, scanning each one dutifully.

“Okay, maybe not that one… or that one, either… or this one… or this one…”

In the span of minutes, she had looked through every book several times, each time her hope slowly fading. She dropped the last book with a groan. “No! How could I not have his picture?”

“M-maybe he didn’t want to get his picture taken?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense. He couldn’t have gotten through the publishers without having his picture taken…” Her eyes lit up suddenly. “Wait! Maybe Princess Celestia knows! Spike! Send her a letter!”

The baby dragon quickly compiled a message, sending it to Celestia with a burst of green flame. Twilight let out an anxious sigh. “Hopefully she’ll know better than us…”

Suddenly, the door to the library burst open. Applejack and Rainbow came racing in, followed shortly by Pinkie Pie and Rarity. The latter two took a moment to catch to breath, while Rainbow voiced their combined concerns.

“Twilight! Can you give us a description of Prose? We have no idea what to look for!”

Twilight sadly shook her head. “I’m sorry, Rainbow, girls. I’m at a lost myself. That’s why I had Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia for help.”

Applejack nodded. “That’s good to hear. Maybe the Princess has some information?”

They nodded solemnly at that, anxiously waiting for the Princess’s response.

A few moments later, Spike burped up her letter. Twilight took it and began to read aloud:

“My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle:

“It is good to hear that you’ve had the ponies organized into search groups. The question you posed, as to what Opacare Prose looks like, however, is not as well received.

“As I’m sure you have noticed, none of his books appear to have his face on any of them. I’ve talked to my advisors, and they say that there is no way that Prose could have bypassed publishing etiquette without inside help. We have no idea how he managed to not have his picture placed inside of his novels. As such, we have no clear idea what he looks like.”

“Consarn it!” Applejack exclaimed, throwing her hat to the ground. Rarity shushed her.

“However,” Twilight continued reading, “all is not lost. We know that his special talent is writing. The best that we can work with is that his Cutie Mark should be related to his craft.”

“Oh, that’s just great!” Rainbow groaned. “It’s not like many ponies have Mark for writing!”

“I am sorry to tell you that we will be searching in the dark. Do not lose hope, though; with the efforts in the towns and cities of Equestria, we should be able to identify and hopefully reclaim Prose.”

With a heavy heart, Twilight finished the scroll, rolling it up and placing it down. She stomped angrily on the ground. “Darn it all! I was hoping to get something better than that…”

“Like what, Twilight?” Pinkie asked. “A picture? Live CCTV footage?”

“Pinkie? What the heck are you talking about?” Rainbow asked the pink mare.

Twilight placed her hooves on her face. “How could I have missed such an obvious detail?” she murmured. “Now it’s going to take more effort to find this guy!”

Applejack walked over and placed a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Cheer up, Sugarcube. We just gotta work with what we have. We’ll find him eventually.”

Twilight smiled. “You’re right, Applejack.” She stood, turning and facing the others. “I’m going to go inform the mayor and the other search parties of this. You girls should do the same with your respective groups.” They nodded and, after exchanging a brief farewell, left to spread the word.

As Twilight was walking out, Spike couldn’t help but murmur, “Well, you were asking for more excitement…” He chuckled to himself, before going back to reorganizing the shelves.

“Sounds like the girls found out as well,” Apple Bloom said at the CMC clubhouse.

Scootaloo nodded. “I guess I jogged Rainbow’s memory when I made that comment about Prose’s appearance. Or lack of appearance.”

“But I just don’t understand why?” Sweetie asked. “I mean, sure, he has some stalkers, but couldn’t the police have helped with that? Why would he go so far to completely remove his face from his books?”

Apple Bloom shrugged. “I guess only Prose knows the answer to that. Maybe he’s scared…”

“Scared?” Scootaloo shook her head. “I don’t know… when you’ve got as many skills as that guy, what could you possibly scared of?”

Sweetie Belle remained silent for a majority of the conversation, lost in her thoughts. She was busy trying to connect the missing pictures with possible reasons for their absence, but was struggling to find a pattern. Normally, she would have found connecting these two enjoyable; but all she got was a bout of frustration.

How? How did he do it? How did he vanish off the face of Equestria? And, more importantly, how did he do it with no warning?

Her mind drifted back to what Apple Bloom had said: “Only Prose knows the answer to that…”

With all the trouble that Equestria is going through, just for this one stallion; he had better have a good answer…

“Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo waved a hoof in front of her. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm?” Sweetie blinked, then shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Yeah. Just thinking.”

“Well, are you done? Because I’d like to try out some new methods of getting our Cutie Marks,” the orange filly said.

Sweetie smiled. “Sure. What are they?”

Scootaloo pulled out a long parchment. “Let’s see… we’ve done hang gliding, shark gliding… how about—”

As she began listing out various ways, Sweetie Belle’s mind briefly returned to the question she had posed. How?

Once again, she was met by the same, simple, yet seemingly obvious answer.

Only Prose knows.

“Boss!” The tan stallion burst into the office, breathing heavily.

The boss stallion, a tall pony with a dark brown coat, glanced up from the desk. “Yes, Swol? What is it?” Behind him was a window that looked out at southern Manehattan.

Swol brought out several papers and placed them on Boss’s desk. “I’ve got the reports. They’re saying that Prose has left our area of influence.”

Boss grunted. “Meaning that he’s fled.” He stood. “Oh, well. It was bound to happen.”

“Boss… what do we do?”

Boss scratched his chin with his hoof. “It certainly presents a challenge… we are searching in the dark, after all…” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Prose always was a clever stallion… never thought he would use that cleverness on us…”

He turned away, facing out the window. The streets were busy with ponies rushing to work, and several police ponies stood on the sidewalks, desperately looking for the missing author.

If I know Prose, they won’t find him here, Boss thought. But now it’s a question of where we’ll find him.

He glanced back at Swol. “Have the boys send some letters out to our contacts. I want eyes on the surrounding landscape. And keep me informed.”

“Yes, Boss! Right away, Boss!” Swol nodded and turned, making his way back to the other offices in the building.

Boss returned his gaze back to the window, and he rested a hoof on the glass. “It doesn’t matter how far you run, Prose,” he murmured. “You can’t escape your past.”