EPISODE SIX
It was just about nightfall, and Dyno and Myte had come out of their mine with a trolley of jewels they had dug up along the tracks.
“Bueno; what a haul.” said Dyno “This ought to do well for the towns and villages.”
“Oh, that reminds me…” said Myte, and he held out a newspaper clipping showing a couple of shops. “I hear we can get some new mining equipment in New White Tail Village.”
“Ah, muy exelente. We could some new stuff.” Dyno said as he held up an old drill that was on the verge of breaking, and Myte felt he could use a new pick and shovel.
The parked the cart at the end of the tracks, and Myte went to big dumpster alongside of the mine to throw out some of the old and battered equipment, but the second he turned the corner, he saw a stranger poking around the dumpsters and gathering discarded food from it.
“You there!” shouted Myte, and the stranger looked up through his ragged clothes and turned to dash off. “Stop!” shouted Myte, and he zipped right in front of the stranger, cutting him off.
The stranger turned and dashed another way, but Myte cut him off again, and again, and again! The stranger was starting to lose his patience.
“It’s okay; I don’t want to hurt you.” Myte said, but the stranger didn’t trust him at all and reached into his rags, and slammed a dash of powder on the ground, making a huge puffy cloud, surprising Myte long enough to make another getaway.
Dyno heard the commotion and rushed over. “Myte! Myte!” he called. He arrived just as the last of the smoke settled, and his brother coughing and waving the smog away.
Dyno rushed to his brother’s side, “Myte, ¿Lo que pasó aquí? *What Happened Here?* Are you alright?”
“Si, estoy bién. *Yes, I’m fine*” replied Myte, and he told his brother what happened, “I think it must’ve been that stranger everyone keeps seeing at night.”
Dyno looked at the garbage, and all he could find taken were just scraps of food. Other than that, nothing else was touched. “And to think, I almost had him!” said Myte.
There wasn’t much to go on. The stranger left the same kind of unusual footprints, unable to be positively identified. No fingerprints, he didn’t even speak. Not even the specks of powder he used could help them figure who he was or where had run off too.
“If he’s in the area, maybe we better go looking for him.” Dyno suggested.
“Yeah, but where could he have gone by now?” said Myte.
The only clue they had was to follow the footprints in the ground, which lead all the way to the road, away from the mine towards the village; but mysteriously the trail just ended right at the edge of the road.
“He couldn’t have flown off. He doesn’t have wings.” said Dyno.
“There’s only one other answer,” suggested Myte “He must’ve teleported away; ah, but wait… he was just an Earth Pony, and if he could teleport he would’ve done so right away instead of hitting me with that smoke and running off.”
Now the twins were both concerned.
Meanwhile…
Rarity had only married Spike two months ago, and she was really starting to get the hang of being a wife as she prepared dinner, and asked Spike a number of grueling questions…about his chores around the house.
“Did you sweep the floor?”
“Yes dear.”
“Did you get the mail?”
“Yes dear.”
“Did you fold the laundry?”
“Yes dear.”
“Oh, I love you, Spikey Wikey.”
“I love you too, Rarity. Remember that.”
Opalescence made a small hacking sound and then turned the other way as she fell asleep on top of the refrigerator.
They gazed deeply into each other’s eyes, “Spike?”
“Yes, Rarity…?”
“Would you… please take the garbage out?”
She handed him the smelly bucket, which pretty much was bad to the smell. “Ugh! Sure. Right away...” Spike said, and he left quickly not wanting the smell to stench up the house.
As Rarity went back to making dinner, she felt like the luckiest pony on the planet for having Spike as her husband. Even though it was a little awkward, a pony being married to a dragon, their love was real and she didn’t regret it.
Spike was very good around the house, helping with chores without fuss, and being there for her when she needed him. At times he would be a little over-protective of her and go a little over the top, but in the end she still loved he and he loved her.
They even remembered the special song Spike had written for her before his growth spurt and be became an adult. He had put it on and Holographic Music Imager that she still kept.
Rarity sighed heavenly as the song ended.
While outside, Spike had dumped the garbage into the trashcans. “Yuck!” he groaned “Who’d have thought married life meant so much of this?”
