My little Alibi in Ashes

by Snowy Song

Chapter 2: Making Plans

"I don't believe this!" Rainbow cried. Pinkie and Spike had just finished explaining what had happened to Twilight.

"I know!" Spike agreed. "They think Twilight did it!"

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Rainbow said. "Like that goody-four-shoes could ever commit a crime like that. I bet she couldn't steal a cookie from the jar without breaking down and pleading guilty."

"Well, there was this one time-" Spike began.

"No time for pleasant strolls down memory lane!" Pinkie interrupted. "We have to find a way to prove Twilight's innocent! Cookies will wait 'til later!" She paused. "Okay, maybe cookies on the way...."

"Pinkie's right," Spike said, nodding.

"About the cookies?" Rainbow said, confused. Pinkie looked hopeful.

"No- well, yes, but--- what I mean is she's right about helping Twilight!" Spike said. He was clearly taking Twilight's arrest the hardest.

"Right!" Pinkie chirped. "Alright, activating Focused Pinkie Mode," she said, putting a hoof on the side of her head and squinting her eyes.
The others watched her for a moment, then Rainbow turned to Spike.

"Sooooo..... How exactly are we supposed to do this?"

"I was... kind of hoping you would know," Spike admitted. "Twilight would usually be in charge of this kinda thing." He sighed, then brightened. "Hey, maybe we just have to think like Twilight!"

"Think like.... Twilight?" Rainbow gave him an 'are-you-serious' look. "Yeah..... In case you haven't noticed, I don't do egghead stuff."

"Aw c'mon Rainbow! For Twilight?" Spike pleaded. He knelt down and looked at her with tear filled eyes. "Please?"

"Yeah Dashie!" Pinkie suddenly appeared next to him. She copied his pose, and added a pouty lip. "Pllleeeeeeeaaaasssseee?"

Rainbow stared at her two friends, pleading at her hooves. 'C'mon Rainbow,' she thought. 'Don't be a softie.'

She tried to turn her head away from their tearful gazes, but she could still see it out of the corner of her eye, and it pulled her head back to them like a magnet.

Rainbow could swear their eyes had gotten bigger.

She bit her lip. She tried to stay strong, but she could feel their stares piercing into her soul, their sorrow basically playing a guitar solo on her heart strings. Her will was breaking.

Finally, she fell to her knees and threw her forehooves up in surrender. "Okay, okay!" she wailed. "Just stop with the pouting already! I can't take it!"

Almost instantly, the tears were gone as they got off the floor, Pinkie bouncing much like her hair. "Yay! Thanks Dashie!" Pinkie said, throwing her hooves around her in a tight hug.

"Yeah, well, *oomph*," Rainbow grunted as she pulled away from Pinkie. "Just to be clear, I'm doing this because I'm a loyal friend, so," Rainbow faced them with a stern look, "I don't want anyone saying I was broke down by a coupla cry babies."

"But you wer-mmph!" Pinkie was silenced by Rainbow's hoof in her mouth.

"No. One," she said, her face inches away from Pinkie.

Pinkie pulled her mouth off of her friend's hoof. "Okey-dokey-lokey!"

"Now," Pinkie said, pulling a detective's cap and bubble pipe out of nowhere. "As I'm sure everypony knows," she continued, "the best way to find a culprit is to look for clues! Just like that time on the train! Remember that?"

"No. I wasn't invited. Anyway, there's a bit of a problem about 'looking for clues'," Spike said.

"What's that?" Rainbow and Pinkie asked at once.

"The crime was arson, ya know, someone starting a fire, right?" Spike asked.

"Uh-huh. And?" Rainbow said, motioning with her hoof for him to get to the point.

"And so the fire probably burned any possible clues," Spike explained.

"But we can't catch the real culprit without any clues," Rainbow protested.

"There might not be clues at the crime scene," Pinkie said slowly, "but there could be some near the crime scene!"

"That's a good idea, Pinks," Rainbow said. "It's worth a try anyhow,"

"Yeah, but...." Spike paused. "Think maybe we could visit Twilight first? I just wanna make sure she's okay."

"Of course we can," Rainbow said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Hey! Maybe we could ask Twilight what she saw! She was the last one to see the place before the fire started. Maybe something she saw can give us a clue!" She winced. "I sound like an egghead now, don't I?"

