CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Twilight –

This is just a real quick message to let you know. Princess Celestia found some weird, broken machine thing at Fluttershy's house and knows that you're helping the ponies from another world. Busted!

I don't know where you are, but if you come back to Equestria, you're toast.

Spike

PS Twilight no dont believe her this isnt

Twilight held her head in her hooves and took deep breaths. She couldn't believe she'd gotten a letter from Spike – Spike could only send letters to Princess Celestia, just like he had to warn her about Grojband. Which had been out of character in the first place.

And now he was sending Twilight letters? The world had gone mad.

"Twilight, um, are you okay?" Fluttershy was still next to her, stroking her mane and trying to calm her down. "It's going to be okay. You're going to be fine. I think."

Twilight looked up. "Yeah. Yeah, sure." She sucked in another lungful of air. "It's just…I was expecting this to blow over as soon as we got Grojband home. But now? There's no escaping it. We'll all be in trouble as soon as we get back to Equestria. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Twi. It's theirs." Rainbow Dash said from overhead. "If Grojband had never shown up, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Now, Rainbow Dash," Rarity said. "They didn't ask to be brought here, you know. If it's anypony's fault, it's that of whoever sent them."

Twilight could see Grojband sitting on the other side of the bonfire embers, talking quietly with Zahan and Zamale. They are innocent. It's all my fault for making such bad decisions, Twilight thought. If I'd just been more careful…

"Let's not play the blame game, everypony," Applejack said matter-of-factly. "There's nothin' we can do about it now, so let's just do our best to get Grojband home and worry about everythin' else later."

"What's this part, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked. She had picked up the letter and was reading it intently.

"What part?"

"The part at the end, silly." Pinkie held out the letter (which was upside down) and let Twilight take it with her magic.

PS Twilight no dont believe her this isnt

Twilight sniffled, bringing the parchment closer to her face. "Isn't what?"

"What isn't what?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight could feel her brain going from emotional freak-out mode into analysis mode. No matter how worried she was about the consequences she faced for helping Grojband, Spike's message was extremely suspicious. "I wish I could send a letter back to him," she said, thinking aloud.

"What'd ya find, sugar cube?" Applejack asked hesitantly.

Twilight showed everypony the letter. "Read the postscript. It's in a totally different tone than the rest of the letter. Girls, I don't think Spike wrote this because he wanted to. It might not even be true."

"So we were right! He didn't betray us – he was dragonnapped!" Rarity cried, swooning.

"Oh…my," Fluttershy whispered.

"What're we gonna do? We're not even in Equestria, for pony's sake!" Rainbow Dash said.

"We'll wait for another message," Twilight said firmly.

"WHAT? And do nothing?" Rainbow flapped higher into the air, her expression indignant. "Twi, we have to help Spike!"

"And we will," Twilight said. "But I need more proof first." She rolled up the scroll and retied the ribbon around it. "If I get another letter from Spike, I'm going to compare them. And if it's still looks as suspicious as this, we'll do something. But for now, like Applejack said, our priority is Grojband." The unicorn looked over at the band members, who were laughing at something Kon had said.

Rainbow sighed and swooped back down to earth. "All right," she grumbled. "But this had better go fast."

"Again," Twilight said. "Concentrate."

Corey and Laney's magic practice was going more slowly than Twilight had expected, especially after Corey's controlled, if interestingly thought-out, locator spell the night before. I've never seen anypony use magic like that before, Twilight thought. I always just think about the item and then summon it. But then again, magic's different for everypony. Just look at me and Trixie.

Laney's horn – as well as the pebble she was trying to lift – lit up. Surprisingly, the two Grojband members' magic was exactly the same color, a light blue. She strained, and her light flickered and died. "Darn! I almost had it," she said, kicking at the ground.

"You're doing good. At first, it took me a lot more tries than this," Twilight said, though she doubted it. They'd been at the simple levitation spell for hours and Laney had only managed to do it once. Corey had pulled it off at least three times.

