5th Layer: Equestria
Chapter 2: Suspicion
Max Kodan
The group was gathered outside, in their favorite picnic spot. The three new arrivals; Alpha Centauri, Beta Max, and Gamma Ray, had joined them, and they were chatting and getting to know each other. Twilight Sparkle stood off to the side, watching the proceedings with rapt interest. Rainbow dash flew over the area and Gamma, who had been enchanted by the skill and speed she showed, followed clumsily. The blue racer did an areal loop, and when the slightly less skilled pegasus tried he ended up wrenching himself sideways, slamming himself into a tree branch. After all that, right back where he started.
Something still seemed slightly off. She couldn’t quite place it, but these ponies didn’t seem...natural. It was mostly their cutie marks. For some reason, Twilight couldn’t quite tell what they were. Whenever she looked, her eyes traveled away by themselves, and she immediately forgot what she’d seen. It was strange, and it bothered her greatly. For now, however, all she could do was learn.
Alpha was sitting by herself, watching everyone while staying comparatively silent. The purple unicorn trotting up beside her and sitting down didn’t seem to affect her in the least. “Hey!” She quipped cheerfully. No response. This was a cold one. “I...see you’re not really interacting with anyone.” Silence. “So...er...I figured I’d break the ice. I know we’ve been kind of introduced, but I wanted to make it formal. Hi! I’m Twilight Sparkle. I love books and studying and organization.” …. “Soooooooo, this is where you tell me something about you. Anything. Really. Do you have a favorite food? A hobby?” Alpha just sat silently, her expression completely unreadable. Twilight gave a hearty sigh and hung her head in defeat.
“I like...singing.” She spoke! Her voice was actually rather beautiful. Her demeanour didn’t let on at all, but it did sounded as though she could belt out an opera, if she would only give herself the chance. Melodically, the words danced around Twilight’s head for a moment before she realized that it was probably her turn to speak.
“That’s wonderful! I know a few ponies you should meet, and if you’re as good as you sound you could end up on stage with them!” She beamed. “Oh, you would be wonderful, and it would be really fun, and...” Alpha blinked several times, leaning back from the outburst. Twilight slowed her rant to a stop. “And, well...I’ll just let you think about it, ok?” She inched away from the newcomer, who didn’t change her stance at all. Then she zipped some distance away. Perhaps the others would be more talkative...
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Just outside the Ponyville Train Station, a pegasus glowered. Her wings flapped in agitation, her normally flowing chestnut mane looking somewhat frazzled. As the last few ponies walked away from the building, her teeth ground together. They weren’t here. They were supposed to be on the train. She was told they would be on the train. Whatever happened, she needed to find them, and she needed to find them now, before they ruined everything. She closed her eyes in a light meditation. A moment later, they snapped open again and she pivoted in the air. Kicking off, she flapped her wings furiously, speeding along the rails that led towards Canterlot.
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Next up would be....Beta. Might as well go in alphabetical order. Twilight chuckled at her own over-nerdy pun and approached the dark blue unicorn. He was cheerily chatting it up with Pinkie Pie and Applejack. The three of them stood sideline, watching, while Rainbow Dash led Gamma around the area. He hadn’t improved much.
“Hey!” She repeated the quip from earlier, settling herself in a space between the unicorn and AJ. “Have I missed anything?”
“Not all that much, m’lady.” The honorific would be mildly enchanting if she hadn’t heard him repeat it to every filly he saw. “I was just regaling your friends here with a few of my Tales of Worldly Travels.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie poked her head around the visitor to make eye contact with Twilight. “He was telling us about some of the weird and cool places he’s been!”
“It’s no big deal, just a little travelling, you know...” He was blushing. Applejack leaned closer to Twilight.
“Can you come over here for a sec’?” She whispered, nodding her head a few yards away. Twilight blinked and looked back at Beta, but he was deep in conversation with Pinkie. Something about a boat and a whale and an umbrella. She shifted herself off to the side to sit alongside her farming friend, who had moved away from the group. They were sufficiently secluded now, as the activities around were making a fair amount of noise.
“Does this bunch seem a mite...off?” Applejack spoke in a slightly raised whisper still, her eyes trained on Gamma as he bobbed his way after his lead. She was trying to stay inconspicuous. Something was really bothering her. “Have ya’ tried lookin’ at their cutie marks? It’s like they ain’t even there. Or somethin’s there, but ya’ can’t tell what.”
