Iconoclasm Chapter 3
Bear False Witness
Applejack stared up into the clear morning sky, her signature hat shielding her eyes from the bright rising sun. Usually on a work day this diligent blonde would be up before sunrise, ready to buck some apples or repair the latest faulty farm tool. However she now found herself in the awkward position of having slept in on a perfectly fine and clear day, a fact that caused her to kick the dirt behind her in frustration.
"Well if that don't beat all" she said with a sigh. "Me and Rainbow are gonna have to have a little talk later today, not everypony can be a lazy bones like her." True it wasn't like her friend Dash to miss out on something as important as a summer shower but right now Applejack was peeved. Besides she already had an image of Rainbow loafing around on some cloud somewhere snoozing late into the morning. Also true was there not a cloud in the sky for said Rainbow to be lollygagging on but that too wouldn't stop Applejack from heaping more blame on her.
"Sure is some big commotion going on over that there Everfree Forest" she said as she squinted towards the dark skies over that forlorn forest. "Can't Imagine Rainbow would move all our clouds into a place like that". True the forest had been on the edge of her farm her whole life and that she had ventured into on several occasions but that didn't mean Applejack had any more use for it. As far as she was concerned it was just a big mess of unnaturalness. "To think, a place where it rains whenever it willy nilly feels like it" she said to herself. "Why, how in tarnation would a farmer get any work done not knowing when the sky might just fall on ya" she huffed.
The only good thing to come out of that place were the Zap apples and that was just a lucky find on her dear grannie's part. As a pony who lived life trying to keep things managed and up kept, the idea that a place like the Everfree Forest even existed was an affront to her. One thing that her and Twilight could always agree on, even with all her fancy learning, was that order and good management were keys to healthy living.
Of course just then Applejack looked back towards Ponyville and saw the embodiment of the opposite mindset in the form of a bouncing pink mess of a pony coming her way. "I swear that pony has some type of extra senses for picking up other ponies who haven't been smiling" A.J. sighed. Sure enough as soon as Pinkie Pie was within range she let out "Hey Applejack, I was totally planning to sit inside all day drinking hot coco cause of the rain we were gonna have, but then I looked outside this morning when I woke up and what do you know but not a cloud in the sky. So then I got to thinking what other pony would have their day's plan all messed up and the first one who came to mind was you, cause normally I know you would like to be left alone on rainy days cause you get all moody and I know Rarity said we are not supposed to bug you on those days but now that there isn't gonna be any rain I guess I can bug you all day long and you wont even mind!" By the end of that Pinkie was now standing right in front of Applejack, her face beaming with happiness and excitement.
"Uh, well thanks a lot Pinkie but I was just coming outside to try and figure what work I can get a head start on account of the rain not looking like its coming today" A.J. stuttered. Instead of Pinkie getting discouraged however her excitement only seemed to grow. "Oh oh, what kind of work?" she asked "Do you need to paint another barn cause I really really like painting barns, in fact if I didn't work at the Sugercube Corner I think I'd get a job going around Equestria painting barns, or sheds, or maybe even cardboard boxes!"
Perhaps Pinkie Pie senses included a barn painting sense, Applejack thought, because as she said, Pinkie always seemed to be there when Applejack was repainting the outside of one of the Apple family barns. A good half of all their barns now had at least one side painted in signature Pinkie fashion, usually with her face in big bright colors. One even had a very stylized Gummy dressed in a top hat. And while Applejack had to admit they were very nice the increasing number of onlookers staring at her farm was beginning to be an annoyance. Lucky for her she wouldn't have to lie, a skill she dismally failed at, to Pinkie as she was having trouble coming up with any actual chores to do. This was mostly due to the extra labor the farm had this month from the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were grounded for ruining Fluttershy's petting zoo.
"Well I don't reckon there are any barns that need a painting, nor are we behind on apple bucking, and there don't rightly seem to be anything broken right now that I could fix with my own hooves...." Applejack droned on. With each failure to come up with an excuse Pinkies eyes grew larger and brighter until she couldn't contain it anymore. "Whoopee!" she yelled "that means we are gonna get to go and have the best day on the town ever! Just a couple of earth ponies trotting around looking for trouble" she said with a squee.
