5th Layer Equestria
Chapter 3: Enlightenment
Max Kodan
The party sat around a table in the Library. Twilight had explained the situation to the real messengers Celestia had announced. Currently, the fakes were sleeping peacefully in Cherilee’s house, and the urgency seemed nonexistent. At least, that particular urgency. There was still the matter of the reason they had been sent in the first place.
“It can wait.” If Twilight remembered the order of things, this was the pony who had spoken second earlier. He had introduced himself as Cy, and nothing more. He was an inch or so taller than the rest of them, and his coat was a rather unique shade of maroon. He sighed and hung his head, even though the others nodded in agreement. “The fact that someone has assumed our identities worries me, but I’m not sure what to make of the fact that they didn’t know anything about us. They could just be travellers seeking free food and shelter, or...” He paused and contemplated, as if not entirely sure if he wanted to continue the sentence.
“Ok, perhaps it can’t wait.” This was the brown pegasus from earlier. Nell, she was called. Just judging from the way the group sat (with her in the center, and everyone else paired off on either side), she seemed to be a leader of sorts. Her brown mane fell before her eye as she took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “We’ll give you the quick version, though the full version isn’t much longer.” She rolled her neck. It looked like she was preparing for a speech, not a briefing. “Basically, there’s...something...coming towards-” She paused momentarily. “Towards...Ponyville.” After shaking off whatever was bothering her, she continued.
“We’re here because we’re the ones who picked up this thing. It isn’t natural, whatever it is, and the town is going to need fortification and defense. We suspect that whatever’s coming is sentient. That’s why these impostors are such a problem. They could very well be spies sent by this thing. So priority number one, before we start building up a defense, we need to find out what our unwanted guests are. The last thing we need is to have our weak spots pointed out by some rookie who just learned how to fly.” She huffed as she spoke and deftly ignored the chuckles of the others around her.
Twilight took a few moments to process this. Losing that particular battle, she began organizing things in her head. First thing’s first: Remember everyone’s name. The maroon earth pony with the deep green hair was Cy, the auburn colored pegasus was Nell, and the light blue unicorn with the short white mane was Kale. The other two were a bit more difficult. They looked nearly identical, if one were to see their silhouettes. Both unicorns appeared rather asexual: Short manes, quiet eyes, medium built figures. The only difference was that their colors were switched around. The one (the female?) had a dusky blond mane, while her(his?) body was the color of old silver. The other one was just the opposite: Tarnished silver hair and a dim, gold body. She’d had them figured out before, what was the trick she’d used?
Riiiight, Gold was worth more than silver, so gold came first. There was more gold on the body of the male, and his name was first alphabetically. So the one who was ‘worth’ more came first in the Alphabet. Then, their names were Cadence (Or Cade) the male, and Kamiryn (Ryn) the female. Cade and Ryn. Golden Cade and Silver Ryn. Remember, remember, remember...
...Such a stupid way to try to remember names....
“So what do we do?” Kale had spoken up. At a glance, she seemed surprisingly calm, considering how on edge everyone else seemed to be. She shook her mane gently, then tilted her head in thought. “Any word from Ash? Anyone?” She looked around the table for a response, and everyone shook their heads. She sighed to herself and rested her chin on her hoof.
Unable to contribute much, since she really still didn’t know what was going on, Twilight cleared her throat and diverted the discussion, while asking a question that was on her mind anyway. “Um...who’s Ash?”
“My sister.” Cy’s reply was short, and no further explanation seemed to be forthcoming. The purple unicorn sighed to herself. That hadn’t lasted as long as she’d expected. Instead, she turned her mind to the task that everyone else seemed to have taken up. They needed to figure out who the impostors were.
It was several minutes before anyone came up with anything. However, at almost the exact same time, Twilight and Cy both raised their heads, their eyes bright with realization.
“Hey, why don’t we...”
“Couldn’t we just...”
The two stopped and stared at each other for a few moments, both waiting for the other to speak. Cy shrugged and bowed his head slightly, signaling for his counterpart in thought to go first. She obliged. “Well, couldn’t we just introduce you to them? If we can get a reaction out of them, wouldn’t we be that much closer to figuring out who they are? Maybe they’ll know you, if they’re working with whatever you’re talking about.”
