Psychopath - It's Diamond Tiara, do you really expect her to tell the truth and not exaggerate? Congrats! Keep up the good work and I'll do my best to do the same. ;)

KillerWow - 's cool. Lol yeah, it's fun to mess with Pinkie.

jason - Well read on my friend, there's more to this than you might think.

UnknownHero55 - Well, technically not for another week, but that doesn't make him above the law. It's Derpy, of course it's gonna be silly and fun :D

RattPitt - Oh you'll find out soon enough... 'evil laughter'

DragonLovingBrony - We haven't seen the last of him either... Lol yeah... I had a 'flexible' joke or two run through my mind when i wrote that too...

centaurus2 - Lol that's the idea! ;)

HeadBangingBrony - Yeah, as bubbly and happy as I imagine Derpy to be, I just can't picture her without her own insecurities... Though even from my perspective it's good to see someone lay them to rest.

xel101 - At least it's only a week. ;) And you can find out what happens next right now! :D

Deepfreeze222 - I left that ambiguous on purpose to keep you guys guessing for the next chapter. ;) As for how I write Blake; I'm actually working on that, this is my first piece of even semi-serious literature after all, so I realize that I have a lot of room for improvement. Reviews like yours help me figure out where my shortcomings are so I can improve them, so thanks for that :D

chipmunkfanatic - Lil bit, but then again, Diamond Tiara isn't exactly a little angel either...

HYBRID BATTLESHIP INFINITY210 - Good guess my friend, though perhaps not all is as it seems...

antifact050 - I like to see you all squirm... Mwahahaha! Lol just kidding. I do like to give you guys and gals something to speculate over though.

A/N - Howdy everypony! I hope you're all ready for Christmas, I know I am! The poll I set up hasn't gone as well as I'd liked, only six people voted. I'm gonna leave it up till New Year's to give any late-comers a chance to vote. Anyway, on to other things! I'll be starting Spring classes next month after taking the Fall semester off to let my brain relax a bit, so my update schedule might be weird for a few weeks. I hope you've all been good fillies and colts for Santa this year... As always, don't forget to follow/favorite, review, and most importantly; enjoy!

Derpy and I spun around to see what was going on. Standing behind us was a tan stallion with a slicked-back black mane wearing a suit collar and tie. The stallion's name was Filthy Rich if I remembered correctly; he was flanked by what looked like guards, only their armor seemed to be made out of plain steel rather than whatever materials the Princesses guards were made from. One of the guards was an earth pony, while the other was a unicorn.

One of the armored stallions stepped forward. "Mister Marshall, on behalf of the Ponyville Police Force, I'm officially placing you under arrest on two counts of assault and battery of a foal. Please come with us quietly or we will have no choice but to resort to force."

Something was off about the situation, and that gave me a bad feeling, but I decided to play along for the moment. "Alright, I'll come quietly." I held out my hands to be cuffed and turned to Derpy. "Go tell Twilight what's going on, she'll know what to do about this; I bet that mare has read every book on laws there is." She looked like she was going to protest, but thought better of it.

Spreading her wings, Derpy took off into the morning air, fortunately in the direction of the library. One of the stallions locked a set of manacles around my wrists while the other slipped a ring around each of my middle fingers. "Hey now, I know I'm dead sexy and all, but I'm not that kind of guy."

The stallions deadpanned in unison. "Sir, these are inhibitor rings; they prevent you from using your magic. Now, please follow us."

They turned and trotted off. I noticed that Filthy Rich had a smug grin on his face. Something about that grin made my bad feeling even worse.

Derpy

I couldn't remember flying this fast before; something about the way Blake sounded made me worried, and I wanted to make it to Twilight's as fast as I could. I heard another set of wings flapping next to me. "Heya Derpy, where ya headed?"

"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash. Blake got arrested, so I'm heading to Twilight's to tell her."

She stopped in place. "Blake got WHAT?!"

"I'll explain when we get- Oof!" I rubbed my head as I looked up at whatever I ran into. When did this tree get here?

"Who the hay… Oh, hi Derpy. Sorry, Blake's not here right now." Who is…? Oh! That's Spike.

