• Published 1st Sep 2014
  • 3,910 Views, 70 Comments

Ponies Protecting Ponies - Venates



The PPP is a secret oganization tasked with keeping Equestria safe. No pony knows who they are; their agents blend into the background just like any other pony. With their expertise, keeping the unicorn Twilight Sparkle safe should be no problem.

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Chapter Four: Found

"The library?!" asked Bon Bon disbelievingly over the wind roaring in her ears.

"It makes sense!" Carrot Top called back. "Only a powerful magic could keep a tree alive that's been hollowed out from the inside! And it's been that way for ages!"

The cool night air beat against Bon Bon's face as she ran as fast as her four hooves could carry her. She could see Carrot Top keeping pace in her peripheral, but Bon Bon kept her eyes focused on the gigantic tree they were rapidly approaching.

"But that's where Sparkle was supposed to be staying tonight!" yelled Bon Bon over the sound of their hoofbeats. "And Doo said she spotted Nightmare at its location while Sparkle was inside! Why not go in and stop her?"

"Sparkle was already planning on leaving!" countered Carrot Top. "No point in it! Besides, that place was packed with ponies last night, and not one of them saw a possible hiding place, or else it would have been brought up! Once it was clear that no pony knew where to look, she went into the forest after—"

"The Elements of Harmony!" said Bon Bon, eyes going wide. "From the story! Of course!"

"Exactly!"

"So if Sparkle never noticed any sort of cell in there," Bon Bon cried, "how do you expect us to find it?"

"Because we're looking for it!"

Neither pony slowed down as the gargantuan tree loomed in sight. Moments like this made Bon Bon glad that doors weren't sentient; if this one were, it never would have known what hit it.

BANG

"GWOOAAH!"

Carrot turned to her cream-colored counterpart. "What was that?"

"Came from upstairs," answered Bon Bon. "Go check it out."

Carrot nodded and silently trotted up the library's staircase. Alone on the main floor, Bon Bon started talking to herself.

"Now... If I were a magical prison... in a tree library... where would I be..."

Several of the library's books laid strewn across the floor, leaving mostly bare bookshelves with little to show behind them. Bon Bon kicked a few tomes out of her way while walking towards a far wall with no decorations to speak of upon it. Once near, she began tapping its surface.

"Hm..."

Tick tick.

Tick tick.

Tick tick.

Tock.

Bon Bon took a step back from the wall. "Well, now, that's interesting."

At that moment Carrot Top came back down the stairs. "I think we woke the dragon," she said. "He's already back asleep, but his blanket got a little disheveled, so I — Bon, what are you doing?"

"Carrot, when you want to have a secret room in a completely hollowed out tree, where do you put it?"

Carrot Top tilted her head. "Um, is that rhetorical?"

Bon Bon planted her two front hooves and gave an extremely solid buck to the wall behind her. The wood crunched and splintered from the blow. After a second kick it shattered to reveal a narrow stairway descending into the earth.

"Underneath."


"What's with you and falling off cliffs today?"

"That's Rainbow Dash."

"So she has a name. Good for her."

"Lyra, really, it's in your interest to at least be somewhat familiar with who they are. It'll make working here easier."

"I'm not working here forever, Doo. As soon as Twilight goes back to Canterlot, so do Star and I."

Lyra and Derpy sat just on the other side of some shrubbery, close enough to both see and hear Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but perhaps closer than they initially hoped for.

Lyra adjusted herself and continued whispering. "I was really hoping you could have gotten the bridge back together a little sooner, Doo."

"Me?!" Derpy asked as incredulously as whispering could allow. "You easily could have magic'd it up too, you know!"

"Not when I can't see it!"

"Shh!"

Both mares fell silent, listening and hoping for no signs of their argument being overheard. No such signs came. The recently named Rainbow Dash dove into the gorge in front of them.

"Follow me," Lyra whispered. She crawled along the ground towards the ravine.

"Wha— Where are you going?!" hissed Derpy.

"They've got the bridge covered," Lyra answered. She slipped over the edge and into the chasm. Derpy felt a brief panic, but when a green hoof popped up and waved for her to come after it, she followed suit. She too slid over the side, and stretched her wings as soon as she hit open air. She could see Lyra standing on an outing just out of sight of the other ponies.

