//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - Apples for Breakfast // Story: Cloudsdale Dash and The Revenge of Dr. Negative // by Lapis-Lazuli and Stitch //------------------------------// ~~~~~Manehatten University~~~~~ The night passed without drama or incident. Rainbow Dash’s sleep was dreamless and quiet, and she was thankful for both when her awareness finally came back to her. She was uncommonly warm, a fact she could not understand until she felt the fuzzy form of her friend curled up next to her. Directly against her, and practically holding her to her chest in a comforting pose. Dash’s mind froze up. She remembered climbing into the bed, in a vague sort of way. Had she been sleeptrotting? Or had Twilight simply gotten into bed with her and tried to find comfort of her own in a friend? Dash had no idea what had happened, but she couldn’t say she wasn’t appreciative of it. Twilight was a quiet sleeper, as Dash had long suspected. Even in the dim light of the morning, she could see her face softened into relaxation. No worries or stresses laid upon her face, just a quiet innocence that made Dash smile faintly. It was too early to wake up after the long night they’d had, so she closed her eyes again and tucked her head under Twilight’s chin to complete the snuggle. It felt just as good as she’d dreamed it would. Soft, warm, and with a faint tingle in the air that followed Twilight around like a persistent rain cloud. It made her feathers feel electrified in a way no other pony ever had. Twilight would have probably described it as her powerful magic making some kind of complicated sounding aura, blah blah blah. Dash preferred to think it was because… well, she was Twilight. She was magic personified, a goddess come down from the mountain-city to be her very closest friend. Heck, when Dash actually sat down and thought about it, she was basically palling around with royalty and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. That was outright weird but it was the good kind of weird, like when Pinkie Pie showed up at the door to her home when she wasn’t feeling so hot. The fact that she was wearing a giant bunch of balloons and carrying a cake wasn’t really important, it was just good to have her friend there when she needed her. Twilight wasn’t waking up, and the room was getting brighter. Normally, that wouldn’t bother her but she wanted to keep up the experience of having finally gotten Twilight into bed with her. The thought made her faintly giggle, and she dragged a square of sheet over her eyes so she could imagine it was still the middle of the night and they were just cuddling up for bedtime. C’mere, Twi. She silently beckoned, and oh-so-carefully wrapped herself up around Twilight’s sleek body. It wasn’t quite everything she’d dreamed about, but it was darn close. Twilight unconsciously cuddled up next to her, and it took a lot of willpower to not let out a cute little squee. She actually had to clamp her muzzle shut with her hoof, but it was so worth it. It was soft, and warm, and smelled vaguely of honey soap and books and it was hypnotic in a way that made Dash blush a very bright red. The morning slowly spun on, and it wasn’t until Dash could feel the warmth of the day’s sun slowly seeping into the bed sheets that Twilight began to stir to wakefulness. Dash could feel the air ripple with a static charge not unlike a pegasi working with a lightning cloud. It ran straight up to her pinfeathers and made her shiver a little. Dash tossed the blanket over her eyes away quickly, and tried to fake being asleep. She could hear the purposeful intake of breath through Twilight’s chest, the soft thump-thump of her heart beating a little more rapidly. Twilight yawned. Dash could feel her muscles stretch beneath her coat, and then she froze up for just a second before coming down in relaxation. “Poor Dash.” Twilight half whispered, and a gentle hoof stroked down Dash’s spine in just the right way. “I’ll get us home safe, somehow.” Twi’s voice broke on the last word, and her body went tense again in a way Dash didn’t like… and wasn’t going to stand for. “Course you will, egghead.” She whispered back in response, and Twilight nearly jerked herself out of the bed in surprise. Fortunately, Dash was holding onto her, so they just kind of rocked back and forth on the slightly stiff mattress. She peeked up from half opened eyes to see Twilight’s jaw hanging down just a little, and Dash couldn’t help but giggle at the look on her face. “Close your mouth, Twilight. You’ll attract butterflies.” That had been Mom’s favorite saying when Dash had been little, and the way Twilight’s mouth snapped shut and she started blushing told her