On his way back, he stopped and noticed his memorial rock for Twilight, and decided to go over and speak to her, “I miss you so much, Twilight, and I never stop thinking about you, but I know you’re always here with me.”
He reached down and softly caressed the stone, right near the poor drawing of Twilight’s face he had made, and he sighed softly.
Suddenly, his nose perked up, and with his dragon sense of smell he began to smell something unusual; something mustier than the garbage itself, followed by the sound of rustling in the trash.
He poked his head round the house and saw a stranger poking through the garbage, taking bits of food. As gross as Spike thought that, he realized this was probably that stranger form reports, but rather than call at him like everyone else did, Spike silently crept round through the shrubs near the house.
Finally he was right behind the stranger and he got a good look at it; a black Earth Pony dressed in ragged clothing and black goggles. He was practically scarfing down little bits of food like a desperate creature, much to Spike’s disgust and confusion.
He waited for a moment, and then leapt out of the bushes, tackling the pony to the ground hard. The pony screamed and fussed, kicking over the garbage cans.
The sound of the crashing made Rarity jump, “What was that?” and she looked through the window and saw Spike wrestling some pony outside, and she assumed the worst!
“Spike?!” she cried, and she dashed outside in a heartbeat, and did a flying kick knocking her husband clear off the stranger, and seeing his chance the stranger made his getaway. “Wait!” Rarity called out, but the stranger had already gone.
“Oh!” Spike groaned as he got up, and he sneered “Rarity, why did you do that?!”
His wife turned and sneered at him, “I should be asking you the same thing. Whatever do you think you were doing, attacking an innocent pony like that?”
Spike got the drift of things, “Well… I think that I was wrestling with the night stranger.”
Rarity suddenly froze up and shouted “What?!”
“Yeah, in fact… that was the night stranger, and you just let him get away.”
Rarity felt her insides shaking, and she smacked her head in sheer stupidity, “What have I DONE?!!” she cried. “Oh, Spike, I am ever so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”
As much as Spike didn’t like being kicked around, literally especially by friends… or family. He smiled lovingly at her. “You didn’t know, so I’ll overlook it.”
Rarity felt a little better and kissed her husband on his face, but she still felt pretty bad for letting the stranger get away, and there were no footprints to follow.
As Spike and Rarity ate their dinner, Spike still felt a little bad for having almost have caught the stranger. Rarity apologized again, and he forgave her yet again, “Still… there’s something about that pony that seemed familiar.”
“Familiar, how?” asked Rarity. “I can’t tell for sure.” said Spike “It’s like I’ve seen him somewhere before, but where?”
Rarity then noticed something stuck to Spike’s clothes; a small shred of fabric from the stranger’s rags; exactly identical to the pieces that Sweetie Belle had found and showed her from her fieldtrip; a mixture of several fabrics in one. She had never seen anything like it.
“Didn’t Sweetie Belle say she found her pieces around that village near New White Tail Woods?” asked Spike.
Rarity didn’t respond, but she was starting to see a small connection. “Spike, we are going on a trip tomorrow.”
She donned a fedora from out of nowhere, and looked serious like Shadow Spade. Spike knew there was no talking her out of it now; not when she put the hat on.
The very next morning, after breakfast, Spike and Rarity were on their way, soaring over New Povyville, and Rarity even donned her trench coat for the investigation. She even brought along a miniature tape-recorder, and was recording everything she could find and say… like in a detective story.
“My hubby and I were on our way, no telling what we’d find when we got there, but one thing was certain: I was up for the challenge!”
Spike rolled his eyes as they continued to fly, and they held hands and did a speed-boost forward!
This helped them reach the village in less than ten seconds, and they set down at the foot of the area, near the village entry way, just near the woods.
“Aha!” Rarity cried as she gazed down at the ground and picked up a single pink ribbon. “Our first clue already; another piece of fabric.” She stopped when she realized how cute it looked.
“Um, Rarity…” Spike said, but his wife continued to admire the ribbon. “Oh, whoever would lose such a thing? Why it’s positively gorgeous. It could go to a gown, or even a cute handbag, or even--”
“…Your hat.” Spike said, and he pointed to her head, “That’s the ribbon for your hat, Rarity.”