"Okay," Lyra panted, her eyes fixed on the bottomless pit before her. "Now if we move quickly, we should be able to get across this thing before that Rainbow pony has the bridge put back together for Sparkle and the rest of them."

"Got it." Derpy flew over to Lyra and grabbed her around the waist.

"Hey — What — What are you doing?!" Lyra beat the pegasus away from her as though she were trying to get a bat out of her hair.

"I thought you said you wanted to cross this thing?" asked Derpy.

"Well, yeah, but it's not like I need your help!" said Lyra. She hopped from her ledge down to a lower one, and then again down to another.

Derpy watched Lyra's antics for a moment. "You're not... serious, are you?"

"About what?" Lyra jumped again and grunted upon landing.

"Going by hoof will take all day!" Derpy protested. "You don't even know how far down this thing goes!"

"Can't be that far," Lyra claimed. She jumped yet again, her grunt from landing a little louder than the last.

"...Lyra," Derpy began slowly, "are you afraid of flying?"

"What? Don't be stupid." Lyra kept her eyes on her next planned landing spot. "I just don't need some pegasus' help to get me anywhere, that's all."

"You didn't complain when I saved you earlier!"

Lyra jumped again, but apart from yet another grunt after landing, she said nothing.

"Lyra, come on," insisted Derpy. "Don't be a baby."

The unicorn continued her silence.

Cheering came from the distance. Derpy turned one eye to see six ponies crossing a newly fixed bridge.

"Lyra, Twilight and her friends are already crossing the bridge, and you still haven't hit bottom," Derpy noted. "Are you really going to jeopardize this mission because of some weird pride thing?"

Lyra had already bent her knees to make another leap, but in that moment she froze there. She slowly stood up and took a deep breath before speaking. "Fine."

"...Come again?"

Lyra turned and glared at Derpy. "I said okay. Now pick me up and carry me over to—"

"What's that?" Derpy asked, feigning deafness. "Did you just ask me to carry you? I want to make sure."

Lyra snarled. "Now who's wasting time?" She looked up at the ponies crossing the bridge. "Just hurry up and get it over with."

"If you say so," Derpy said with a smirk. "I guess that means there's two that you owe me now."

"No, this one doesn't count," growled Lyra. "Just hoist me up there and don't bring it up again."

Derpy floated over to Lyra and gently locked her hooves underneath the unicorn's torso.

"Go around back if you can," Lyra said. "They'll be less likely to see us."

Derpy grinned. "Wow, you're really embarrassed about this, aren't you?"

"Just fly, Doo."

The grey pegasus flapped her wings and soon the two of them airborne. After a brief dip off of Lyra's ledge, the two steadily rose towards the island in the middle of the canyon, upon which sat their destination.

"You know, you really have nothing to be embarrassed about," Derpy called over the wind in their ears. "PPP Pegasi are trained to carry non-winged agents to drop points all the time."

"I didn't say I was embarrassed," Lyra said back. "I just don't want you thinking that I need you to carry me all the time."

"I'm sure," Derpy said, rolling one of her eyes. She kept her wings beating to gain altitude. "If it makes you feel better, next time the ground comes out from underneath you, I'll let you fall."

"You know what?" Lyra shot back. "...Okay. Fine. Whatever."

"...Was that your form of an apology?" Derpy asked.

"Well, it's not like I want you to — Hey, what gives?"

The air around the two mares swirled into a thick mist and completely obscured their vision.

"I can't see anything!" Derpy exclaimed.

"Well don't look at me!" yelled Lyra, "We are way too close to Sparkle for me to light my horn up right now!"

"Maybe if I can get us around—"

"LOOK OUT!"

Something other than mist came into view in the form of a high earthen wall: the base of the land island that the castle ruins sat upon. Derpy instantly angled her wings back and strained her neck up, sending both her and her passenger skyward. Lyra ran against the column of dirt to keep her hooves from dragging alongside it.

"Can we get some distance between us and the wall, Doo?!" Lyra screamed.

"I'm trying!" Derpy retorted. "But the wall juts out more and more as we go up!"

Derpy's wings beat hard, but struggled when it came to turning more upside-down than right side-up; a pegasus was never meant to make that maneuver with another pony weighing her down. She flipped herself around and almost lost her passenger in the process.

"A little warning before barrel rolls, thank you!"

"Sorry, Lyra!"

