//------------------------------// // No More Secrets // Story: PONYVERSE // by TopWanted //------------------------------// No More Secrets <___|=o They all sat and listened as Rainbow and Pinkie told them about everything that had happened since separating. Her suddenly gaining speed powers. The Lair exploding. Her suddenly losing them. Not to mention Pinkie’s history with Matterhorn and the truth behind their gathering. “So it was all a lie,” Mare Do-Well muttered. “I had guessed something like that. Though I didn’t think the Power Ponies had left on their own.” “I still don’t understand why I was chosen,” Rarity said. “Why somepony who was possessed by Nightmare Moon?” Pinkie shrugged. “Quantum… something or other? I really don’t know how Twilight figured it all out. She was just in front of a computer a lot of the time. She barely talked to me.” “Regardless,” Applejack began, “Ah think this brings up a good time for all of us to come clean.” Everypony looked to each other. “We’ve all been goin’ about this not knowing which flank we gotta kick or which we gotta save. Heck, we’ve even been at odds with each other at points.” She looked between Mare Do-Well and Pinkie. “If we want to come out of this alive Ah think we need to stop and truly decide what it is we’re fightin’ for. And to do that Ah think we need to start over again.” Mare Do-Well groaned. “We do not have time for this!” Flutterbat stood and hissed at her but Applejack pushed her down. “You can go if you want.” Everypony was silent as Mare Do-Well didn’t make a move. “Pinkie? Can you take her home?” Pinkie perked up and frowned. “Um, yeah.” “Then there’s the door.” She pointed to the pink mare. Mare Do-Well looked between them hesitantly. “Everything we did before was in the name of somethin’ we didn’t fully understand. We stay here. We talk and understand it fully. Because it involves all of us. If you don’t want to do that, then you can go.” Mare Do-Well stood there for the longest time. Applejack had no idea what was going through her head but it had to be painful since she could see her trembling. Finally, the masked mare sat back down and took a deep sigh. “Then who wants to go first?” Slowly one by one they each introduced themselves and told their stories. Rainbow told how she wanted despereately to get back home and find Fluttershy. Rarity told them how she felt responsible for her Fluttershy’s death. Flutterbat crudely recounted to them the story of her foalhood raised by Sombra. And Applejack let the story of her past and her missing sister fully come to light. “It looks like we all have a reason to get home,” Rainbow said wanly. She turned to Mare Do-Well who still hadn’t spoken. “So what about you?” They all looked expectantly at her. “I… I’m not…” She paused as she looked back at all of them. “I’m… not sure what to say.” Applejack could sense the stress in the mare’s voice. It seemed to break slightly and she heard uncertainty in it. “Anything you can would be fine.” Mare Do-Well took a deep breath. “I haven’t been here before but I know this place.” They were all rapt with attention. “I’ve never traveled to other worlds before but there was an event in my past that could only be explained by them. Those green portals appeared everywhere. Those creatures in the sky swarmed my world. We were being invaded by things we couldn’t explain. I… lost somepony important to me during that time. Look, what matters is that I know what this place is. What it’s capable of. And believe me when I say we need to get as far away from here as we can. Leave and never come back.” “But what about Twilight and Suntrix?” Pinkie replied. Mare Do-Well looked to her, her pleading expression coming through the mask. “Do you honestly want her back like that? Look what this world has done to her. Barely able to form a sentence let alone recognize her friend. And who knows what’s happened to Suntrix. She’s been through hell already she could just be-” A slap cut her off and Mare Do-Well stopped. She looked to Pinkie but was surprised to see it was Rarity who slapped her across the face. The white mare was biting her lip with an angry look in her eyes and the beginning of tears. “Don’t talk like that. Don’t say those kinds of cowardly things in her voice.” Mare Do-Well drew back slightly and hung her head. “I… I’m sorry. I know how this must sound but prevailing over something like this was a once in a lifetime thing. And we’re on their turf now! We’d be going in completely blind against ponies that have the technological capabilities to call themselves gods. I don’t want to be a coward.” She looked to Rarity. “But I don’t want to see any of you hurt either.” Applejack nodded slowly. “Ah think it’s time we made a