it probably had been one of her mom’s too. “I didn’t realize you were awake,” Twilight nearly stammered out, shifting in preparation to swing herself out of bed. “We’ve probably really badly overslept anyway, we should get ready for today-” “Give it a minute, Twilight.” Dash held on, though she wasn’t sure why. It only took Twilight a moment to give up struggling and settle back against Dash, her face a study in confused emotions. Dash gently scooted herself up to get face to face with her friend. “You okay, Twi?” She tried asking quietly, reaching over to squeeze her shoulder. Twilight didn’t wince away so much as she shivered unconsciously before Dash touched her. “I’m…” Twilight began, stopped, and took a deep breath. “I can feel the magical charge in my body right now, Dash. It’s the most intense thing I’ve felt that didn’t involve the Elements.” She was breathing very evenly. So evenly that Dash could tell she was about a smidgen away from a full on Twilight Freakout. “I don’t… I can control it, and it’s so easy to do it that I’m scared. I shouldn’t be able to handle a magical power this strong, Dash.” Twilight’s eyes had gone distant, and the magical disguise fell away to reveal the long-limbed Alicorn she’d become as they’d stepped into this new world. Her mane was flowing like Celestia’s, but it was full of sparkly looking stars and whirling twinkles of colored light. She barely fit onto the bed, and it was in that exact moment that Dash realized something a little frightening… Twilight’s illusion had been so complete that Dash hadn’t even realized she’d been sharing the bed with somepony easily half again her size and weight. That was power on a scale Dash couldn’t even begin to comprehend, the kind of stuff magical legends and mythology was made out of. Twilight was even spacing out, and the electrical feeling along Dash’s wings told her she really, really didn’t want to be in that room right then and there. And none of it made one bucking whit of difference. “Twilight!” She shouted. That got Twi’s attention instantly, and her eyes snapped back into focus. “Get your head in the game, filly! This is no time to be losing your cool!” She took on her ‘coaching’ voice, the same one she used when she’d been teaching Twilight how to fly. That got a reaction, just like she knew it would. She instantly sat up on the bed, and Twilight’s wings snapped to attention. Gosh, those things are huge and fluffy here… It was an odd thought, but Twilight’s breathing went regular and natural and her whole body drained of tension. Twilight’s head came up in her ‘listening’ pose: Ears forward and perky, her wings in the lower position, and she’d even found a quill and parchment from somewhere to start taking notes. It was actually kind of cute. Then Twilight’s face shifted, and took on a look of mild annoyance before settling into weary humor. “That was mean, Rainbow Dash.” she growled, and then smacked Dash in the side with one of her newly embiggened wings. “But effective. Thank you.” She shook out her feathers and carefully folded her wings back, and the powerful electrical charge in the air began to dissipate. Twilight’s horn came to life with a bright and familiar light, and a few moments and a bright flash later she was looking at good old normal Twilight. “I’ll be okay now. I promise.” She crossed her heart with a hoof and winked at her cheekily. Dash squinted her eyes to give Twilight a searching look… she seemed okay, but it was obvious she’d need to keep a close eye on her. “Okay, Twi.” It wasn’t the end of todays’ work, but right now it would be good to get Twilight focused on something else. “Let’s go wash up and grab some breakfast, and then…” She exhaled, slowly. She had to be cool, for Twilight’s sake. “Then we can focus on getting Rarity back.” ~~~~~~ Twilight stepped out of the locker room style shower and grabbed the big fluffy purple towel off its hook as if she was back in her library. She wasn’t, of course, but this place truly was fascinating enough to make her forget about that. The shower had been the source of a nearly unlimited supply of piping hot water, and it had felt absolutely marvelous on her coat after a night of ridiculousness. While a hot water bath and shower were entirely within the budgets of most citizens of Ponyville, they were sourced by carefully tended copper boilers and the occasional magilectric device. One had to go to a major city like Canterlot to find such a thing as proper indoor plumbing, and even in Canterlot there were limits as to how far hot water could travel in the pipes before it lost its punch. Here? No such issue, unless they were hiding boilers under the floor tiles. Leaving the shower room, she