I shook my head, my eyes rolling around. "I actually wanted to talk to Twilight. Is she here?"

"Oh. Sure, she's here. Hang on, I'll get her." He turned around. "TWILIGHT! DERPY'S HERE TO SEE YOU!" His shout made my ears make this really neat ringing sound.

"Ok ok, I'm coming. You don't have to shout Spike." I heard her voice come floating from upstairs. "Hey there Derpy, what's up?" She trotted down the stairs to meet me.

"Yeah, what gives?" Whoops, I almost forgot about Rainbow Dash.

"Filthy Rich got Blake arrested by the Ponyville Police. They said something about counting to two and putting salt and a battery on a foal." I scratched my head. "I think that's what they said; I was kinda too scared to listen."

Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof. "You mean 'two counts of assault and battery against a foal?'" I nodded. "Oh, this isn't good… Diamond Tiara must have gotten her father to… contact the… Wait a minute! Ponyville doesn't have a police force!"

Twilight started pacing around the room. "Oh, this is bad… Who could Filthy Rich have gotten to arrest Blake? Derpy, what did they look like?"

"Well, they were wearing armor, but it was kinda… weird. It didn't look like the armor the Princesses' guards wear. I mean it did, but the color was wrong, it was kinda grey."

"Grey armor? Who in Equestria wears grey armor? I need to write a letter to the princess about this, maybe she'll know." Twilight popped up the stairs in a flash that made me see these cool spots. She poked her head down the stairs. "Spike! I need you to take a letter!"

"Coming Twilight!" He ran up the stairs, carrying a scroll and a quill and inkwell.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Ahem. Dear Princess Celestia; we need your help. Blake has been arrested by stallions wearing strange, grey armor claiming to be Ponyville's police force. We have no idea who these ponies are or where they may have taken him as Ponyville has no standing police force. Please help us. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Spike blew green fire on the letter and it disappeared out the window. We waited several minutes; my heart was pounding the entire time. Finally, Spike's cheeks puffed up and he belched out more green fire that turned into another scroll. This one has a pretty red ribbon and a gold seal on it.

Twilight took the scroll in her magic and opened it up. "My faithful student; I have no idea who these ponies are, but I have confirmed that none of either my own or Luna's guards are anywhere near Ponyville at the moment. Luna wishes to inform you that she is preparing to leave for Ponyville and shall be there within thirty minutes. I know this is asking a lot, but please wait patiently for her arrival, she may have an idea of what's happened."

"So that's it; we just wait here for Princess Luna?" Rainbow Dash was flitting about.

"That's all we can do." Twilight sighed and sat down on her bed. "Until Princess Luna gets here, I don't know what to do…"

Rainbow Dash flew up and puffed out her chest. "That's easy! We go out there and look for him!"

"Where would we even begin? We have no idea who those ponies were or where they might have taken Blake. If anypony can help us figure out what's going on, it's Princess Luna."

I plopped down on my rump. "I just don't know why Mr. Rich would do this… He's usually so nice to everypony…"

Twilight hopped off the bed and put a hoof on my shoulder. "I know Derpy, but we won't know what made him do this until we find him… and Blake. For now though, we should think of things we can do to help Princess Luna when she gets here."

I sighed and watched Twilight pace around while Rainbow Dash flew in circles. I was never very good at stuff like this, so I tried to stay out of the way. "Derpy, do you have any ideas?" I jumped when Twilight said my name.

"I-I dunno… could we use magic to find him?"

Twilight gave me a strange look that made me uncomfortable. "That's… Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?!"

Her horn lit up and she closed her eyes. I watched as sweat started dripping down her face. The pretty pink glow of her horn got brighter and brighter and her face scrunched up. The glow suddenly winked out and she breathed heavily. "I don't understand… That should have been easy, but I can't find him at all. It's like something's blocking him out somehow."

Rainbow Dash flitted around some more. "How is that possible? I mean, I don't really get magic, but shouldn't that be impossible?"

Twilight looked down. "I don't know Rainbow… I really don't know."

"Well, what're we gonna do then? Just wait for the Princess?"

Twilight sighed. "That's all we really can do now..."