“I noticed that...” The unicorn frowned and followed AJ’s gaze, again trying to look at the area on Gamma’s flank. Again, her eyes seemed to just slip off of it. “There’s another thing, too. They were supposed to be on the first train here from Canterlot, but by the schedule, they shouldn’t have gotten in until about 15 minutes ago.” She tucked the corner of her mouth into her cheek, wracking her brain. “But who else could they be? They’re odd, but they don’t seem evil. And if the Princess was talking about somepony else, then they would have come on the train and come over here, right? We’re not exactly hidden.” It was true. They would be seen rather easily if one were to walk from the train station through the town. Logically, they would be the first group a newcomer would go to. Plus, they should have a picture of the Mane 6, or at least a description. “I don’t think we have any choice but to go with the idea that these guys are the real deal, but...”
“But?”
“But, well...why haven’t they given us their message yet? Or even mentioned Princess Celestia, or their mission? Everything just seems so...mysterious.” Her purple mane covered her eyes as she bowed her head. She was thinking too much, and her brain was overloading. For the moment, ONLY for the moment she told herself, she would give up and roll with the idea that these three were the ones sent by the Princess. “Just...keep your guard up.”
The two nodded to each other and, for now, parted ways.
-----
The brown mane waved as the wind rushed past it. They had better be on the next train. Things were strange here, and she couldn’t track them as well as she was used to. With any luck, this would be the last time she needed to chase them down. As she rounded a large bend in the mountain, she saw the train chugging along. She slowed and revered direction, letting it catch up. As it passed, she glared into every window, frightening a few of the passengers but not seeing who she was looking for. Where could they be? She groaned as the last car of the locomotive sped past her, then gave herself another boost of speed, steering around the remainder of the bend.
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It had been several hours since the party ended. Despite their best efforts, even together, Applejack and Twilight couldn’t find anything particularly wrong with the three oddballs. Aside from the obvious issue with the cutie marks, they seemed more or less...normal. When sundown neared, they met each other once more. This time, their chat would be a bit more private. They sat together atop a large hill, outside the normal limits of Ponyville. The lights were just starting to come on, and one building at a time clicked to life. They remained silent until every one had sparked. The town lay before them, shining spectacularly.
For just a moment, Twilight marvelled at it’s beauty; at the ability for such a small town to produce such a bright light. In these hours, despite the twilit sky darkening, the streets of Ponyville were bright as day. And yet, eventually, the light would burn out, one at a time, and the town would fall dark and silent until Celestia’s Sun broke over the horizon.
“So? What d’ya think? Anythin’ come up today?” The farmer cocked her head to the side just enough to catch the scholar’s eye. She seemed tired, which was odd. She rarely showed fatigue, unless it was after a long day of hard work. And even then it was rarely more than an ‘Ah’m off to bed for the night. See y’all tomorrow!’
“No...what’s wrong?” Twilight worried, frowning and tilting her head.
“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Ah just...Ah spent all day tryin’ to look at her cutie mark. Alpha’s, Ah mean. It’s...harder than any work Ah’ve had to do all season! It was suckin’ the energy right out of mah head.” She stood and wavered on her feet. “Ah...think I need to be gettin’ on to bed.” She took three steps and stopped, looking dangerously close to falling over.
Twilight swept over to her side and nudged her up, holding her steady. “Er, maybe I should walk you home.”
The two set off together, slowly working their way through the streets. Nearly everypony was inside, so they still retained a sort of privacy. “Ya know,” Applejack yawned, “It ain’t just the cutie marks. Somethin’ else don’t settle right with me. I cain’ quite put mah hoof on it, but somethin’ is jus’ unsettlin’ about that lot. Like somethin about ‘em is lost, or missin’.” She shook her head. “They kinda make me feel....sad.”
It was a few moments before Twilight could form a response, and just as she opened her mouth to deliver it her ear caught a bit of a conversation. “-the rest of you?”
It sounded like Cherilee, and the fact was confirmed when they rounded the corner and found themselves right in front of said pony’s house. The schoolteacher was outside, and, right in front of her, stood the three suspicious guests. Twilight stopped in her tracks and grabbed her friend, hiding around the corner and listening intently, shushing the confused and tired pony’s protests.
“What do you mean the rest of us?” It was Beta’s voice, and he sounded genuinely ignorant of whatever was being discussed. The other two stood (or floated, Gamma hadn’t gotten over the initial rush of flying) silently.