was surrounded on all sides by sundry mechanical wonders. It seemed that Rosetta was an enthusiast for technological things, and the halls of her ‘lab’ were filled with so many things Twilight was certain she could easily become lost with fascination. Fortunately, the more primal parts of her body..Grrrowlff Namely, her stomach, had other plans. The smell of fresh oatmeal filled the air, along with the spicy scent of cinnamon and sweet apples. Twilight simply followed her nose, and found Rainbow Dash already nose deep in a bowl of the stuff. Daring Do was minus her famous jacket and helmet and showing many of the very same eating habits as Dash did. Rosetta was nowhere to be seen, but there were two obviously dirty bowls in the sink. One likely belonging to Scooter, the other to Rosetta. Twilight herself fetched a clean bowl from the counter, ladled out the delicious smelling foodstuff and hopped into a chair. “Morning, Lady.” Daring pulled her snout out of the oats to greet her with a chipper grin. “Rosie’s off sending the letter to Lady Celestia, and Scooter’s keeping watch for trouble. When she gets back, we’ll get to work on finding yer friend.” She nodded silently in response, and cast her eyes about for the second scent that was now filling her nose… and was thankful beyond all reason to see the familiar sight of a steel percolator on the stovetop. Three mugfulls and a bowl of the oats later, and Twilight felt a heck of a lot more like her normal self. Even if the magic flowing through her was on a scale she wasn’t quite ready to believe. Was this how Princess Celestia felt all the time? Brimming with a power so great you feared to wield it, lest the effects spill over onto those you loved. Twilight could feel the lump settle down into her throat and she felt the need to take deep, calming breaths. Instead, she got another cup of coffee. Relax, Twilight. If the Princess can do this, so can you. You’ve been taught how to handle supernatural control procedures, so stop waffling about and act like a big unicorn! Right. SCP would keep her occupied. The most important of which was to isolate the cause, which she had already done. Somehow, crossing the transdimensional barrier had turned her into a fully realized Alicorn. That meant she had to presume her power was on par with Luna’s or Cadence’s at least, which meant she had to be cautious about how much power she poured into a spell. Last night, she had killed ponies. Criminal ponies, insane ponies, ponies who would have hurt Dash and Rarity and Sweetie Belle very badly. But they were ponies none the less, and Twilight knew she could never allow that to happen again. That meant she’d have to throttle back her power significantly when she got angry, or there could be more casualties… and if she wasn’t careful, one of them could be her friends. Fortunately, her telekinesis was working just fine without modification, and so were the half a dozen other every day cantrips she tried. Her coffee stayed hot in the mug, her coat remained free of dirt and dust, and she was easily able to strip the liquid off her spoon after stirring the mug. So, at least her every day magic was unaffected, which was a small miracle she was happy to grab hold of and squeeze the life out of. Unfortunately… “Derry! DERRY!” That was Scooter’s voice, shouting through the lab. Dash sat up straight, Twilight whirled around to regard the door where the sound of many hooves was echoing down the corrridors. “It’s the Apple Mob, Derry!” Scooter cried out as she rounded the corner into the kitchen, skittering on her hooves and… Oh, sweet Celestia. Scooter was lacking the heavy coat she’d been wearing all day yesterday, and now Twilight could see why she wore it. ‘Scooter’ was an orange coated pegasus pony, about teenaged years, and her wings were… damaged. They were ragged about the edges, the trailing feathers were all ragged and the feather sheaths at the outer edges of her wings looked burned and scarred.Twilight didn’t even have to turn around to hear Dash’s strangled gasp, as they both made the same conclusion at likely the same time. Scooter was Scootaloo. Daring Doo’s voice cut through the shock. “Fuck!” The expletive burst into the room, and a clatter of heavy furniture made Twilight turn around to see the squarish kitchen table upended in the middle of the floor. Spoons and various detritus went everywhere, and Dash was dragged down behind the cover of the table., “Lady Twilight, get your flank back here!” Daring yelled over the edge of the table as Scooter dashed to the other end of the room, pulled shut an unseen kitchen door and threw a metal bar across it. Twilight hesitated for a moment, and then quickly obeyed. She