-----------

About twenty minutes later, they were at the Ponyville Police Station, where Twilight was being held in a temporary holding cell.

"Okay, let's get in there and talk to Twilight," Rainbow said. But as she reached for the door, a voice boomed, "No visitors are currently allowed."

Rainbow hadn't noticed the officer standing near the door. She frowned.

"But we just wanna talk to our friend for a minute!" she exclaimed.

"No can do," he replied. "The police are busy looking into the Town Hall fire and questioning the suspect. So move along."

"Really? Then why're YOU just standing here doing nothing?" Rainbow said angrily, stomping her hoof.

The guard snarled at her, and she took a step back. "I'm standing here," he hissed, " to keep nosy ponies like you OUT!"

Rainbow gritted her teeth.

"Now why don't you all just run along and play tea party or something and leave the important things to the ones in charge," he taunted.

Rainbow was nearly fuming. "Why I oughta-"

"Excusey-woozy!" Pinkie chirped, cutting in between the two. "Rainbow, that's no way to make a friend," she said, smiling all the while.

"FRIEND?! I don't wanna be friends with this-"

"And you mister guard pony." Pinkie turned to him. "There's no need to be so rude! Turn that frowny upside downy, and then you can have a brownie!" Pinkie giggled at her rhyme, pulling the chocolate treat out of seemingly nowhere and offering it to the guard. He looked at it suspiciously.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I just told you! It's a brownie, duh!" Pinkie said. Then she gasped. "You mean you've never had one before?! You have GOT to come down to Sugarcube Corner! We have all kinds of delicious treats! There's cake, ice cream, all kinds of candy and-"

"Pinkie, focus!" Spike called.

"Oh right! Anywho, do you think you could let us see our friend Twilight for just an itty bitty minute or two?" She gave him the puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

The guard grunted. "Those eyes aren't gonna work on me. You really thing I'm gonna break that easy?"

Rainbow huffed and glared at Spike.

"And I don't accept bribes," he said shoving the offered brownie in Pinkie's still outstretched hoof.

"But it isn't-"

"Now I'm only gonna say this one more time. No. Visitors. Allowed." He glared at them. "So SCRAM!"

Pinkie jumped back at the guard's harsh words. "C'mon Pinkie," Spike said, helping her off the ground and away from the Police Station.

Rainbow hung back for a minute, watching her usually bouncy, happy friend trudge off sadly. She didn't like seeing her friends hurt.

She hated when they got hurt. Especially when it was on purpose.

She turned around and flew up in the guard's face.

"Listen, buster," she began angrily, "I don't care about your rules or orders or whatever, nopony and I mean NOPONY picks on my friends!"

The guard stared wide-eyed, not saying a word. Not that Rainbow would've let him.

"Pinkie Pie is the friendliest pony you'll ever meet! She wasn't trying to BRIBE you, she was TRYING to be NICE! Do you even KNOW what that IS?!

"So go look up the word 'Apology' cuz I expect you to use it! And if you DON'T," Rainbow pounded her hooves together, "you can expect a visit from me! And it won't be a friendly one. Got it?"

The guard nodded dumbly.

"Make sure you do." With one last glare, Rainbow turned around and flew off to join her friends.

-----------

"Well that didn't do much good," Spike said gloomily.

Rainbow landed next to them. "Sorry 'bout that guys."

"Where were you?" Spike asked.

"Let's just say, I think you'll be getting a big apology from that guy, Pinks," Rainbow said smugly.

"Really?" Pinkie said, brightening already.

"Really," Rainbow assured her.

"Awww you're such a good friend Dashie!" Pinkie wrapped her forehooves around the pegasus in a tight squeeze.

"You're.... welcome..... Pinkie.... Pie.... but can you.... let me.... breathe now?"

"Oops! Sorry!" Pinkie said, releasing her rainbow maned friend from the death grip she called a hug.

"Well, what do we do now?" Spike said.

The girls were drawn back to the situation at hoof and sighed. They didn't know what to do without Twilight.

"Perhaps I can help you," a voice said from behind them.

The ponies and their dragon pal turned to see Princess Celestia.