Rarity took off her hat, and it was indeed her ribbon, obvious it had fallen off from the landing. Rarity felt a little sheepish. Nevertheless, the two walked into the village.
No sooner had they stepped in did a lot of ponies, minotaurs, even a couple of griffons took one look at them and turned away very rudely.
“What’s eating them?” Spike wondered, Rarity couldn’t figure it either. She was more focussed on the mystery at hand anyway and she decided the first step was to question others, except she got distracted by what she saw in the window of a small clothing store.
“Oh, my; Spike would you look at this.”
Spike noticed she was staring at a simple dress in the window. It wasn’t really anything different from what Rarity would ever make. “What about it?” he asked.
“What about it?!” cried Rarity “Look at that outrageous price! How could something so elegant be for such a low price as that? Surely it should be worth at least a-thousand more bits.”
She decided to go inside and have a word with the manager of the store. “But wait, I thought we were gathering clues?” Spike called to her.
“We can do that as well, but I must see to this… this fashion crisis.”
Spike sighed and followed her into the store, but just like outside, the many ponies gawked at the two with mean and rude looking expressions.
Rarity began to feel a little uncomfortable, and things were about to get worse when she reached the front desk where the manager had her face buried in a magazine.
“Excuse me…” Rarity said “Might I have a word with you about the display in the window?”
The mare didn’t even look up from her magazine and said “Yeah, sorry, I don’t speak English.”
Spike and Rarity both thought that sounded ridiculous, as well as a lie, “But you just did speak English.”
“Oh, did I say English? I meant I don’t speak Loser!”
Now the two felt struck. “That wasn’t very nice.” said Rarity “I was merely wishing to inquire about the price of that dress in the window.”
The mare finally put down her magazine and looked Rarity deep in the eyes, “Take the hint, and get out of my store!”
Many of the customers and store workers applauded the mare, but Rarity and Spike were outraged.
“How rude…!” Rarity grumbled “Well, I can tell when we’re not wanted. Come on, Spike.”
“Humph!” Spike scoffed at the other ponies as he followed his wife out the store, but on his way out he accidently bumped into a stallion, “I’m terribly sorry.”
“Yeah, you oughta be.” growled the stallion, “You bump into me next time, I’ll bump you to the moon, ya freak.”
Spike’s features hardened, “I was just apologizing.”
“Get out of my face, or you’ll really be sorry.” snarled the stallion.
Spike looked almost ready for a Spike, but he knew well that Starfleet members were not permitted to start fights over petty things. “Fine, if that’s how you want to be.”
He caught up with Rarity grumbling “Who does he think he is?”
Rarity wasn’t too thrilled the way she had been treated either, but simply felt that, “Perhaps those two ponies were having a bad day, just look around.”
Spike noticed all the other ponies and creatures were being nicer to each other, so maybe she was right. However, a mare came up to Rarity, “Get out the way!” she snarled as she shoved Rarity away from the door to the shop.
“Oof…!” groaned Rarity “Whatever was that all about?”
“I don’t know, but I’m starting to hate this place.” Spike said.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of people arguing, and they spotted Dyno and Myte being thrown out of a hardware store and told never to come back.
“You can expect a report about this!” Dyno called to the rude creatures. “What’s their problem, anyway?” Myte wondered.
Then they saw Spike and Rarity and were glad to see some friendly faces, but they did ask why Rarity was wearing her detective costume.
“We came to gather clues about that strange pony, the one that sneaks around at night and goes through garbage.” said Spike.
“Ah, so you ran into him too.” said Dyno, “We bumped into him just last night, but that’s not why we’re here, we just wanted to get new tools for our mine, but everyone’s been treating us very badly.
The gang looked around and noticed that everyone was being nice to each other, but those who passed by them didn’t seem to care, or gave them a grouchy sneer.
That’s when Spike looked and saw something on a wall, “Hey, look at this.”
Along the walls were graffiti paintings and posters, all of which were bad remarks towards Starfleet. They said things like…
“Star-Freaks”
“Burn Starfleet, Burn!”