Applejack sighed and held her hoof to her head but quickly smiled and agreed to go with Pinkie. Besides, she thought, maybe she would run into Rainbow Dash and could give her a piece of her mind. "OK Pinkie Pie, you win. Now where is it you wanna go so badly to?" ---
--- "Oh boy oh boy oh boy" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she and her orange pal exited the the back door of the Skewbald Inn. In her saddle bag she had quite the load of bits, recently won from a game of Charreada Conquian in the unofficial bubble filled back rooms of the Inn. "Well slap my side and call me turnip, how in the world were you able to take all those other ponies for a loop like that Pinkie?" Applejack asked with bemusement. "It's easy turnip" Pinkie replied "I come here all the time, how else do you think I can afford to throw all those parties, on a bakers budget?" Applejack whistled in admiration. Honestly though Pinkie would have to remember not to let A.J. play any more pony poker, her bluffing skills were terrible. "Old tough guy Tony the Pony has been trying to catch me cheating for ages now, but he hasn't found a reason to ban me, except that one time I had too much of their home brewed cider and I put on these big high heeled boots and started dancing all over the tables and breaking glasses!".
With that Pinkie Pie strutted around the grass humming "do-do-do-do-do-do do! Tequila!"
"So now what ya wanna do, eh turnip old buddy?" Pinkie asked her confused friend. "We could go down to the bowling alley or maybe go cheer up the old folks at the retirement center, or better yet you could help me finish testing some of Spike's punch I was gonna make for him!".
"Well, how bout we head on over to Rarity's place and spend some of these here earning on some necessities Ive been needing to pick up, I don't want to feel like a complete lazy bones all day" Applejack responded. That sounded like work to Pinkie Pie but at least they would get to go and say hit to Rarity in the process. "Okie Dokie Lokie" she dutifully replied and off they trotted/bounced.
However they barely were halfway across town when Pinkie blurted out "Uh A.J. I don't think today is gonna be a shopping day, let alone the best day on the town ever". The cause of this sudden outburst of pessimism from the normally up beat pony was impossible to miss, the sky was darkened quite literally, by countless number of royal pegasus guards all descending in different parts of Ponyville and the edges of the Everfree forest.
"What in the name of Celestia is going on?" Applejack screamed as these solemn soldiers landed around them. Pinkie had met a few guards before and even remembered some of them had been nice, like the guards at the library who let her and Twilight into the Starswirl the bearded section. She didn't see any of those guards among them, and even if she had the mood this legion carried was one of grim determination, not leniency. If at any other time Ponyville were to see so many frowns, Pinkie might very well have exploded from need to cheer everyone up but had to contain herself for the time being.
"I don't think these guys came to attend a party" she said more to herself then anyone around her, but still got a nod from Applejack. More and more pony citizens begun to run into the town hall pavilion area, no doubt hoping for some explanation on why their little town was being occupied. Across the way Pinkie saw Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity all standing together but couldn't even begin to walk over to them due to the crowd. Above them the only local flyer was Rainbow Dash, every other pegasus too intimidated by the glaring guards to remain afloat.
Dash was apparently causing some trouble, per her usual attitude. A couple of guards bumped into her at which she responded with a very loud "I'm flying here!" She bumped the others back even harder and was soon surrounded by dozens of angry troops. Pinkie covered her eyes with her hooves, she hated feeling helpless and didn't want to see her friend get hurt. This surely would have been the outcome, no matter the amount of spunk Rainbow possessed, if not for the familiar crackling and booming sound overhead.
Pinkie uncovered her eyes and saw the distinctive cloud trails of the Wonder Bolts in tight formation, apparently escorting somepony. They landed squarely in front of the town hall and broke away to allow a large grayed pegasus commander to step forward. Seeing her idols, even Rainbow Dash had submitted and was firmly on the ground next to Bonbon and Lyra. All eyes then turned to the recent arrival who was now standing at the pedestal, the mayor nervously drafted to stand beside him. He did not keep the crowd waiting for long. Soon his deep voice was heard across the pavilion square
"My name is Commander Markab, of her majesties personal guard. Do not fear fellow citizens of Equestria, we all love and serve Celestia and thus I know all of you will cooperate to the fullest. I have two important decrees that must be followed out. The first is to announce that the former princess known as Luna is now once again and forever an enemy of the state and has returned to her true form, that of Nightmare Moon."
