Missing (Chapter One)
The burly stallion tapped his pencil against his desk in an iterative rhythm as his mind processed the story that had just been recounted to him. He stared back at the lovely mare that was sitting diligently with a small smile and batting eyelashes as if she could use her seduction to win the upper hand. Unfortunately for her, the stallion was trained in this sort of art, and knew almost every trick in the book, this one on the very first page.
He stopped his tapping and placed the pencil on his desk, “So, Mrs...”
“Mrs. Rarity,” she answered him in her Mid-Atlantic accent, giving him a quick wink to try to ‘seal the deal’. His expression remained plastered on his face, completely immune to her stunning radiance.
“So Mrs. Rarity,” he said, acknowledging her, leaning back in his chair and propping his hind hooves up, “what makes you believe that I’ll just hand over the discount without questioning one thing?”
She widened her smile and accompanied it with a fluff of her mane, gaining an inward sigh from him. “Well, as you could tell from the story, the engine was mysteriously ravaged which sent the whole craft downwards and leaving all of four of them mortally wounded.”
“That’s not my fault that your friends couldn't take care of the engine like they were suppose to,” the stallion coldly remarked, the edge of victory corrupting his voice.
“Actually, from the scraps of broken engine that your search-and-rescue team could scavenge, they couldn’t clearly diagnose the problem because of its terrible condition, so the blame could very well be on your part,” she noted, mentally cheering herself for paying attention to the details.
“Just because what happened isn’t exactly precise doesn't mean it’s the company’s fault.”
“Don’t forget, dear. Your company made the ship and all of its part, including the engine, and if we can get a record of how well they took care of the ship, that discount may not be the only thing we receive.”
He raised an eyebrow at her remark. “Is that a threat?”
“Nope, it’s a promise that should be infixed in that little brain of yours,” she smirked at the baffled look that the stallion was currently sporting. Sadly, her small triumph was cut short when the look on his face slowly morphed into a small laugh then escalated into a hearty one. His laughing bounced off the white walls of his moderately small office room, enhancing the deranged noise into an echo.
Rarity winced at his sudden maniacal outburst.
“What’s a matter with you?”
He stifled most of the laughter that he could with his hoof and stared back at her with a small amount of tears in his eyes.
“Y-you think that anybody w-would believe your story?”
Rarity’s mouth dropped open in surprise at his statement. “What do you mean?”
“Seriously? You expect a story that has various holes throughout itself to be believed by even the most dimmest pony?” He took a moment for that to set in while he wiped a hoof against his eyes, clearing them of moisture. Rarity realized her mouth was still agape and quickly closed it, a glower towards the stallion following it.
“I’m sorry if you wanted more of an explanation, but that’s what Applejack told me-”
“...when she was in the infirmary room, recovering from an accident that probably knocked her head around a bit?” he finished for her, his smug smile returning. “Look, it’s not that I don’t believe you. Hell, from the look of the ship, you might be right, but there are too many questions left unanswered and without a reliable pony to answer them, we can’t be too sure.”
Rarity scrunched up her face in fury, “Applejack not reliable? What kind of world do you think you live in? Applejack is the Element of Honesty, for Celestia’s sake! She’s one of the most reliable ponies anybody could ask for!”
The stallion tilted his head down in growing exasperation. Why wouldn’t this mare see that even reliable ponies get a bit rattlebrained sometimes?
“Then answer me these questions,” he sat up straight in his chair and prepared his mind for the onslaught he was about to deliver, “how are they alive?”
“An experienced magic user, like Twilight, can create an indestructible force field around themselves or others,” she said, not even thinking about it.
“Alright then, how about the propeller? The blow of it against the door should’ve caused some debris to cling onto this supposed reliable Applejack.”
“The propeller slammed into the door that was on Applejack’s side so most of the debris and shrapnel flew inside of the ship, not outside, and if some had, it didn’t stick because the speed of them were slowed to almost a stop once they penetrated Applejack’s body. Simple science without the terms, really.”
The stallion gritted his teeth at her quick guessing. It seems like she either wrote any various questions that might be asked, or it was actually explained by Applejack. The former seemed a bit complex yet improbable, so a further investigation was in order.
Each question that he threw at her was simply hit back by Rarity’s fast reflexive thinking, giving him more reasons to believe her tale. There just had to be something to trip her up. There just had to be...
The stallion stopped speaking and remembered that there was a report about the accident details in a folder that happened to be in one of his drawers. Pulling out the first one, he quickly spotted it since it was on top of the rest of the cluttered files, and he snatched it up and placed it on his desk in front of him.