“Bring back Equestria of Old”
That’s when a small colt came up to them. He was an Earth pony, brown coat, tan mane, and his cutiemark was a picture of a lips speaking strongly and proudly. His name was Lippy Mouth, and unlike most creatures of the village, he actually was polite to them. “It’s horrible, isn’t it?” he said “Most everyone in this village has a bad thing for Starfleet, or practically all of United Equestria. So whenever anyone from Starfleet or anyone loyal to them comes here, they often get the cold shoulder, and are treated like pests.”
The gang were even more outraged than ever, “That hardly seems fair.” said Dyno, “Si, why do they hate us so much?”
Lippy explained that the creatures of the village never once liked Starfleet, blaming them for the destruction of Equestria of old, and then forming United Equestria with all their new technologies and martial laws. Some were even peeved that Space alicorns were naturally stronger than Equestrians.
“I don’t think you have to go on, we get the message.” said Spike.
Lippy nodded and sighed, “Very few of us, including me, don’t think that way of Starfleet, and we actually like it. That only makes the others regard us as bad. They pick on us, treat us unfairly, even my own mother doesn’t like it how I don’t side with her and the rest of the town, especially since she’s the mayor here.”
The gang had heard enough, such things were horrid enough, but unfortunately they did not violate the law, at least non-too-severely that called for action.
“LIPPY SYNC!!” someone shouted. It was his mother, Mayor Windy Bag-- that was her actual name. She was a beige Earth pony with long blonde mane, and dressed in a red work suit, but she did not seem very friendly in the least, even her cutiemark, a picture of red hot winds indicated she was full of hot air.
“Get away from those, creeps!” she demanded as she yanked her son away. “What have I told you about comingling with slime like this?”
Rarity felt the most struck, “Excuse me, but how dare you refer to us as slime!”
Windy Bag looked crosser than ever, “I don’t know what lies you’ve been feeding my son, but for your sake you had better get out of my town, now!”
Spike stepped forth, “You’re in no position to give orders to us. If anything, we could haul you in for threatening an officer.”
“All the more reason for you to leave and take all your tyranny with you!” sneered Windy, “Starfleet is not welcome here, and we have enough to deal with at it is without having to deal with mules like you pushing us around.”
The boys all gasped, and Rarity had that blazing flare in her eyes for having been called that word again…!
“Oh, it is on!” she growled, and she would have started a huge fight, but the Twins and Spike held her back. “Let me go! Let me at her!” Rarity shouted as she fussed.
“Whoa, whoa, detenerlo *Stop*!” cried Dyno, “Rarity, no starting fights, remember?” added Myte.
Rarity barely managed to calm down, and Windy laughed at her, “Wow, if that’s all it takes to get you riled up, imagine what will get you out of this world completely.”
Then she walked off dragging her son by the ear, threatening to have a long talk with him when they got home.
“Ooh!!” growled Rarity “I have never been so insulted in my life!”
“Maybe we should just go.” Spike suggested.
The twins agreed, but Rarity refused, insisting that they came to get clues about the stranger.
“But how are we going to get any?” asked Dyno, “Si, everywhere we look there’s someone with a macho grudge against us. Where should we even start looking?”
Before anyone could say anything, the sounds of screams were heard as several ponies came rushing into the village coming from the area of the mountain near the woods, and from atop the mountain, bolts of lightning and dark energy waves were emitting from the peak.
The gang decided to investigate the scene and flew off, landing just near the foot of the mountain, the lightning strikes grew more violent, followed by the sound of a voice hollering, “Stay away! Stay Away!! STAY… AWAY!!!”
The bolts began to zap straight at them, just barely missing them and knocking them off their feet. “Let’s split!” cried Spike, Rarity agreed with him, but the twins stood where they, feeling there was something strange about the lightning bolts.
“Boys, get out of there!” cried Rarity, but the twins stood where they were… as a pain of bolts struck them square on, and… nothing happened!
The boys didn’t burn, get thrown back. The bolts just passed right through them.
“They’re just illusions.” said Dyno. “Someone is trying to scare us off with cheap magic tricks.” added Myte.