“Well,” Cherilee began, “The Mayor said that I was supposed to be hosting 5 ponies. She even showed me the letter from Princess Celestia.” So this was the setup the Mayor had arranged for them. Cherilee did keep a few spare rooms in her house, as she would babysit her students if her parents went out of town overnight or longer. Being a teacher in this age of enlightenment under Celestia’s rule tended to be a good position to be in. “I have all of my rooms ready for you, so I just wondered where the other two were.”
Venturing a peek around the corner, a hoof still clopped over Applejack’s mouth, Twilight caught a glimpse of the alphabetically named trio. Beta couldn’t see it, but Alpha was glaring at his back. Gamma drifted back and forth in the air, his eyes wandering around, as if he were imagining himself gracefully swooping through the sky like Dash. “Oh, er...” Beta rubbed the back of his neck with his hoof. “Must be some kind of mistake. The Princess was rather busy when she sent us, so she must have just written down the wrong number.” Immediately, Twilight narrowed her eyes. Now they were insinuating that the Princess had made a mistake? Unthinkable. “It’s just the three of us after all, right? And no one else has shown up?”
Cherilee thought about this for a moment, then sighed in resignation. “Well, whatever the case, you need a place to sleep for the night. Come on in, you have your choice of rooms.” And with that, all of them went inside.
Applejack had fallen silent, but she couldn’t hear around the corner quite as well as Twilight could. When the latter’s hoof was removed from the former’s mouth, she took a deep breath in, then let it out in a rush. “Well, what was all that for, sugarcube?” The rush of the moment had given her a bit of a boost in energy. She straightened her hat and quirked an eyebrow.
“...It’s...strange. The Princess may have been busy, but I don’t think she’d make such a simple mistake as that. If there were only 3 ponies, she would have said that 3 were coming, no matter how rushed she was. And they came before the train did. And I’m not sure what it is, but they have terrible poker faces. They’re hiding something, but I just can’t figure it out.” She stopped and hung her head, covering her eyes with her foreleg. She was starting to feel as tired as Applejack.
Even as the two contemplated the warm, blissful oblivion of a deep sleep, they could hear more voices. For a moment, Twilight thought she’d be able to eavesdrop on Alpha, Beta and Gamma, but the voices were coming from somewhere else. It sounded like they were just around the opposite corner, walking behind Cherilee’s house. Whoever it was was speaking low, almost grumbling. The pair shifted themselves closer to the corner of the building nearest the sound and, stretching their ears, listened closely.
“-ean really, how do you LOSE a TRAIN?” The first voice was female, speaking sharply, addressing someone else who was unseen.
“Hey, hey, don’t look at me. Talk to Kale.” This one was male, smooth and even, with a practiced suave tone.
“But-but-but...you saw them, right? The flowers? They were so huge and majestic and beautiful!” Another female (apparently named Kale), her voice soft and frail. Thoughts of Fluttershy jumped into their heads.
“So you jump off a train!?” It was the first voice again. “And what about the rest of you?”
“She dragged me with her.” The smooth-talking stallion sounded mildly exasperated.
“They jumped off a cliff. We couldn’t very well leave them alone...” This was another female, her voice rather crackly, as if she had something caught in her throat.
“So, we went after them. Stick together, right?” It sounded like the male counterpart of the previous voice.
No new voices emerged as the conversation continued, and, counting it out, Twilight came up with 5. 5 ponies who had been on a train, but had jumped off. She froze in place, her eyes flicking between the corner and the lit second story windows in Cherilee’s house. So, these 5 must be....
Twilight leaped into action, popping out around the corner in front of the group. They all reared back in surprise, some of them hunkering down and preparing to rush forward. Upon seeing the huge grin across Twilight’s face, however, they relaxed and traded glances.
“Who...are you?” It was the sharp-tongued female. A brown pegasus with chestnut hair who stood front and center of the group. The other four were slightly spread out behind her. Three unicorns and one earth pony.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia. And this...” She reached behind the building and dragged the semi-conscious farmer out into the open. “Is Applejack.”
“Twilight Sparkle...Ah, yes, we were told to seek you out.” The others were silent, just looking at each other and cooling down a bit. “We come with news from Princess Celestia. But, it’s kind of late. We should talk in the morning...We were told there was shelter prepared for us?”
“Um...Yeah! Sort of...Why don’t you come with me? I’ll set you all up for the night, and we’ll discuss some things in the morning. Applejack...” She turned to glance at the drowsy pony. “Can you make it home alone? I’ll take these guys to the library. Meet me there in the morning?”
A murmured sound that seemed close enough to an affirmative was all Twilight needed. “Alright, come on, let me get you all set up!” And the group headed off with mixed emotions towards the library.