It could have partially been Twilight's fault, too. For the whole session, she'd been too busy thinking about Spike's letter. She knew that she was supposed to be helping Grojband, but the thought of her little assistant in danger was too much to just push out of her mind. Her thoughts kept returning to his postscript:

PS Twilight no dont believe her this isnt

Who was the 'her' Spike was so worried about? The only 'she's' Twilight could think of who would do such a thing were Nightmare Moon or Queen Chrysalis, and both of them were out of the picture. Whoever she is, she's got to be the one who forced Spike to send the letter, the unicorn thought. I wish there were some way I could find out who it is. She'd tried to analyze the magic that had been used on the scroll, but it was no use. Dragon fire burned any trace of magical identity away.

Aside from Spike, Twilight spent plenty of time worrying about what would happen to her and her friends when they returned to Equestria. Was Spike's letter telling the truth, or was it a lie to scare Twilight off? As far as she could remember, there hadn't been any trace of a machine. And even if they had found it, it was broken – of no use in returning Grojband home at any time soon.

The unicorn resurfaced from her thoughts just in time to watch Corey levitate a pebble. "Sweet!" he crowed, spinning it around in midair. "Look at that!"

Laney snorted. "Stupid magic."

"It's official – I'm better than you," the stallion said, bopping Laney on the nose with the pebble.

"Shut up!" Laney growled, squeezing her eyes shut once more.

"Okay, I think we've been at this long enough," Twilight said. "You two can head back to the hut."

Laney let go of her concentration, then paused. "Aren't you coming?"

"Not yet," Twilight said, rubbing her neck. "I have to think for a little bit."

Corey shrugged, and the two of them took off toward Zamale's hut, giggling and screaming all the way.

Twilight sighed and pulled the rolled-up scroll from the small stack of books she'd brought. "What do you really know, Spike?" she said to herself. "If you were able to, what could you tell me?"

"Twilight Sparkle, are you all right? You are not yourself," Zamale said.

Twilight started, then turned to the zebra stallion. "Oh, hi, Zamale," she said sheepishly, tucking the scroll back down by the books. "I'm just packing up after my session with Corey and Laney."

"But you're troubled," said the zebra. He walked over to Twilight and helped her shove some books into her empty saddlebag. "If there is anything I can help you with, please let me know. I would be glad to assist."

Twilight met his eyes. They were caring, almost fatherly. "Well, um…I have had a question on my mind for the last day or so," she admitted, unsure if she wanted the truth about her dragon assistant spreading around the zebra community.

"If I can answer it, I shall."

I can't tell him. I just can't. The unicorn racked her brain for something else she'd been wondering since coming to the camp. "Why don't all the zebras here rhyme when they talk?" she burst out.

Zamale laughed. "That's a common question from visitors, actually," he said kindly. "It is tradition that the shaman speak in rhyme once they have completed a certain ceremony, but nopony else is required to."

Twilight smiled wanly. "So Zuri will have to soon?"

"Indeed. Her ceremony was supposed to take place this week, but your arrival and the importance of your situation pushed it back," Zamale said, nodding.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Twilight blushed, embarrassed suddenly about the Equestrians' odd and abrupt arrival. "We didn't mean to interrupt such an occasion."

"Not at all. Zuri has been waiting for two years. She can wait a week longer with no trouble." The zebra buttoned the flap on Twilight's saddlebags and slid them over to her.

"Zamale?"

"Yes, Twilight Sparkle?"

"The ceremony that will take Grojband home…what exactly does it entail?" Twilight asked, slipping her bags onto her back. She was still worried about Spike, but glad that Zamale had been able to distract her for a short while. The letter had been eating at her for about a day.

"It is a ceremony used for communication with the spirits," Zamale said. "I know little about it myself, but I believe that Zahan, Zecora, and Zuri will be having a practice ceremony tomorrow evening."