The voice hollered out again, “Leave my mountain, and never return, or face CERTAIN DOOM!!”
The twins, Spike and Rarity were now convinced that all this was just a setup by someone, probably who lived at the top of the mountain.
They all flew up, up, and up and were able to get a good look at the mountain peak and could see the mountain was emitting from an old and decrepit mansion. They tried to fly in close to get a better look, when suddenly as they got near the house; they were stopped by a force-field.
“Whoever’s in there, he must be sworn to keep people out.” said Dyno.
“Si, but who is he, and why is doing this?” asked Myte.
Suddenly, a large flaming monster, actually made of real flames rose from the mountain peak and roared right at the gang, actually frightening them all away, and they flew as far away from town as they could.
While inside the house, that same strange figure snickered from within the darkness.
The gang stopped at the foot of New Ponyville to catch their breath. “Exactly… what… was that all about?” Spike panted.
Nobody said a thing, too out of breath and a bit nervous to say.
Rarity then reached for her pocket recorder, wanting to record that their mission was a bust, only to find out it had been recording all the time; she had forgotten to switch it off from her last recording.
She played the tape back and realized everything that was said or heard since their arrival in the village was all there on her tape, including the loud voice they had heard telling them to stay away.
Their eyes all lit up with sparkling hope. “We better get this to Lightning.” suggested Spike.
Soon, the friends were at Lightning and Starla’s and presented them with the tape, and they listened to it a few times.
“Sounds like you guys had quite the little adventure.” said Starla.
“More like a misadventure.” said Spike, he and the others were still rather peeved, not that they were scared off, but by how badly they were treated. Rarity especially hadn’t forgotten that awful Mayor Windy Bag.
Lightning understood how they felt, having had his share of bad treatment during visits, “Well, whatever their opinions about us may be, they’ve not broken the law, at least not severely for us to act, but I can’t say much the same about what you claim you saw on that mountain. We may have a real criminal on our hands here.”
He took out Rarity’s tape, “I’ll send this to New Canterlot at once. The master computer system will identify the strange voice on it, and we can try to find a match and unmask this night stranger. Maybe even figure out his motives.”
Spike still felt something about that he caught was strictly familiar, if he could only put his finger on it.
“Never mind that now, Spike.” said Starla“At least now we can try to find out who he is for sure.”
The twins agreed, “But, even still it could take a while.” said Dyno. Myte agreed, “There are loads of voices to match up with this planet; some creature even may have the same vocal sound.”
“Well, regardless, it shouldn’t take too long.” Lightning said “We’ll figure out who it is. We will.”
“But what shall we do about the citizens in New White Tail village?” asked Rarity “Their behaviour is most baffling and horribly horrible.”
“You heard what was said, Rarity.” said Starla “Unless they actually do something of extreme violation of the law, for now we just leave them alone.”
“Starla’s right.” said Lightning, “They’re just ponies and creatures full of hot air. They’re no big threat to us or to anyone.”
The others hoped Lightning was right, for in United Equestria, or anywhere else… who knew what secrets were kept.
Meanwhile, Mayor Windy Bag had shut her son in his room, “You can come out again when you learn the difference between right and stupid!” she scolded before slamming the door leaving poor little Lippy on his own.
He never wanted to tell anyone in person, but he was starting to hate his mother and wished he could do something about her bossiness and the way she treated others.
As for his mother, she went downstairs, from the apartment into the town-hall, and found a single letter on her desk, a red parchment with a lightning bolt on it.
She opened it rather hastily and read what it said, and she smiled wickedly, “I almost have what I need to make things right again.”
She looked through her drawer and pulled out a map, a map of Equestria of Old, which was no use now. “Don’t worry every-pony. Things will be normal again.”
(Promo)
In our next episode: Lightning comes up with an idea for Cadance and Shining Armor to solve their child problems, but it is
dangerous complicated and things may not go so well, especially when a monster attacks New Canterlot, making clones of everyone so it’s hard to tell whom is who.
Can our heroes outwit their evil counterparts, and what does Lightning have planned for Cadance and Shining Armor?
Don’t miss the next exciting episode of “Starfleet Magic!”
(Next Episode: “Send in the Clones!”