Chapter 5.
Twilight sat at the edge of what was once sweet apple acers. She was exhausted from using her magic to help contain and help keep the fire from spreading. The pegasi had came a short while after she had noticed the fire beginning at the farm, and had quickly put out the flame with the combination of rain and wind.
She looked out at the charred orchard that had not even a few days ago had produced another batch of cider to give to the world. Aside from the pegasi that made up the wonderbolt team and weather factory, no pony was around to see the sight. Spitfire had flown down beside twilight and waited for her to notice her presence. Eventually, she coughed, getting twilight's attention from her thoughts.
“Ohh, sorry. With how things have been happening around here I haven't been able to focus to much.”
“No kidding. Well, we were able to save a few trees in the back of the orchard, but most of the place has been trashed. The house and barn seemed to be the first place to go, but we haven't found any pony around. We need to get back to cloudsdale to report, so good luck on your own assignment.” With that, spitfire called together the wonderbolts and they flew off back to cloudsdale.
Rainbow dash landed beside twilight, her face was gloomy and her fur covered in soot from the fire. The faint smell of apples and smoke coming off her coat. Their were streaks down her face from tears, but from what twilight was uncertain.
“I can't believe the farm is gone. All the times, the apple family, just gone. Since we didn't find aj and her family, do you think they're still around?” twilight simply looked at her friend with a sorry expression. How could she tell her that one of her friends was now dead? And more importantly, that she knew it would happen?
“I can't say for sure, but I can say they might be out there. For now, I say we should just go and move on. Your weather team should be returning to cloudsdale soon, and you don't want to fall behind.”
“Yeah… yeah, I guess. If you hear anything, tell me right away. I'll be down here faster then you can say apples” with that, she flew off to rejoin the pegasi who were heading back to the cloud factory. Twilight took one last look at the charred orchard, and then walked back to her castle, hoping to hear back from Celestia about this.
Flame sat by a small pond just outside of the now burned down farm. She had come to this spot after realizing her communication was down, and went to repair herself while she hid. The process could have been easier if Jade hadn't been aware the whole time, taking control of half of her face. She began working on one of the wings she had injured during the scene, when Jade spoke up from her side.
“This is turning into a disaster. I should have quit when I had the chance. I should have gone away and done something else. Now look what happened.” Jade continued to fix the wing, not caring so much about her speaking.
“Flame, how can you be so silent about this? We’ve killed so many lives, destroyed multiple businesses, and are literally fueled by souls! How can be calm about this?”
“I was raised for combat, nothing more.” Flame finally finished the wing and reattached it to her body. She then detached the other wing and began to repair it.
“Really? I guess I was never told your story. I guess we have some time, would you be willing to tell me?”
“If I told you it, you wouldn't care or listen to it. Why tell stories if the one you tell it too will forget so easily?”
“Well, we are attached to each other. And it's not like we can separate. I'll listen, if you're willing.” Flame stopped what she was doing, looking up from her work. The exposed eye seemed to shift in it's socket, before she went back to repairing her wing.
“My name was sparkling cracker before I went out. I grew up in a different time then now, when the three races had different opinions of each other and the crystal empire was a myth. I knew my destiny would bring me to war, and so, I joined a changeling watch force.
“We did our best to watch the movement of changelings, using what we had to see where they went and how they acted. Unfortunately, we got careless on one of our missions, and ended up captured.” Flame finished working on the wing, and reattached it to her socket. She then noticed a lake and moved to wash off.
“And I'm guessing tink came and rescued you?” flame scoffed at that, grabbing a emergency soap bar and began to clean the discolored fur.
“he had to be saved himself from the bugs. Fangorn had followed him to where I was and resuced us, along with killing the small swarm we had been following. Tink followed us out on our way, and he offered us a place at his home. We denied of course, needing to return to the hide out.” She switched her scrubbing and moved on the the other side of her body, scrubbing the mub and blood from her fake coat.
“when we came back to base we were put off the team due to getting caught. After the time we spent together on the field, we weren't sure where to go. I took up tinks offer, and ended up as his advisor over things. I guess I started to get soft, because he and I began to feel for each other.
We ended up getting married, and had a daughter. It was around then I ended up dying. When he brought me back with this…” her voice trailed off, remembering the sea of voices of faces she had to go through till they could talk. She quickly shook the memory away and finished cleaning up. They stepped out of the water and looked at themselves.
Their coat was still matted in spots, and the stains couldn't be completely removed. She figured that they'd be fine from a distance, and stedied her wings, getting ready to fly.
“Story time is over. Time to go to cloudsdale. Tinkerer will hear of this soon. Accelorato!” With that, they soared off to the clouds at high speed. As she flew, Fangorn heard the sound of her take off, and signaled the tinkerer.
Otaku sat on a cloud outside of the city in the clouds, binoculars over his eyes. He was observing the various ponies that flew around, trying to monitor their movement. When the fire began in the orchard, he had been assigned to watch for signs of anything out of the ordinary.
Because of this, he didn't notice the alicorn speeding up to the clouds and stopping just by the rainbow falls. She flew behind the pegasus and gave him a quick tap on the shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise.