With that a audible gasp was heard across the crowd, mixed with some some shouts of "No!" Pinkie thought she heard the sound of Pip crying somewhere far in the back.
Commander Markab did not let this outburst interrupt him for long. "We know that many of you here have had previous dealings with this evil traitor. Many of you even helped to defeat her the last time she appeared.Thus none of you should be worried, we will not assume any of you would help such a villain. However if anypony knows anything about her whereabouts then do not keep said information to yourself. She may have seemed to change and appeared to you as this Luna character but believe us this was a facade, another attempt to gain power from our beloved supreme leader Celestia. Anyone who is found helping her will be assumed to be corrupted by her dark powers and dealt with accordingly."
"Dealt with accordingly?" Pinkie whispered to Applejack "what do you think that means?". Pinkie knew many of her friends thought her naive but she could imagine some pretty terrible punishments. The very idea mixed with the atmosphere was already causing some of her curls to straighten. She then saw Applejack try to respond in whisper form but was drowned out by Markab starting up again.
"Finally, some of you may have noticed strange activities coming from the Everfree Forest. Until this Nightmare is dealt with, the forest is assumed to be lost to her wickedness and shall be off limits to all pony kind. Some of you may think you can help defeat this monster, but her return to power shows that rainbows and friendship are not the proper tools to deal with her, leave it to us."
With that Applejack let loose an angry snort. It was obvious to Pinkie what she thought about it, but just in case not she heard her mutter "bunch of hooey" under her breath.
With that however Markab decided to finish up this spectacle and so told everypony "Return to your homes, we do not want to inconvenience your town but for the time being we will be patrolling to deal with this menace. This is all for your own good, that is all". With that he was surrounded again by the Wonder Bolts as they all took flight and disappeared into a flock of pegasus.
Pinkie looked over though the quickly thinning crowd and saw Twilight Sparkle motion her head towards the direction of the library. Without anything more then a look from Applejack they both galloped towards the book depository to meet up with their friends. When they reached it they were quickly ushered in by a pale looking Spike and saw the rest of their friends already waiting, either having flown or teleported here. Applejack beat pinkie and the rest to the punch however. " I hope none of y'all believe that bunch of hooey we just heard out there!" she said still breathing heavily.
"Of course not" Twilight responded "And you need to see what we received earlier today, we found Rarity and showed her but we couldn't find you until they all showed up. Spike hobbled over carrying a official looking decree and held it up for the two earth ponies to read. Apparently Applejack was a slightly slower reader then her because Pinkie was first to exclaimed "Secrets and lies, that's all this is! This stinks more than Cranky Doodle's breath! In fact if there was a way to measure how much this whole thing stinks I'd say this is stinknormous!
From the look that her friends gave each other Pinkie realized she had gone over board yet again but they quickly got back to the matter at hoof. "Well what are we gonna do about it huh?" Rainbow chimed in "We aren't just gonna sit here like a bunch of dodos are we? I say I fly straight to Canterlot and find out for myself what is going on from the princess."
"Or maybe we should try writing another letter, I mean I was just thinking we shouldn't do anything too drastic, I mean if that's what all of you were thinking too" Fluttershy squeaked in the corner. Pinkie Could tell she was overcome by fear and worry, and barely maintaining any type of composure.
"No, we can't do either of those things!" Twilight intervened. "We don't even know if Celestia is in Canterlot, and we already know she isn't the one receiving the letters. We need to stick together Rainbow, if we do go to Canterlot, it needs to be together!"
"Well I hate to be the one to have to say this my dear, but what if Luna really has turned back into Nightmare Moon? What if this has made Celestia act out of character? What if all of this isn't incorrect?" Rarity said reluctantly.
Twilight responded ferociously " Luna is our friend, we know she wasn't just faking it that whole time, and since when would Princess Celestia write off the Elements of Harmony, she has always stressed to us how friendship is the most important thing!"