decision. Just what are we fightin’ for? Family? Home?” She looked to Rarity and Flutterbat. “Friends?” She looked to Rainbow and Pinkie. “Or to survive?” She looked to Mare Do-Well. “What do you guys want to do?” Pinkie was the first one to speak. “I want to stay and find Twiligh and Suntrix. I know it might be hard but they don’t deserve this.” Rarity dug her hooves into the soil. “I also want to help. I still have a lot to make up for and I’ve just begun to regain my life. I don’t intend on weighing it down with guilt.” Flutterbat spread her wings and nodded. “Flutterbat want to help.” Rainbow grinned and shrugged. “What the hell, I suppose I’m in it till the end too.” Applejack and Mare Do-Well stared at each other from across the circle. “Ah’m goin’ too. Cause this is where the line is drawn. When we find them there will be no more sidetracks. We end this and we do what we were brought together to do.” Mare Do-Well shook her head slowly. “I just don’t get you guys. After everything we’ve been through. The things both of those ponies have put us through! You’d honestly risk it all against these monsters just to save them!?” “That’s what heroes do, isn’t it?” Pinkie asked. Mare Do-Well stared ahead stunned before beginning to chuckle. She gripped her sides as she tried to calm down. “I must be out of my freaking mind.” She cast her gaze on each one and they in turn on her. “Let’s go fight some gods.” `~(\/)~’ Mare Do-Well kept complaining about how easy it was to sneak into the palace, but Rainbow didn’t see it that way. Their “easy” way in included crawling through a mile and a half of garbage in the sewers as well as scaling down into a furnace like boiler room that burned anything that touched the walls or surface. When they emerged from below the fortress’ innards, she was just glad to breath that stale air again. They crawled out of a hole in the tiles of a tight hallway before Applejack slid it back into place. Rarity made a noise that sounded like she would throw up. “I think I’m going to need a seven hour bath after this.” Mare Do-Well checked the edge of the hallway for a clear coast. “Most likely that fire pit downstairs cooked off all the disease in that garbage on us so we should be safe and sanitized.” They all stared at her until she turned back to them. “What?” “Let’s just get this done, darling.” “Hey, you wanted to come.” “I know. It’s just gross is all.” “Flutterbat seems to like it.” They saw Flutterbat rubbing herself against a metallic wall as if trying to either rub the grime into her fur more or rub it off. She too stopped and looked at them. “What?” “Let’s get back on topic,” Applejack interjected. “Where do you think they’d be, Twilight?” “Not sure. Aklopolips already has transdimensional capabilities so I don’t know what they’d want with Suntrix. Still, that black mare said that their master favored her for some reason. She could be close to him. Maybe the throne room.” “That sounds super dangerous,” Rainbow cut in. “So how do we get there?” “Ever the thrill seeker,” Mare Do-Well muttered under her breath. “I’d guess we’d have to go up.” They left their hiding spot and proceeded down the corridor as quietly as possible. “Now our best bet is to stick to the shadows. Hide behind corners. Don’t let anypony see you.” They walked out of the corridor into an enormous room. It was hundreds of hooves wide, long and tall. The walls were lined with railings and stairs at sharp odd angles with nary a door or unlit corner in sight until the top that let out onto a hole in the top of the palace. “Well… Never mind.” “Pretty open area,” Rainbow stated bluntly. “Yeah, too open,” Applejack replied. Four familiar figures fell from the hole and slammed to the ground. “Oh not you guys again!” Rainbow moaned. A slam echoed behind them and two more figures stood by the now sealed corridor they had come from. One was tall in a magenta robe and sharp teeth while the other was short and frog like with green armor and yellow cape. “Not this time,” the tall robed figure said in a hiss. “Six on six. Still not too bad,” Rainbow said with a shrug. Suddenly they heard a rush of screeches from above and dozens of the pegademons flew down to swirl above them. Everypony looked at Rainbow with an angry expression. “Maybe I should stop talking?” They circled each other standing back to back as their enemies surrounded them. “Do you think you can handle this?” Mare Do-Well whispered to Rarity. Rarity set herself and nodded, her horn beginning to glow. “Whatever you do, don’t worry about me. Worry about the problem in front of you.” Mare Do-Well gave her a hesitant look before she nodded. Without a word the swarm of enemies rushed in and the six sprinted into the fray.