Derpy continued flying upward, the too-close-for-comfort dirt and stone wall at her back now her only way of knowing where anything in their midst was. "I still can't see much in this fog!" she called.

"Just keep going!" Lyra cried back.

It was easier said than done. Derpy had to swing left to avoid a random branch, and then right to miss a large stone jutting out that managed to scrape her left wing.

"I got it!" Lyra called. Feeling a tingling sensation, Derpy pointed one eye to see a golden aura come over the injured appendage, and with it the wing started to beat easier. Before she could voice her thanks, Derpy spotted a boulder falling right down on top of them. It wasn't even a meter away. There was no time to react. This was it. The mare known as Derpy had met her fate. Her crumpled body would never be found. Her daughter would be orphaned. Lyra would go down with her. Doctor Hooves would never know that—

Another golden aura shot into the giant rock's heart, shattering it. Bits of stone rained down on them, and although the pebbles still carried their own wounds, it was better than being crushed. They were alive. It was like a dream. One that Derpy had trouble waking up from.

As the two mares sailed skyward, an end to the dirt wall next to them laid in sight. "Hey!" Lyra called to her pilot. The unicorn's voice echoed like a soft ringing in Derpy's ears. "I said, 'HEY'!" Derpy gave no response. She barely felt another pony's grip tightening around her legs. That grip turned into a yank.

The last thing Derpy's panicked eyes saw was the inner part of a stone archway just inches from her nose before a strong force circled her backwards onto level ground; Lyra had latched onto the edge of the plateau and mustered her strength to divert their flight path. The impact dazed Derpy, causing both eyes to roll involuntarily. Her hooves clutched at the grass underneath her.

"You... You..." huffed Lyra at the grey mare's side.

"I... I don't know... what came over me," Derpy puffed back.

"You're... fine..." Lyra managed.

Derpy caught several more breaths before responding. "Thank... you..." she said. "I guess... we're even... now..."

"Nah..." Lyra breathed. "Just doing... our jobs..."

The pegasus watched her chest rise and fall. "I guess... you really... don't want... to fly with... me now..."

"Are you... kidding?" Lyra asked. "How do... you fly... without me?"

Derpy's pants for air turned into strained laughter. So did Lyra's.


"Hey."

Amethyst was vaguely aware of something tapping her face.

"Hey!"

Also a voice.

"HEY!"

And a... tongue?

"Fleck!" Amethyst sat up and wiped her face of foreign residue. Doctor Hooves sat across from her in the dark with his tongue lolling outside his mouth, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Oh! Good! You're awake!" he said cheerfully. "I can't see much here. Can you do a thing with your horn?"

Amethyst glared at him, but after another wipe of her face she lit her horn up, illuminating the dank hallway around them.

"Good note on the basement thing earlier, Hooves," Amethyst said, standing herself up. "I wasn't sure the floor we were on would have one, but a teleport aimed a few yards beneath us was our best bet." She shook herself to restore feeling to some of her limbs.

"Yeah!" Hooves said excitedly. "I think this might have actually been the primary septic line, from the size of it!"

Amethyst coughed. "Doc, are you telling me that we're wading through—"

"Thousand-year-old excretion!" said Hooves with a huge grin. "Yes!"

Amethyst's knees buckled; neither the odor around them nor the possible concussion were doing her any favors. "I think I'm going to hurl..."

"Oh!" Hooves exclaimed. "Could you 'hurl' us both back up again? I'm not overly fond of the smell here myself, and I feel that for our mission to be completed, it would be best if we—"

"Hang on, Doc..." Amethyst coughed again. "I know I just did it, but it's really not a good idea to teleport blindly. If we were to wind up inside of a wall or boulder—"

"Undesirable outcome, yes. Hrm..." Doctor Hooves paced through centuries old muck, each splash making it harder for Amethyst to forget what the last thing she ate was. "Oh!" Hooves scratched at his ear, spreading filth across a portion of his face. "Hi! This is the doctor! How are you today?"

<Hooves?> came Lyra's voice. <We said... radio silence... unless...>

"Yes!" The doctor's face furrowed before he responded. "Unless... there... is... an... emergency..."

<What?> This time it was Derpy's voice. <Doctor... are you... hurt?>

"I'm fine, thank you!" Hooves displayed a wide grin before his two eyes went wide. "Oops! Are... we... still... playing... this... game?"

