//------------------------------//
// Facts and Friends Laid Bare 
// Story: Disappear 
// by ShimmeringStallion 
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Facts and Friends Laid Bare





Spike was writing to Princess Celestia at the time, when he heard the the clopping of hooves coming from the stairwell, as he raised his voice to ask a question, under the assumption of knowing who would be coming up. “Twilight, is there anything I should point out about when Vanish attacked Rainbo-…!” He paused upon turning around to see not only Twilight coming up the stairs, but Scootaloo as well. He put the quill down and quickly walked over, stopping Scootaloo from going any further. “You shouldn’t be up here, Scootaloo. Go back downstairs and wait in the lobby with the others.” He turned to Twilight, whispering to her with urgency. “Twilight, what are you thinking!? Why did you bring her up here?”

Twilight pushed Spike aside with her hoof, and continued walking forward with Scootaloo as the mare explained her reasoning. “If we’re going to do anything about Vanish, we’ll need all the information we can get, and Scootaloo was alone with Vanish. I have a feeling that she knows something that could help us.” Twilight looked at the sad filly, who kept her head and stare aimed at the floor. “And right now, we don’t have much else to go on.”

Twilight guided Scootaloo up the flight of stairs leading to her bed, making sure that the young filly cleared the steps without tripping, before reaching the highest ‘floor’ of the library. Normally Twilight slept here, as well as Spike, but despite having a second bed that she once allowed Rarity and Applejack to use during a sleepover, she didn’t set it up before they brought Rainbow Dash in, so she tossed the blanket off as they placed the unconscious pony on her bed, before she asked Spike to apply bandages where he could. Spike watched from the bottom of the steps, holding his breath in anticipation of the worst of reactions, to that which anypony about to see somepony they care about in a terribly wounded state, would produce.

Twilight explained the situation to the young filly. “She’s sleeping right now. Spike and I did the best we could, to wrap her body up and…” Twilight noticed that Scootaloo seemed to be staring at Rainbow Dash, without any visible expression on her face, no longer showing signs of fatigue. “… Please take them off.” The unicorn paused for a moment, before nodding her head and pulling back the covers, after which she decided on confirming what had been requested of her. “Are you sure?” Scootaloo looked into the purple mare's eyes, tears reflected in her own eyes yet again, but still no discernible expression. “Twilight, please take them off… I want to see it.”

Twilight obliged by the request that Scootaloo had made, using her magic to gently lift Rainbow’s body as she unclipped the safety pin and slowly removed the bandages that she and Spike had wrapped around her friend. As Rainbow’s back became slowly exposed, sounds of pained, muffled grunts could be heard escaping the blue mare’s mouth, until finally, the last of the bandages had been removed, revealing a mark that smelled almost as bad as it looked. Burnt and cold from the time since the struggle, her back was heavily charred between her wings. Vanish had sought to make her suffer, and clearly accomplished this task, if the wound was indicative of the pain. If this was what it was like for Derpy, given how she was hospitalized, Twilight feared that the former Pegasus pony might never recover, seeing as how her back was far worse than that of the blonde Pegasus pony that was sleeping in Ponyville Hospital.

“Derpy…” Twilight wondered how her condition was. “Has Derpy improved at all? Is this the way things are going to be for the Pegasi? Are they fated to just lose their wings and consciousness? I wonder… Maybe the princess can come up with an idea!” Twilight left Scootaloo with Rainbow Dash, turning her attention back to her assistant. “Spike, have you heard from Princess Celestia since yesterday?” The purple, baby dragon’s sudden display of shock and embarrassment told Twilight everything before he could utter a word. “Oh, right! I’m sorry, Twilight, the princess sent a response while you were out. I just forgot to tell you, after I saw Rainbow and all…”

Twilight turned around, seeing Scootaloo nuzzling Rainbow Dash’s mane, appearing to speak softly to the sleeping mare, after which the filly moved around the bed to the blue pony's muzzle. Twilight turned back to Spike. “… And? Does she have any idea about what to do?” Spike walked to the desk he had been at before, grabbing a scroll with the princess’s seal on it, broken from a recent reading. “Well the first letter just said to “keep her informed”, but…” Spike continued, hesitantly. “… w-well, after you came back with Rainbow and put her in your bed, I sent another message to the princess, detailing that Rainbow had gotten severely hurt. I just got sent this scroll in return, right after you went back downstairs with Fluttershy.”