"I thought you said there was nothing you could do," Spike reminded her.

"There is nothing I can do to prevent Twilight Sparkle's arrest, but there is something I can do to help you in your investigation." She smiled.
She then opened her saddlebag, and used her magic to levitate a square shaped box out, which she set on the ground before them.

"What's this?" Spike asked, as all three of them leaned in to peer at it closer.

"It's.... a box of scrolls, quills, and ink?" Rainbow said, confused. "How will this help us?"

"Yeah," Spike agreed. "Twilight has loads of these supplies back at the library already."

"Perhaps," the alicorn began, "but I am quite sure she doesn't have any of these."

"Huh?" was the response.

"You see, these are magic scrolls," Celestia explained. "Each scroll is connected to all of the others."

"What does that mean?" Rainbow asked.

"If I write something on one of these scrolls," Celestia said, pointing a hoof at the box, "the words I write will appear on all of the connected scrolls. Though the ink is what really contains this magic, the scrolls must first be connected with a spell. One which I have already cast."

"That's cool and all, but I still don't get what this has to do with us," said Rainbow.

"This box contains seven scrolls, quills, and inkwells each. You can keep three sets for the three of you, and give the other four to the rest of your friends, so that even if you cannot all be together, you can still communicate with eachother, share ideas and opinions and keep you all informed," the Princess said.

"Wowza! That's super-duper-iffic!" Pinkie cheered.

"So this way, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity can help, and take care of their festival duties at the same time! This is great!" Spike exclaimed. "Thank you, Princess."

"You're welcome. I only wish I could do more," Celestia said sadly.

"Aww, cheer up, Princess! You're doing what you can, right? That's all anypony can do: what they can! And when everypony combines their can-do's together, it lets us do things we could never do on our own! I picture it like a big pile of rubber bands," Pinkie said, giving the Princess a pep-talk, Pinkie-Style.

"A pile of what now?" Rainbow scratched her head.

"Rubber bands!" Pinkie repeated. "If you take a BIG pile of 'em, and roll them into one giant ball, it's waaaaaaay bouncier than just a few, ya know?"

"Not really," Rainbow responded.

"Rubber bands aside, that was just what I needed to hear," Celestia said with a smile. "Thank you, Miss Pie. You're wiser than you look."

"Thanks!" Pinkie said, bouncing. She stopped for a moment. "I think."

"Sorry to ruin the moment, but how do we get one of these to Twilight?" Spike questioned. "They probably won't let any magic items even come near the station."

"Leave that to me," Celestia said. "I'm sure I can convince them a simple communication spell isn't going to be a problem."

"Great!" Spike cheered. "In the meantime, why don't we get these scrolls to our friends?" he suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Rainbow agreed. "And maybe we should check out Town Hall. There could still be something, right?"

"It's worth a shot," Pinkie said, nodding.

"Sounds like you have a plan," Celestia said approvingly. "I'll take the last scroll with me, as I'm sure Twilight will be allowed to use it. And if you run out of ink, I can supply you more. Now, I'm afraid I have some things I must attend to. A Princess' work is never done." She winked at them. "Should you need anything else, I will be staying in the Hay and Stay Hotel. I'll tell the guards to let you through. I wish you all the best of luck. Farewell for now," she said, before turning and walking towards the hotel.

"Alright, come on ponies!" Spike held out his claw, and the two ponies each stacked a hoof on top of it. Then they all cheered,
"Team Friendship, GO!"

Author's Note:

Hopefully this doesn't seem too boring or slow paced. Now that everypony has a way to communicate, the investigation can begin! The pace will pick up now as the mystery and adventure begin!

Also, those scrolls? Equestrian version of cellphones/texting.

reviews are welcome! i wanna know if anyone actually reads and likes this. so, if you can, please review! and maybe like, favorite, or follow? if you want to.... (cue fluttershy voice: whatever you wanna do is fine...)

something i forgot to mention last time: this story takes place about early season three, before Discord's re-release and reformation, so no Discord or alicorn Twilight, and obviously no castle.

and lastly: The Hay and Stay Hotel is from Turnabout Storm, on Youtube, channel PWAAMLPFIM. if you haven't seen it you totally should!
-the snow pony