<Doctor, you turd...>

"Wait, you know?"

<Know wh—? Forget... it...>

The doctor's eyes went blank. "Done."

<Doctor, where are you?> asked Derpy, sounding more composed.

"We're in a sewage line under the ruins, thanks for asking," chimed Amethyst sarcastically. She gave a hoof a flick to throw off what she hoped was mud, but without anything else to do with it, she resigned to settle the hoof back onto the squishy floor.

<Hey, Star,> said Lyra. <That's... nice?>

"Derpy, may we have your coordinates?" asked Hooves. "Longitude, latitude, and sea-level?"

<Uh... Yeah, hang on.>

"Oh! I should have asked!" Hooves turned his muck-ridden face back to Amethyst. "Can you teleport to coordinates?"

Amethyst shook her head and tried to not look at the clod of something rolling from the doctor's ear and towards his mouth. "You're asking for absolute locations rather than relative. Our training doesn't really go into that sort of thing. I don't know if anypony knows about that sort of thing, even if the destination is still relatively close." Amethyst gave her surroundings a once-over. "Then again, I don't see us as having much of a choice. We need to get back to the surface pronto, not mill in about ancient tunnels while Nightmare Moon picks off Twilight and her friends."

<You still there, Doctor?> Derpy asked.

"Yup!" he replied.

<Okay then, I'm sending our exact location to your datastick. Do you need anything else?>

The doctor scratched his chin with a filthy hoof, and Amethyst gagged at the sight of it. "Yes," he replied. "Is there anything above you?"

<What?> asked Derpy, confused. <No, just open sky. Why does that matter?>

Hooves walked towards a pile of machinery, sat down, and clutched the pieces close to his chest. He then turned back to his unicorn counterpart.

"Try to aim a meter or two above them," he said to Amethyst, who tilted her head. "You're worried about teleporting into walls, but imagine other ponies! Whew!"


"Princess Celestia?" Bon Bon called. Her earlier confidence crumbled on the first few steps into the unknown underground chamber. "Are you down here?"

There was no answer.

"Keep moving," Carrot Top whispered at her back. "No point in stalling now."

Bon Bon gulped and continued her trek downward. Before long, a spacious room opened up before them, and in the middle of it laid a large white alicorn, her legs and wings sprawled out around her; she did not look like she was sleeping.

"Princess Celestia!"

As Bon Bon rushed to the side of her princess, she felt the whiff of Carrot Top's hoof failing to grab her. "Bon Bon! Don't—!"

BZZZT!

The cream-coated mare flew backwards at a dizzying speed.

"Bon Bon!"

"I'm... okay..." said Bon Bon, strained. Carrot Top helped her back to her hooves regardless. Bon Bon shook her head and looked back to the unconscious princess to see a faint violet field completely enveloping her. "Magic snare," she uttered.

"Yeah..." Carrot Top patted Bon Bon's back. "Probably wishing we still had Star with us then, huh?"

"I don't think it would have made much of a difference," Bon Bon confessed. She approached the field and rubbed her chin. "Do you remember how the snare rhyme goes?"

"'White is one, blue is two, green is mean, and red you're dead,'" Carrot Top recited.

"Yeah. And this one is purple," stated Bon Bon, jabbing her hoof at the pale shield in front of them. "We'd need ten unicorns just to break a red one. So what in the heck is purple?"

Before Carrot Top could reply, a voice echoed from the floor above them: "Are you sure?" Followed by: "Yes, sir. We spotted them heading this way just a moment or two ago." The two mares looked at one another before rushing back up the stairs.

A group of stallions were standing in the center of the library, a rather stern-looking one with a vest covered in medals at their center. Upon Bon Bon and Carrot Top's entry, he looked straight at them and said, "There you two are."

"Err... Director Dent?" Bon Bon said, both confused and worried. "What brings you here?"

"Bon Bon, you really didn't understand the implications of your call, did you?" asked Rad Dent, taking a few steps forward.

"Uh... Well, apparently not," Ponyville's chief handler admitted.

Dent continued stepping towards the two mares. "Bon Bon, Equestria is in crisis." Step. "This night has gone five hours past the scheduled sunrise." Step. "Our princess is missing." Step. "And you ask for a mobilization of all of our operatives?" Dent was now nose-to-nose with Bon Bon.