"Well then what should we do?" Rarity responded " Do you want us to go charging back into the Everfree Forest, now with the added obstacle of a couple hundred angry guards in our path. I'm sorry to say I doubt me giving them bits of my mane are going to get them out of the way like our last foray into the woods."
"I don't know ....I just need to think" Twilight facehooved in frustration. "We need to come up with a plan of action, we are obviously dealing with something big here, we can't just act on emotions."
Pinkie hadn't this slightest idea what their plan should be, her thoughts were still trying to process how her best day ever with Applejack could have gone wrong so fast. She gazed outside watching the retreating sunlight disappear from behind Twilight's shades. That's when Pinkies round noggin clicked and she blurted out "Well why didn't the Sun go down earlier if Nightmare Moon is really back? And what if the sun rises tomorrow morning, won't that be proof that Celestia is still around, I mean what other pony could raise the sun, I know I certainly couldn't!"
"Pinkie you are a genius!" Twilight exclaimed "I should have noted that myself." For the first time in several hours Pinkie let loose a smile and joked "Well I may be a genius but I don't know if I can grant you your three wishes!" This was enough to release the tension in the room and allow all six ponies and even Spike to let loose some giggles. Pinkie felt better already, as long as her friends were her things would turn out OK, she just knew it.
But this friendly atmosphere was quickly dampened by the presence of shadows through the windows and a sudden sharp knock on the front door. Everypony(and Spike) turned towards the door unsure what to do. Finally after another bang on the wooden frame, Rainbow Dash darted to the entrance and kicked open the door. Her sudden gasp of Joy showed that it was none other than the Spitfire, leader of the Wonder Bolts, but she did not return the friendly expression. Spitfire merely gave a sad nod to her biggest fan, and stepped sideways to reveal the scarred facade of Commander Markab. Rainbow Dash emptied her lungs at this point, and Fluttershy gave a barely audible cry behind her friends. Pinkie Pie moved to comfort her frightened friend, even though she too was taken aback by the harshness of this unfamiliar pony.
"I trust none of you are plotting anything that would be contrary to my explicate orders" he interrogated. "That would be most unfortunate." Rarity, hoping to ask politely before Rainbow blew her cool, spoke up. "No of course not good sir, we are simply shocked at this influx of terrible news and were hoping to comfort each other." Rarity continued, "What brings you to our library, how can we help you?"
"Yeah, you wanna check out a book or something, I don't peg you for an egg head, but I bet we can find something for you in the Filly and Foal section" Rainbow Dash blurted out."
Rarity glared at her brash friend, Pinkie and several other covered their face with a hoof, but the grim Commander seemed unfazed by Dash's insult. He did however seem to relish in releasing the following news. "I'm afraid to report that right before sundown three little fillies were spotted running into the Everfree Forest, before our sentries had been positioned naturally. I do believe two of you present are relations."
Beside her, Applejack seemed to almost lose her balance as her knees nearly gave out in shock. Behind her Rarity muttered several completely unladylike words directed at her foolhardy little sister. And Pinkie thought she noticed Rainbow Dash look particularly distraught, although she tried to hide any affection for the little flightless filly, Pinkie knew she felt like a little sister to Dash.
Seeing the sense of panic across the faces of the tree's inhabitants, Commander Markab struck while the iron was hot. "None of you shall attempt to retrieve them, this is a direct order to you six. I was already expecting trouble from you lot, but now with this complication I can almost count on it." he turned from the door frame and began to walk away, once again flanked by his honor guard of Wonder Bolts. He turned one last time before departing to say "All of you might have thought yourself hot stuff before but I assure you, I will crack down on you with the full extent of my authority. No one gets special treatment, especially not a bunch of self righteous mares." With that the door was slammed shut by Rainbow Dash, who seemed to be about to burst with anger.
Applejack and Rarity were hugging each other, both trying to fight back tears. Fluttershy was silently weeping in a ball on the floor. Pinkie didn't know how she could make her feel better, there seemed to be a stone at the center of her own stomach, but she stroked the sad little yellow pony's mane, trying to help calm her. When Pinkie looked up she saw both Twilight and Dash staring at each other with a fury that almost sent chills down her spine.
Finally Twilight nodded to Rainbow Dash and spoke up. "Buck the rules and buck planning, we are going after them, and we are doing it tonight!"