The group turned to look at Cy, to gauge his reaction. He blinked and shrugged. “I was going to suggest jailing them on charges of impersonating royal emissaries, but we’ll make that plan B. She’s right, better to give them a chance. I’m pretty good at spotting that look of recognition.” He smiled a little, nodding. “I approve. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Ryn sighed. No! That was Cade. ...No, hold on, definitely Ryn. Silver Ryn. She sighed, shaking her head and standing up. “Why do you always say that? You’re like a generator for bad sitcom lines. Every time you open your mouth, it’s to get us into trouble.”
“Or out of it.” Cy stuck his tongue out at the female twin, who rolled her eyes.
“More the former.”
-----
Twilight advanced up the road just ahead of the group of 5. She would have to think of a name for the group later. Maybe an anagram of the letters of their names? C, R, C, K, N...Ok, so maybe not an anagram. The six ponies made their way along the road towards the house in Sweet Apple Acres, where Twilight was meant to meet everyone else. “Hey, everyone!” She had thought long and hard, and had come to the decision that a blunt, loud exclamation that she was there would be the best decision.
It certainly caught everypony’s attention. Twilight was leading a group of 5 strangers to their rather important meeting. Applejack seemed confused for a moment, but then a light of understanding struck her eyes. She nodded quickly and smiled widely. “Well ah’ll be, ya found some more friends, Twi?” She beamed and trotted over, giving her friend a confused look when her back was to everyone else. Twilight shot back an apologetic ‘go with it’ glance. The farmer girl sighed to herself, then smiled at the newcomers. “Mighty pleased to meet y’all. Mah name’s Applejack, and this here’s Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity.” She indicated each of them in turn. At this point, however, she stopped. Somehow, she knew, the next part was more important than introducing the ponies who had saved their land of Equestria. Twice. “And that there’s Beta Max, Alpha Centauri, and Gamma Ray.”
It was hard to judge who’s look was more telling. The three impostors had paled and now stood frozen in place, their eyes locked on the 5 new ponies, each of whom had a rather exasperated look. The one Twilight knew as Cy stepped forward and shook his head. “Well, that answers that question.” His eyes opened and he trained a gaze on the opposing earth pony. “Really? Beta Max? That the best you could come up with?” He smirked.
For each step that Cy took, the other three took one away. “Well, you know, heat of the moment.” Beta tried to sound confident, but as he backed up, his voice shook. Any mystery to their true identities was quickly dispelled, but that wasn’t quite enough.
“Now,” Cy continued, closing his eyes and smirking softly, stepping deliberately towards them, “Why don’t you just tell me who you really are, and who you’re working for, and this can go real smoothly. No harm no foul, after all.”
“Cy, pay attention!” Nell called as she began to rush towards him. His eyes opened and the look of triumph fell off his face. Beta Maxi, or whatever his real name was, had regained some form of composure, and his horn glowed a dull blue. He lifted his two companions off the ground and pulled them towards himself.
“I said you were going too far, didn’t I?” Alpha shot a glance at the red unicorn, shaking her head and groaning to herself. “Whatever...” She glanced up, frowning heavily. Nell, the twins, and Kale were charging them head on. Beta hunkered himself low, gritting his teeth a bit.
“Shut up, shut up! I got it...” With a light grunt, Nell stopped in her tracks, as if she’d hit a brick wall. She rubbed her nose and glared up at the trio. “Sorry, sweet thing. We gotta dash. See ya soon!” He smirked and winked, though he seemed to be exhausted already. With some strain, his horn glowed all the brighter, and in a bright flash of bright light, they disappeared.
-----
Rainbow Dash had wanted to act, but she found doing so rather difficult. At first, she was going to go to greet the 5 new ponies that had come up the trail to the farm. Then, when AJ beat her to it, she decided it would be better to try and ask Twilight why they were here on such an important occasion. When the sole earth pony walked out to confront who she had thought were the messengers from the princess, her body strained to charge after him. She wasn’t quite sure if it was the attitude of the two groups that gave her pause or if Twilight was using her mysticism to hold her back.