So we sat and waited. The quiet was kinda creepy, but I didn't say anything. After what felt like forever, somepony knocked on the door. Twilight walked over and opened it with her magic. "Hello Princess Luna. Thank you for helping us."

Princess Luna walked into the library, her starry mane flowing behind her. I couldn't help it; I kept thinking how anypony would want to be with a mare like me when they had somepony as beautiful as Princess Luna. But Blake did want to be with me, and that made me smile inside.

"I came as quickly as I could Twilight. Please, tell me exactly what happened."

Twilight looked at me. "Derpy was the one who was there when it happened; she can tell you more than I can."

Princess Luna walked over to me. "Please Miss Hoov- Derpy, tell me what happened."

I shuffled my hooves. "W-well, me and Blake were dropping off the foals at school, a-and these stallions came up and said that Blake was under arrest for…" I couldn't remember what they said anymore.

"Assault and battery against two foals." Princess Luna looked shocked. "That's not what happened though, I was there. The fillies were bullying Scootaloo and her friends, and Blake stopped them; he never even touched them though."

Luna nodded slowly. "And Ponyville does not have a standing police force, yes?" We all nodded. "Then I believe our first order of business is to locate anypony who may have seen where these ponies might have taken Blake. If we can even discover which direction they were headed, we may be able to ascertain where they went, and if we can do that, we can find them. Miss Dash, I would like you to gather the rest of the Element Bearers and inform them of what's going on. The more help we have, the more quickly we can find these foalnappers."

We left the library and split up to begin looking for anypony to ask about Blake's foalnappers.

Blake

The two guards and I walked along the path leading towards Applejack's farm. "Funny, I don't remember a jailhouse way out here… or anywhere in Ponyville for that matter…"

Just then, the world went dark as a sack was roughly shoved over my head. "HEY! What gives!?" At least, that's what I meant to say, although no sound reached my ears.

"That should keep him quiet. Now, where are we going again?" Why can I hear them but not myself?

"The old castle in the Everfree, the one the princesses lived in a long time ago." This sounded like the guard who talked to me before.

"Oh, right… I really don't like that place. It's too easy to get lost… and it's spooky."

"Will you two knock it off?! We don't need him knowing where we're going!" That's Filthy Rich, the pony who accused me of assaulting his daughter and her friend. Why is he still with the guards?

They were silent for awhile, the only sound being muffled hoof steps on the dirt road. I could tell when we entered the Everfree because of the chill that ran down my spine. I wanted to fight or run, but with these blasted inhibitor rings, the manacles and this bag, I was in no condition to put up any resistance. I hoped that Zecora would be out and about and notice us, maybe she could let somepony know that something's wrong.

We walked through the forest for what seemed like hours before finally stopping. "There it is… that place looks even creepier up close…"

"Come on, we haven't got all day. Night will be falling soon and we don't want to be caught outside of a structure when that happens."

I felt one of the guards prod his horn into my back, urging me on. I complied, taking tentative steps since I couldn't see where I was going due to the bag. I froze in place as my boot clunked onto a wooden plank. The stallion behind me prodded me again. "Come on, get a move on, it's just a rope bridge."

I took my time as best I could with the guard stallion prodding me in the back, not wanting to misstep and plummet blindly into whatever waited below. I fortunately made it across without incident.

My stride became somewhat less tentative when I felt and heard the soles of my boots make contact with the smooth surface of worked stone, telling me we likely on some sort of paved walkway. "Make sure he doesn't trip on the… stairs…" The warning came too late as I did just that, landing rather roughly and leaving several smarting areas on my front.

"Oww… thanks for the… warning… dammit!" I forgot that the hood muffled my voice.

"Come on come on, get him up!" I was roughly hauled to my feet and prodded forward before I even had a chance to properly get my balance.

I almost tripped on the stairs again, but managed to stay on my feet the rest of the climb. They led me down a series of winding hallways. I tried to memorize the amount of steps and the directions of the turns, but I was never very good at that kind of thing; unfortunately, the aches and pains across my body made the prospect even more difficult. We eventually stopped and I heard a metallic creaking; it sounded like they were opening a door with hinged in dire need of some grease.