Twilight perked up a little more. "Do you think they'd let me come and watch?"

"I do not see why that would be a problem. After all, you will be there for the final ceremony," Zamale said, "but I will have to ask Zahan. This is a decision for the shaman to make."

Twilight nodded. "Thanks for answering my questions. I think we'd all be lost here without you."

Smiling, the zebra took a step forward. "No. As I have said before, thank you. Without you and your friends, I might have never seen my sister again."

The two walked silently back to Zamale's hut, where everypony else was gathered around the campfire again. Looks like Rainbow Dash finally got to tell the Nightmare Moon story, Twilight thought as she watched Laney grip Corey's foreleg in barely-hidden fright.

"And then, with an evil laugh –" Rainbow Dash did a perfect Nightmare Moon imitation "– the wicked mare charged Princess Celestia, powering up her horn for the death blow!"

Twilight just rolled her eyes as she walked by. The legend of Nightmare Moon isn't even that scary a story, she thought. The Headless Horse is a much better one.

Zamale held the curtain open and let Twilight into the hut. "I am going to go pick up Zuri from Zahan's home," he said. "Feel free to eat, go outside, whatever pleases my guest."

Twilight thought for a moment. I think I'll stay here and read, she decided. With a burst of magic, she reopened her saddlebag and levitated out the copy of Daring Do and the Fires of Corona she'd brought.

It didn't take long for Fluttershy to come inside, too. "Hi, Twilight," she said, folding her left wing onto her back.

"Hey, Fluttershy," Twilight said. She looked closely at the Pegasus mare; her aqua-colored eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles underneath them. "Are you all right? You look awful."

"So do you," Fluttershy replied, sitting on her blanket beside Twilight. "Are you worried about Spike?"

"Yeah," the unicorn sighed. She shut her book and laid her head down on the thin pillow Zamale had given her. "I can't get over his message. I'm practically analyzing it in my sleep. And hoping he's okay."

"I know how you feel. I miss him too." Fluttershy placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "But I've also been lonely for all the critters back home. I hope Lyra and Bon Bon are taking care of them all right."

"I'm sure they are." Twilight hesitated. "What's going on out there?"

"Rainbow Dash finished the Nightmare Moon story and started another one," Fluttershy said. "I don't like scary stories, so I came in here. Besides, it's kind of weird to sit there and watch Rarity making moony eyes at Corey all the time."

"Rarity's doing what?"

Fluttershy twiddled her hooves. "It just seems so weird, when, you know, it's obvious that Laney likes him and he likes her back." She looked up at Twilight. "You've noticed it too, haven't you?"

"How could I not? What's weird is how none of Grojband seems to know it," Twilight said, giggling.

"And Rarity doesn't seem to know either," Fluttershy added, and smiled too.

Twilight took a deep breath so she'd stop laughing, then levitated her book back into her saddlebag and removed Spike's letter, even though she had it memorized already. Maybe there was something on there she had missed. "Well, it'll only be a couple of days, and then they'll be home," she said aloud. "Then all we'll have to worry about is getting back to Equestria, clearing our names, and finding out what happened to Spike."

"But aren't you curious about how Grojband got here in the first place?" Fluttershy asked, shifting on her blanket.

"Of course I am! And I will. But first, I want to focus on us getting home safely. All of us." Twilight unrolled the letter, and something twisted in her gut. Oh, Celestia, he'd better be all right.

Dear Twilight,

This is just a quick message to let you know…

Hey, all you readers out there! Here's your chapter, right on time.

Sadly, we're not sure if the next one will be, since we're both going to have to re-adjust for a) school starting up and b) exams coming up.

Check back next week, though, no matter what. We'll try our best. Just thought you'd like to know ahead of time.

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And check out our profile for some possible upcoming stories! I might put up a poll for you to vote on the one you want me to work on first.

Until next time, peace off. :3