And then everything stopped. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma were gone in a flash of light, and the blue pegasus was left with mental whiplash. What started in a low groan grew. “What the CLOP is going on here!?” She shouted, stamping her hoof and ruffling her feathers. She stalked close to the deep red earth pony, glaring him right in the eye. He flinched and stepped back wordlessly, blinking.
Applejack came between them, holding the pegasus back. “Woah there, calm down,” She said calmly, attempting to soothe both sides at once. “It’s alright, sugarcube, it’s alright. These are our friends,” she cooed calmly. Dash didn’t look amused, but she did relent.
From the sidelines, once the dust settled a little, a white unicorn daintily stepped forward. “Right, now that that’s behind us...” Rarity shot a glare at the mildly belligerent pony. “Twilight, dear, I’m sure you have the purest intentions at heart, but could you please explain just who you’ve brought into our company, and why they’ve driven the Princess’s couriers?” She frowned, tilting her head up and to the side.
“But these ARE the messengers!” Twilight exclaimed, stepping forward and shifting her front shoulders back: A habit she’d formed when she was trying to be helpful and informative. “I...I don’t have all the details yet, but something really bad is happening, and those other might have been a part of it. I don’t know how much time we have, so now is not the time to-”
“Now is the perfect ‘time to-’!” Dash shouted. “If we couldn’t trust the last guys, then how are we supposed to trust this bunch? They seem kind of sketchy to me...” She floated close to the maroon one again, scrutinizing him enough that the stranger became uncomfortable and backed away. The attempt at avoidance was in vain, of course, as the pegasus followed in order to kept an eye on him.
As all of this occurred, the remaining four newcomers sat patiently. The three unicorns seemed to be having a silent conversation, glancing at each other and swishing their tails in turn. The lone pegasus stretched her wings and sat, watching with mild interest. None of them said a word as their 5th member was accosted. Either they were used to seeing their friend treated like this, or they were enjoying it. Or both.
“Enough! Rainbow Dash, come on!” Twilight grabbed the floating fury’s tail with her teeth and dragged her back. The offset balance forced her to the ground, and she grumbled.
“I don’t like this. There’s way too much that we don’t know, and I don’t like not knowing stuff. And really, how do we know these guys are the right ones, huh?” She sat back crossed her front legs with a huff.
“You’re right.” Everypony turned. This was the first word most of them had heard from any of the new set aside from Cy. It was the pegasus: The one who stood in front of the others. She stretched out her tan limbs, then her neck, then relaxed. Her soft, violet eyes regarded each of the Mane 6 in turn while she paused, waiting until she had their full attention. “Rainbow Dash, right?” She fixed her gaze on the rainbow haired mare and smiled gently. “I like you. I think you need to relax a little, but I like you.”
“That’s new.” Two of the others chorused.
Introductions were had, and soon enough everyone knew everyone. Nell, the chestnut pegasus, continued where she’d left off.
“You should doubt us. It’s natural, and it’s smart. In times like this, you should start doubting everyone you don’t know, and a few people you do,” she began, nodding in a sage-like manner. “So we’ll prove ourselves.” She reached back to her long, bushy tail and reached into it, fishing for a moment and pulling out a scroll. She took it in her mouth and flicked her head downwards, letting it unfurl.
It was written carefully in large swooping calligraphy that everypony recognized immediately as Celestia’s script. Whatever doubt had existed nearly vanished. Twilight quickly swept the scroll up in her magical embrace, examining it closely to ensure it was legitimate. Pinkie Pie seemed to suddenly realize that new people meant a new party, and began bouncing around the yard. Applejack and Rarity sighed in unison, then stared at each other in mild surprise. Fluttershy sat some distance away, blushing gently and tracing a butterfly’s path with her eyes. Rainbow Dash, unsure of what to do, just sat and stewed, waiting for everything to calm down a touch. And the 5 strangers from somewhere regrouped, whispering shortly amongst themselves. As everyone, save Pinkie, started to regather, Nell stepped forward once more.
“We should take our meeting inside. Further away from prying eyes and ears, yes?”