At the Ponyville Hospital, Princess Celestia had taken a turn for the worse. She was confined to a hospital bed, barely able to move. She had an oxygen mask on. Her sister Princess Luna was sitting by her bed when Twilight came in.
"Have you discovered the source of the poison yet?" Luna demanded.
"Well… no," Twilight admitted. "I analyzed the contents of the last muffin, but I couldn't find anything wrong with it."
"What?!" Luna was furious. "I can't believe this! You told my sister and I that you had things well in hoof here, Sparkle! Now we get here and discover that there's an outbreak of poison in this town?"
Twilight tried to pacify the angry princess. "Stuff like this doesn't normally happen in Ponyville. I promise I'll catch the maniac who did this in no time."
"And I promise you," Luna replied, her voice seething with rage, "if Celestia doesn't recover, when I place my hooves on the beast responsible, I will literally rip his-"
She was interrupted by the sound of her sister stirring. "Luna…"
"Celestia!" Luna gasped.
"Don't get angry. Stay calm. Twilight will find a way…" Celestia got that much out before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Hearing her sister's voice had pacified Luna somewhat. "I'm sorry for blaming you, Twilight Sparkle. It's not your fault that someone in Ponyville is a poisoner," she said. "You've solved much harder problems than this. You can unravel this mystery."
"I appreciate your confidence in me, Princess," said Twilight.
Later she went to Pinkie Pie's house to confide in her. "Why did this have to happen on the very day when Celestia and Luna came to town?" she lamented.
"You didn't find out what was wrong with the muffins?" Pinkie asked.
"No, I couldn't detect any poison."
"Well, is it okay if I eat the rest of this then?" Pinkie produced a half-eaten muffin.
Twilight was thunderstruck. "Where did you find that?"
"On a table at Sugarcube Corner."
"That's it!" Twilight exclaimed. "The poison must have somehow not gotten into the muffin I took. Somepony already took a bite out of this one and got sick, though, so it's poisonous for sure. I'll take it back to my house and run a test on it. Thanks, Pinkie!"
She hurried home to analyze the muffin.