He flipped it open to notice that on the first page was a picture of the devastated airship. Rarity was right, it was a mess, but so what? Most ships that are brought in are a wreck. He thoroughly flipped through most of the papers that were of little to no interest or were only proving Rarity’s tale to be true which he didn’t actually believe.
As Rarity sat there and smiled at his frantic searching, he continued through the file until a certain paper caught his eye. He turned back to it and discovered that it was a count of anything worth recovering and any injured or dead ponies found on board. He read through the decently long list: a captain’s log, a few flintlocks, a frightening amount of explosives, a stash of bits, three ponies recovered, a ste-
Wait, three ponies found? That sounds off for some reason. Let’s see...Applejack, of course, a pegasus named Rainbow Dash, and a unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle. Why does it sound like this report is missing something? It suddenly hit him.
He put the file down and glanced back over at Rarity, a devilish grin on his face.
“Okay, if the story is true, then where is the fourth?”
Taken back by the odd question, Rarity inquired, “What do you mean by fourth?”
“Oh? You didn’t know? They checked the whole crashed airship inside and out and found only three ponies in there, an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn, and nobody else. Can you figure it out now?”
Rarity furrowed her brow at his sudden air of triumph. What did he mean by fourth? Does he mean fourth sail? Fourth turbine? Fourth pony?
“Wait a minute...” She ran through the list in her head again and stopped once she got to the end. She could feel her stomach drop as the realization hit her like a wrecking ball. A spiked, obsidian wrecking ball.
“No...you can’t be serious!”
“Well, unless the reports are a lie, and I highly doubt that, then yes, I am.” Rarity could feel her blood boil because of his mocking tone. It infuriated her, because he didn’t care about the fourth pony that wasn’t found. The only thing he cared about was finding a reason to put their case to rest, and it seems like he’s found it.
Or so he thinks...
“Just because she wasn’t found in the wreckage doesn’t mean she isn’t real.” Rarity swore that she could see the stallion’s expression faltering for a quick second before he sneered back at her.
“Then how do you explain-”
“Her disappearance?” Rarity finished, “easy, she was on the deck of the ship, and it was falling at a pretty fast rate, so she could’ve fallen off, voluntarily or involuntarily, or she could’ve been hit with a piece of large debris and had been pushed off the ship completely without the possibility of getting back to it.” Every scenario that was said made Rarity a bit uneasy, because of the prospect of it actually happening, but she continued to harden her stare at him.
The stallion gulped and stifled a weak and nervous chuckle. The sad thing was that those were all possible, and if it was all true then that means the discount would practically be hers, but she would have to prove that this supposed pink pony was on the ship at the time of its crashing. If she was, then pretty much all of the information could be validated. If not, then it was all a lie and the price of repair would stand still.
“Okay, even if that happened, you would still need proof that she was on the ship at the time, and the other crew members are the only ones whose verifications won’t count,” he said, his smug look and victorious wind coming back to him in one swift move.
To his surprise, Rarity gave off an abrupt, hearty laugh, got up, and walked towards the door. Before opening it up, she turned her head back to look at him.
“I never caught your name. Pray tell, what was it?”
Snapping out of his confusion, he said, “Bolts. Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, I just want to tell all of Pinkie’s friends who you are, and that you don’t believe she exists. They won’t be too thrilled about that.” With that last statement settling in the air and Wrench’s face full of perplexity and a bit of unease, Rarity left him and his small cubicle to think about what he had said and done.
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- Tempered Steel · 1.2k words · 57 2 · 1.6k views
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Hmmm. I had forgotten of this fic, sad to say...
Still, nice bit of maneuvering on Rarity's part... Even if the other guy came out on top of that.
~Skeeter The Lurker
3035567 said exactly what I'd say.
I don't want to be the one to tell Pinkie Pie she doesn't exist. I get the feeling she wouldn't like that.
Oh yay update
Yay, new chapter!
Rarity, was great in this chapter and I can't wait to see what happens next.
Hmm, not sure if I enjoyed the head hopping between Rarity and Bolts, I found it a bit too jarring. Right when I was settling in to one of the character's perspectives, I was suddenly pulled to the other and was privy to their thoughts. It diffused a bit of the encounter's intensity. I think if it were all from one of the character's perspectives, the whole scene would have been stronger for it.
Also small mistake in the first paragraph.
'a' should be 'an'
'iteratively' should be 'iterative'. Although that's probably not the word you'd actually want to use, since it implies verbal repetition not tapping. I'd give that sentence a good look over. It kinda made it hard to jump right into this chapter.
A neat chapter in general, though it leaves me wondering what the whole situation is and how much it differs from our canon understanding of Equestria and the mane 6. I'm still intrigued and look forward to the next chapter.
*supposedly reliable
He did not say that by sitting up straight in his chair and preparing his mind, I think.