knew that she could handle almost any threat, but she was not ready to start testing her ability to keep her magic under tight control. So she dove behind the table, soon joined by Scooter. Twilight turned to see Daring… and she was holding some strange, long metal object and loading shiny looking short red tubes into an opening on the side. The table they’d upturned had a solid steel bottom to it too, and seemed to be attached to the floor on hinges. “Just what kind of company do you normally get here?!” She blurted out, unable to comprehend the ridiculousness of how prepared she seemed to be. Daring grinned at her. “Rosetta knows how to entertain all sorts of guests!” She slapped the last red tube into the oblong object and worked a big metal loop of a lever at the base. The device made a satisfying ca-click sound, and then Daring turned with the device tucked into her shoulder to aim it over the edge of the table. “Don’t you bucking whorses know it’s impolite to interrupt breakfast!?” She shouted over into the hall, and the rumbling sound of hooves came to a sudden and echoing halt. Twilight licked her lips as the silence dragged on for several long seconds. Dash rolled her eyes and peeked around the side of the table… and Twilight couldn’t help but do the same, with Scooter giving them astonished looks as she did so. Just a little shield. That’s easy enough. She called the tiniest amount of force she could into her horn and projected a little glowing purple shield around their faces so they could watch from safety. The hallway was still painfully empty at first, but a little white flag on a stick was thrust out from the hallway and waved about. “We come in peace, Doctor Doo!” A drawling Apple-Family style voice called out from behind the wall. “We ain’t here to cause no fuss, we’re jes’ here on behalf of the Big Apple.” Daring didn’t waver in her aim, and Dash looked right at Twilight and mouthed the words “Big Apple?” at her. Twilight shook her head minutely, and put her hoof up to her lips. They had to keep silent about the possibility they were both considering, or there could be serious consequences. Fortunately, Daring didn’t seem terribly interested in their byplay. “Oh yeah? Why don’t you tell me what your boss has to say about breaking our agreement, Caramel?” That name shocked Twilight, but that wasn’t the last shock she was going to get. She knew the Daring Doo books like the back of her hooves, and she’d never seen a part where Daring had contact with mobsters of any sort that didn’t end in a fight. The flag withdrew, and a familiar face poked around the corner. Well, sort of familiar. Caramel Apple of Ponyville and Dodge Junction had been a shy and unassuming earth pony not given to airs. This Caramel Apple was wearing a smart three-piece suit and a sharp looking hat and had a sneer of vague arrogance on his face. “We ain’t breaking anypony’s agreements, Doo. We’re here cuz the Boss needs to talk to you, an’ wants you to come down t’ the Club to see her. Says she knows somethin’ about where your missin friend’s being kept.” Dash chose that moment to do something rash. Twilight chose that same moment to keep her from doing it. Before Dash could charge around the table, Twilight had already planted her rear hoof on Dash’s tail and her forelegs around Dash’s middle. It still took most of the air out of her lungs to keep Dash from charging around the table to engage the earth pony, and once again Daring kept talking over the scuffle. “Oh yeah? Then show me the bucking proof!” She snarled, and there was a tense moment. Then Caramel ducked out of sight, only for a new pony to saunter around the corner. Of course, after identifying Scooter Twilight probably shouldn't have been surprised. “Ah’m here, an’ I ain’t shot at ya. That proof enough for ya, pith-helmet?” The yellow-coated, red maned earth pony drawled with a cock of an arrogant eyebrow. She too was wearing a sharp suit and a hat, but hers was of obvious higher quality. Real silk went into the making of that outfit, which didn’t make it’s presence on the pony who was wearing it any less shocking. Daring lowered her device, and Dash was muttering something rather rude under her breath as she spoke. “Donna Apple Bloom.” Daring’s voice sounded vaguely surprised, then she shook her head. “Shit. Why did this have to get complicated all of a sudden?” ~~~~Manehatten Telegraph and Telephone Office~~~~ The words flowed from quill to paper slowly and evenly. It wasn’t exactly the kind of message she’d penned before, but training had taken over from emotion. The letters were as neat as her hornwriting teacher could have asked for, and in spite of the message being the very first of