“Hey, don't scare me like that. Tink was worried enough about you, and I'm on edge as is. Thought, I see why you got him so worried.” The mechanical eye looked to the side, but the covered section gave him a confused look. The pegasus noticed this, and he gave a closer look to the split halves. He gasped in surprise, then quickly took out a pen and began to write things down.
“A clean case of split personality to the highest degree, caused by blunt trauma. Wow, it's like one of those serial killer mangas I like to read. We need to get you back to base and have that repaired.” Flame landed on the cloud with him, and she quickly grabbed the com out of his hoof.
“I had to sneak into this place to meet with you. If two pegasi suddenly left at the same time, it would be quite suspicious. We should just carry out the mission and move on. Besides, I'm sure with the event's recently, we'll need to act quickly, so let's go.
“Well, I guess I have no choice then.” He then felt himself become covered in a magic aura, knowing it was an invisibility spell. The two then went through the clouds, prepairing the final task.
The afternoon was quiet, Fangorn sat in the dim twilight waiting for derpy to come by. She had been coming at a consistent time, and this time, he was going to talk. He usually left packages at the spot for her to pick up, but not tonight.
The sound of wings could be heard, and Fangorn turned to the direction of the pegasus. She looked at him in confusion, and landed nearby.
“Hello Fang, what brings you here? I haven't seen you since our first encounter, don't get me wrong I like seeing you. It's just, with things as they are, if twilight or someone sees you.” She was interrupted as he placed a claw on the back of her head. She flinched from the touch, but went back to it as he stroked her mane.
“I know young one. I wish I could be off and safe, but my job comes before anything else. To make sure you're safe and waiting for orders.” Derpy backed out of his claw and looked at his face, trying to see if he was lying. But his face was serious, and she turned to look back at where she came from.
“This used to be harmless, just some deliveries to a friend. But now, the orchard is gone. Do you know who did this, and why?” Fangorn placed his hand on his chin, looking towards the sky, as if it would give the dragon answers. Then he turned back to derpy and gave a sad smile.
“Even I don't know why the field went up in flames. It wasn't in the plan we had made, so I assume it was something out of our control. All will be fixed my dear, I can promise that at least.” Derpy looked back at the now empty fields and the sleeping city, then hovered close to Fangorn.
She gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing the dragon to blush in the dim light. He turned to face the mare, who was also blushing a deep red.
“I know that was a bit weird, but if things don't turn out well, just know that I don't hold anything against you. And thank you, for believing in me.” With that, she flew back to the town, humming a tune to herself. Fangorn was glad for that, he didn't want her to see the tears that stained his blindfold.
Twilight sat in the inner walls of her castle. Her face was that of thought, a deep thinking of the events coming up. She looked at the various papers that adorned the table. She read the notes over and over again, the frown on her face becoming deeper with the passing silence.
Spike and starlight came into the room, disturbing the silence of the moment. They each looked at her face and wondered if they should just leave her be. But twilight motioned for the two to come on, and they stepped next to her.
“We still haven't gotten any word from Celestia. We also haven't gotten any luck finding Applejack and her family.”
“And we haven't gotten a package, or a letter yet from our overseer. I don't think we'll get a package tonight. That may mean something.” Twilight continued to sit in silence, spike and starlight waiting for her to respond with something. After a few moments, twilight got up from the table and walked to the balcony, stopping to face them.
“i’m flying up to canterlot. It's clear whoever is doing this is interfering with our letters. Watch over the town while I'm gone. And if I don't come back…” she paused, her face softening a little from the cold seriousness of before.
“Know that I had the best years of my life with you spike. And starlight, take good care of him for me.” With that, she cast a spell on her body and zoomed off from the castle, heading towards canterlot at high speed.
Fangorns ears perked up at the sound, and he quickly pulled out his communicater and called up the tinkerer. Their was a brief pause before he answered.
“Sir, bad news. Seems twilight has decided to head to canterlot by magic instead of train. She’ll get their sooner than expected, orders?” In the lab, the tinkerer slammed his hoof into the console he was at, startling the nearby workers. He had been monitoring otaku and flames output over cloudsdale, but quickly took his focus to this.
“What?! You sure about this?”
“Yes. What are my orders?” The tinkerer put a hoof on to his head, a headache beginning to form from the thought. He then turned back to the cameras and spoke quickly.
“Seems the last phase of the plan will need to be executed quickly. I'll contact otaku and have him get flame moving. You should check on the castle, to be sure that her little dragon is taken care of. Get it done, and report when the town is secure.” The tinkerer quickly signaled buttercup, and she gave him a bottle of Scotch, which he quickly drank for himself.
“Guess this really is the final few days of our lives, huh tink?” Buttercup grabbed the bottle and threw it into the trash. Tink sat back in his chair, the alcohol working through the headache he had. He then shook his head and contacted otaku.
“You'll have to finish your work without her mate, seems twilight is heading to canterlot by flight. Tell flame to get moving and begin the last phase of the plan!” The pegasus quickly relayed the message, and the alicorn flew off to canterlot. Tink shook his head and leaned back in his seat.
“Why couldn't things have just gone to plan?” He got out of his seat and walked out of the lab, buttercup close behind. She was quietly concerned for him, but said nothing, knowing he wouldn't care to respond. Maybe, soon, they can finally relax together. But for now, the plan moved on, and she wondered if flame could pull off the next step.