A pair of hooves planted on my back and shoved me unceremoniously forward. I stumbled and crashed into a wall and fell to the floor. There was a loud *SLAM* followed by a *click* from where I had been standing a moment before as the shackles around my wrists were removed and the hood was ripped off of my face. I blinked at the reddish-gold light of the setting sun streaming in through a window behind me, my vision quickly coming into focus in the relatively dim light.

I looked up to see the three stallions walking away… from the other side of a set of iron bars. Well… shit…

Twilight

I was starting to lose hope; everypony I had talked to so far had no idea where Blake might be or even who the stallions who took him were, save for Filthy Rich. It felt like I had already talked to everypony around town, yet I was no closer to finding him than when I started. I looked up at the sky, trying to calm myself down as I watched the sun begin to set.

"Please let him be okay…" I closed my eyes and sighed.

"Hey Twilight! Any luck?" I opened my eyes again to see Rainbow Dash hovering in front of me.

"Sorry Rainbow, nopony I've talked to knows anything about where Blake might have gone, or even who those two armored stallions might be. It's like they just disappeared."

"Yeah, everypony else is having the same problem, nopony has even heard of these armored stallions. They're like ghosts or something. I… hey! Who's that?"

I looked behind me to where she was pointing. There was an earth pony I had never seen around town just standing there against a lamp pole and looking around, like he was waiting for somepony. I trotted over to him. "Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle." He looked over at me but didn't say anything. "I was wondering if you might know anything about a pair of stallions in grey armor walking through town with a bipedal creature."

The stallion put a hoof to his chin. "Hmm… that sounds familiar, but my memory is kind of rusty…" He held an upturned hoof out to me. You've got to be kidding me…

Before I could do anything, Rainbow Dash darted past me and grabbed the stallion. "Listen buster, we don't have time for you and your games! You're gonna tell us what you know and you're gonna do it now!" Her sudden aggressive attitude startled me.

"Ok ok, lay off. All I know is that I saw the two stallions in the grey armor walking with some weird hairless monkey thing. They looked like they were headed for the train station. That was about fifteen minutes after the school bell rang. That's all I know, honest."

Rainbow let the stallion go. "Thanks buddy, now scram." The stallion took off in short order.

"That wasn't very nice Rainbow."

She folded her forelegs over her chest. "Neither was him trying to get bits out of you for information about Blake."

"Ok, fair point. But you still shouldn't have been so rough with him. Now come on, let's go see what the train schedule for this morning was." I turned and headed for the train station with Rainbow Dash flying along next to me.

We arrived at the line-free ticket booth and I stepped up to the counter. "Excuse me sir." The elderly stallion manning the booth adjusted his glasses as he looked at me. "We were wondering if you could tell us the train schedule for earlier this morning, sometime after school started."

"Let me take a look-see." He leaned down and opened a drawer, rummaging through its contents. "Ah, here we go. Let's see… it looks like the next train to leave was headed towards… Appleloosa. After that… Looks like Canterlot. Does that help young miss?"

I nodded gratefully. "Very much so, thank you. Come on Rainbow, let's get the others; we have a trip to Appleloosa to plan."

Thanks to Rainbow's speed, it didn't take long to gather everypony back to the library. Once they were all gathered, I began. "Alright everypony, Rainbow Dash and I found somepony who saw where they went. Did anypony else come up with anything?" The shaking of heads was unanimous. "I see. According to the pony we spoke to, they were headed towards the train station. After talking to the ticket stallion, we learned the most likely place they would be headed; Appleloosa."

Rarity was the first to say something. "But… whatever would they want to take him to Appleloosa for? As far as I know, there's nothing out there but buffalo and country bumpkins." Applejack glared at her. "Ah heh… no offense Darling. What I mean is, there's hardly anything out that way, besides the town itself of course; what could be there that they would need him for?"

I shook my head. "I don't know Rarity… but we're going to find out."

Princess Luna stood up. "Very well, I shall return to Canterlot for the evening, and return in the morning to accompany you to this 'Appleloosa.' For now, I suggest you all try to get some rest, I believe tomorrow shall prove to be quite a day for all of us." She turned and left the library, followed shortly after by the others, once we had said our round of goodbyes.