it’s kind she’d ever done, it would have made her mentor proud. She eyeballed the one time pad at her side, and double checked her work. The coding was good. At least she hadn’t lost any skills recently. The black-uniformed pony in the telegraph office knew her well. They’d been working together a very long time now, ever since she and Daring Doo had begun their adventures together. But today, the look of shock on her face as she scanned the missive was one Daring would likely never forget. Nopony ever handed him something already written into code unless it was of a security clearance he didn’t have. And the only clearance this pony lacked was the Black Level of the very highest threats and issues that crossed the lines. Rosetta nodded curtly. “Transmit it quickly. Make sure that you give the top priority signal.” She commanded quietly, and the pony nodded rapidly. His hoof went to the telegraph button and began to rapidly tap out the message. A phone call would have been ludicrously unsafe for something like this. The only thing that would serve was an encoded telegraph, set to a specific one-time encryption. The only ponies who would be able to translate it would be directly under the supervision of the Lady and the Lord, and none of them would be able to betray their nation. When the transmission had been sent a few minutes later, she watched as her old friend burned the paper thoroughly, and then processed the ashes through a magical disassembler. The dust that came out was fed into a vent, where it would be scattered into the sky so thoroughly no spell could ever retrieve it. She hadn’t told Twilight a lie, truth be told. It would indeed take much longer for a Telegraph to reach Celestia than most other modern forms of communication. While a letter would take days to reach Canterlot, though, this message would be there in hours. She could not afford to wait any longer than a day for assistance from the Lady and the Lord. Doctor Negative was still alive, after all. And that demanded action of an immediacy only her words could provide. She turned and marched out of the office, holding her head confidently high and raising a hoof to summon a Taxi. Hopefully, Daring hadn’t gotten into any trouble back home. ~~~~~Canterlot Castle, mere hours later.~~~~~ The message zoomed from station to station, down the lines that hung between trees and atop the modern ‘telegraph poles’ that were starting to pop up along the railway tracks. If anypony was curious at the gibberish, nopony took much notice of it. Coded messages were a highly common thing in the machinations of the nobility, and nopony wanted to get in their way if they could help it. Why the message had a government priority tag though, nopony knew. Somepony was probably going to lose their job over being bullied into using the tag, but they kept putting that message to the head of the que whenever it appeared in their pile. By the time the message reached Canterlot Castle, it was nearly lunch time. All manner of other things had already happened back in Manehatten, but in the Castle, the message was received by the black uniformed ponies of the Secure Office. When the encoding was first written down, a runner was dispatched to retrieve the first available royal. By the time the message had been double checked, Lady Celestia was already present. She snatched up the document, and gave the receiver a smile of thanks before dashing away. The message she translated as she walked briskly to the throne room, where Solaris was still fending off the attentions of the Griffon Ambassadors desire for better trade agreements. She gave him ‘the look’ and quickly turned into their private discussion room. Solaris joined her a moment later, his face set into a grim line. “What is it? Diamond Dog raids? Border skirmishes? Neightzis?” He cocked an eyebrow at that last one, his lips threatening to twitch into humor. Celestia took a deep breath, the words of the telegram tumbling over in her mind. “No. Simply a greater complication than either of us could have anticipated.” She turned over the translated paper to him, and could hear the words as his eyes scanned the page. To: Castle of Canterlot, Secure Office Priority: BLACK, LDY And LRD Immediate EIS Security Protocol Delta : DESTROY AFTER TRANSMISSION Black lvl Crisis in Mnht. [stop] CDD Alive. [Stop] Possibly Amnesiatic. [stop] UNKNOWN ALICORN. [stop] Power level extreme. [stop] Not NMM. [stop] Sonic Rainboom Confirmed. [stop] Subject could be CDD. [stop] Rosenbridge Suspicion High. [stop] Request Immediate royal assistance. [stop] Tacite In Munere Solis. Dr. Rosetta Sparkle. “Oh, Dear.” Said Lord Solaris, and then shook his head. “That… could be a problem.”