"Err..." Bon Bon's mind was doing laps trying to find the best way to not look foolish and green in front of the director of the entire company. She swallowed. "Yes?"

"Well then," Dent leaned back, and Bon Bon took the opportunity to stop holding her breath. "I sure hope you needed them, because they're here."

"...What?"

Bon Bon and Carrot Top trotted past the stallions in the library and towards the main entrance. Outside stood a plethora of ponies, all dressed in a variety of gear showcasing specific skills and ranks. Neither mare could say anything for a moment. Carrot Top was the first. "Hoe... Lee... Snot..."

"Well, uh, Director Dent," Bon Bon said with a cough. She stood herself up, turned to face the intimidating stallion, and confidently asked, "Exactly how many unicorns do you have, and can they all fit into a basement?"


Lyra and Derpy, now back on their hooves, looked above them before back to one other.

"Now what on Celestia's green Equestria do you think that—"

With a bang and a flash, the two mares were soon joined by one more unicorn and a stallion.

"OOPH!"

"ACK!"

"HURK!"

The four ponies were now all in pile, recovering from the sudden blow of landing and being landed upon, and trying to untangled themselves from one another. Only one was laughing.

"Hahaha! WHEW!" screamed Hooves in excitement. "Untested absolute location-based teleportation, and you nailed it on the DOT, Miss Star!"

The pink unicorn wasn't quite as enthused. "Yaaay..."

"Ugh..." Lyra tried her best to remove herself from the bottom of the pile. "What did you guys roll around in?"

Hooves was the first to respond. "It was actually a very intriguing mixture of—"

"Not important," Amethyst interrupted. With a glow of her horn, an orb of color formed at the center of the mass of ponies and expanded outward, taking all traces of grime with it.

Once they were both upright, Derpy lunged herself at Hooves and pulled him into a deep hug. This only lasted a second before she let go and blushed. "I'm... really glad to see that you're okay, Doctor."

The stallion smiled back at her, but a certain green mare walking right behind him rolled her eyes and picked up a plethora of machine parts with her magic. "Hey, single mom, let's go," Lyra said. "We can get mushy when all of this mess is over."

Derpy only blushed harder and followed after the two unicorns. Doctor Hooves walked beside her. "How is Dinky?" he asked.

None of the ponies were walking long, as some yelling and flashing lights coming from one of the towers in the distance quickened their pace until they ran in a full gallop. One quick spell helped the injured pegasus get back in the air, though even with both her wings, her allies kept pace.

"Why weren't you guys on Twilight?!" yelled Amethyst.

"Things got complicated!" Lyra cried back. "Why were you in a sewer?!"

"Complicated!"

"I can see Nightmare Moon in the tower!" called Derpy just a meter or two above their heads. A few magic-laced feathers sparkled in the moonlight. "Looks like she's got some kind of orbs in her mane!"

"The Elements from the statue!" exclaimed Amethyst. "She didn't hear Hooves and I talking about them! She took the bait!"

"What 'bait'?!" Lyra said back. "Sparkle is still in serious danger!"

Amethyst looked to the pegasus above her. "Derpy, can you see Twilight up there?"

"Yeah!" cried Derpy. "And she's... Is she serious?! She's charging Nightmare Moon!"

"WHAT?!"

The foreboding sound of laughter coming from the tower put more fire into the ponies' movements.

"Derpy!" called Lyra, "Do you think you can get me up to one of those windows?"

"On it!" Derpy zipped down and scooped up the green unicorn.

"Catch, Star!"

Amethyst's horn lit up as the aura around the doctor's device switched from gold to raspberry. "Got it!" she said.

As pegasus and unicorn flew skyward, Amethyst and Hooves crossed onto a flat stone floor at the tower's base. The doctor kicked what was left of a large statue out of the way, and brushed aside an ancient chisel. "Here," he said to Amethyst. "Put it down here."

Amethyst did as she was told and set all of the doctor's components down carefully. Meanwhile, Derpy and Lyra reached their vantage point.

"We can see everything up here!" Lyra cried. "Looks like Twilight's friends are on their way, and Nightmare does not look pleased! It's now or never, Doc!"

"Right-O!" Hooves called back. "Just as soon as it's put together!"

Twilight's muffled voice echoed from the tower, but it was the only sound on the still night air.

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah..." Amethyst shuffled her hooves. "I wasn't sure how to bring this up..."