I hardly slept that night, worried as I was about Blake; where he might be, if he was okay, what we could do to help him, who would want to foalnap him in the first place. All these thoughts racing through my mind made sleep all but impossible, so I spent most of my time reading, trying to find something, anything that might help us.

Shortly after the light from Celestia's sun started filtering through the windows, there was a knock on the library door. I looked up from the book on Equestrian mythology I was reading through to see Spike open the door and Applejack and Fluttershy walk in. "Heya Twi. Rare and Pinkie're on their way, should be here any minute."

"And I flew up to Rainbow Dash's house and woke her up earlier… but I don't know if she's still awake or not, I didn't want to bother her."

"Heck yeah I'm awake!" Fluttershy 'eep'ed and shot up into the air. "Whoops, sorry Flutters. Anyway, do you really think I'd slack off on something like this?"

"Well for course we wouldn't Darling." Sheesh, doesn't anypony besides Applejack knock anymore? "So sorry for barging in like this Twilight Darling, but the door was open."

Pinkie started bouncing up and down. "Yeah! You really should close it silly! Who knows who might just trot right in." We all gave her a look. "What? I'm just saying."

"Ok, now that everypony else is here, we just need to wait for Princess Luna." There was another knock at the door. "… Or not…"

I opened the door with my magic. "Greetings everypony. I am glad to see that everyone is already gathered; if you are all ready, I suggest we make our way to the train station."

"Princess Luna's right, we can figure out exactly what we're going to do on the trip there. Come on everypony, let's go." As everypony else turned and filed out the door, Princess Luna rested a hoof on my shoulder. "May I speak to you Twilight?"

"Of course Princess, what is it?" She motioned me to walk with her.

"It is about that. You and I are a part of a herd together; I would… like for you to simply refer to me as Luna. I shall speak to Applejack and Derpy about this as well."

I nodded. "Alright, I'll try Pr- Luna." I shuddered. "That's going to take some getting used to. I know it's what you want, but it still feels… I don't know, disrespectful."

She nodded. "I can understand why you would feel that way, but you must remember that I do not wish to be seen as better than anypony, especially not my fellow herd mates."

We caught up with the others at the station just as the train bound for Appleloosa came into sight in the distance.

Blake

I paced around the cell I had been so graciously tossed into, which I had spent the time to measure out and determined it to be around three cubic meters. With nothing else to do, I thought about why I might be here, and where here might be. I remembered the imposter guard stallions saying something about a castle in the Everfree; I knew little bits and pieces about it from Twilight when she had told me about the origins of Nightmare Moon, but I had no idea where in the Everfree it was. I stopped pacing and watched the sky through the window, which, while too high up for a pony to look through without getting up on their hind legs, was just about the right height for me. I watched as the light from Celestia's sun waned and faded from a brilliant gold to a fiery orange and then into cooler purples and blues. As it made its descent towards the horizon, Luna's moon climbed into the sky and stars began appearing, twinkling in the fading light.

I remembered that Ponyville was nestled on the East side of the Everfree, meaning that this window faced relatively the same direction as the small town I called home. My mind went back to work, formulating plan after plan to escape this place and get back there. By the time I came out of my little thought bubble, the sky was an inky blue-black and filled with glittering stars, the nearly full moon floating amongst them like a pale white lamp.

When I looked at the moon and the stars that Luna had created, I saw something slightly different in the sky; it was something that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but it gave me a sense of hope. I smiled as I realized what I was seeing and feeling was; a promise from Luna, a promise that she wouldn't rest until she found me, a promise that no matter what, she wouldn't give up, and a promise that whoever captured me would have Tartarus to pay, and there wasn't a force in this universe that could stop her.

I was just about to settle down on the pile of fortunately fresh hay when a pony dressed in the same grey armor but that I hadn't seen before came trotting up to the cell door carrying a tray of food on his head. "Alright, it's time to eat. We want you to be healthy after all." The stallion placed the tray on a small sill crafted into the door and walked off.

I got up and grabbed the tray, which had a bowl of salad and a glass of water on it. I ate the meager meal and lay down on the hay pile for a fitful night's sleep.