Twilight’s eyes shimmered with hope. “And? What does it say?” Spike unfurled the scroll, skimming through it before relaying its contents to the hopeful mare. “Well, aside from wanting more details, which is what I was writing to her about before you came up, she says that she was going to send some Pegasi from Canterlot to help, but…” Twilight didn’t like the sound of the pause, as Spike continued. “… she had sent them earlier after my first message, to attend to an errand in Ponyville before meeting us.” Twilight thought it over, but needed more information. “Did she say who she was sending?” Spike read the message to himself again. “It doesn’t say, but I’d guess that she would probably send some members of the Royal Guard.”

Twilight was stunned at the reply. “That’s not good enough! We need help NOW! Rainbow might not even make it another ni-!” Twilight felt a small hoof poke her hind leg. She turned around to see Scootaloo looking up at her curiously, but with a look of determination as well. Now was hardly the time to speak ill of the pained, given Scootaloo’s presence. The young filly began to speak, much to the purple pony's surprise. “Umm… Twilight? If it’s alright with you, I’d like to ask you something.” Twilight turned her full attention to Scootaloo, showing that she was listening, but Scootaloo seemed to be struggling to piece together the words she wanted to say, taking several pauses in the process. “… Is… this guy…” Twilight elaborated for the filly. “Vanish.” Scootaloo nodded her head. “R-Right, Vanish. Is he doing this for himself, or for something else?”

Twilight was surprised by the nature of the question. “Why do you ask, sweetie?” Scootaloo sat down and looked at her own wings. “Well, here's the thing… when Vanish approached me, he told me something: Right after throwing Rainbow Dash off, he went up to me and said that I had “suffered far too much”, before moving the cloud for me.” Scootaloo stared down at her hooves, rubbing one of her forelegs with the other hoof. “It was like he felt sorry for me; sorry that I saw it, and sorry for what he put me through. I don’t get it. Even after attacking Rainbow Dash, he seemed so… sad, like he didn’t want to do it, or at least he didn’t want me to see it.”

Twilight stared at Scootaloo for a moment, taking her words into consideration before pointing her back down the stairs, as if requesting her to follow. Scootaloo nodded as Twilight began speaking to her, the two of them heading back down to the lobby. “The truth is, he seems to be doing this for somepony else, but we really don’t know anything about the pony he’s doing this fo-!” While coming back down the stairwell, Twilight could faintly hear a knock at the door. “Oh! I-I’m coming down, I’ll get it!” Twilight ran down the stairs, not noticing that she had left Scootaloo in the stairwell, where the filly turned back around to go back upstairs.

Twilight made a beeline for the door, fully aware that this late at night, anypony visiting Ponyville Library must either enjoy reading as much as she does, or they’re here for the ponies residing inside the library. Twilight opened the door slowly, hoping to see whoever their mysterious visitor was, before they got a good look at the ponies inside. However, the light coming from the inside of the library seemed to reflect off the eyes of the pony at the door, blinding the purple mare as a result. “AAH!” Twilight covered her eyes with her hoof and sat down as her friends came over to the door, out of fear that their visitor had hurt their friend in some way.

Twilight took a moment to regain her sight and balance, and looked back up from the ground she had lowered herself to as she heard her friends collectively gasp in surprise. She saw a pony with a rather regal look to them, in terms of how they were standing, but as her vision came back slowly, she herself gasped at the sight of who it was. Wearing her signature flight suit and goggles, her orange mane looked great once the light had reached it.

Of all ponies to visit the library at this hour, it was Spitfire: The Captain of The Wonderbolts.