//------------------------------// // Nothing Ventured // Story: Reflections of the Past // by Phaoray //------------------------------// As the small Hippogriff ship sailed across the waves, two voices could easily be heard in debate on the ocean going vessel’s main deck. “Honey,” Queen Novo said, “I respect what you are trying to do, but that name has to go.” Spike shook his head vehemently, his little wings flapping slightly in agitation. “What’s wrong with Spears for Toys? It gets weapons off the streets, no questions asked, and ponies get something in return they can bring home to their family.” Novo made a twirling motion with one of her claws in the air. “Nah, nah, see, the way I see it, that name at the least needs to be switched around. Even with that, though, this whole thing just sounds reckless.” “It’s too late to change the title now,” Spike argued. “Besides, Twilight was on board right after she heard the name and how it would help Canterlot’s crime problem. She already approved the program and the funds.” “Sure. Ahm not saying Twilight isn’t smart, but giving over complete power of a nation to somepony who just last year was running a school sounds like asking for trouble.” “It’ll be fine.” Spike assured Novo.” There’s been no major disasters so far.” “Then y'all’s just due for one then.” “It’s fine.” “Allright, but don’t come flying over to me none when this whole thing blows up. Toys for Spears would of been less confusing” “It’ll be fine.” Spike repeated again. He then paused for a second, curious about something else. “By the way, what made you decide to come on this trip anyways?” “Twilight, actually.” Novo said with a small smile. “I was more than a little impressed at everything she did to save Equestria from the Storm King. Now, scouting these islands to figure out what’s causing all this ruckus ain’t the same thing, but it’s a start.” Spike brought a clawed hand up to his face nervously. “Do you really think this is the Storm King’s army?” “Maybe, maybe not. But he had a lot of ships, so it wouldn’t surprise me none if whatever is left is behind all the fighting. The islands were never the best of friends, but they weren’t stupid enough to go to war with one another for no good reason like this.” Spike agreed on that. Before Twilight sent him out to act as a representative of Equestria to the Island nations, she had insisted he read up a bit on their history. The islands southwest of Equestria may not have always been at peace, but they had never attacked each other in the past without some declaration of war. Yet that seemed to be exactly what was happening from the brief reports coming back to Equestria. Spike looked out across the ocean, to the green speck of an island they were headed to. The island of Cad. With any luck, they’d gather some clues and stop whoever was behind these attacks before things got any worse. A few steps onto the islands docks, and Spike had to shake his head sadly at what he saw. How could somepony do something like this? Spike had heard what happened during the conflict between the buffalo and the villagers of Apploosa, he had witnessed first hand the damage the Storm King did to Canterlot; but it never got easier for him. Cad was a fair sized port town, named after the island it stood on. The houses were made mostly of sandy colored rock or occasionally a muddy brick with dirt roads in between. The drab colors made the remains of pies splattered across the buildings only stand out more as Spike and Novo entered the town from the docks. Occasional spots along the walls had a strange goopy white and orange trail dripping down them, making Spike think of the path a snail would make. “I guess we arrived a little late.” Spike said. “Naw, the way I see it, we arrived at exactly the right time.” Novo replied, tracing a claw through part of a peach pie on a building as she walked. “Better this hit when we weren’t here to get a face full of it.” “Good point.” Spike conceded, continuing to walk towards the middle of town. The assortment of colors splattered along some buildings were astounding, as if somepony had gotten over excited on a painting project and just used every color they could find. Spike gaped at two particular houses that had somehow collapsed under the onslaught of baked goods. “Now see? If they were living underwater, wars like this couldn’t happen.” Novo muttered. “I wouldn’t count on it. If you asked, I’m sure Pinkie would figure out a way to bring baked goods to the ocean.” “Well then, we’d better not ask her. The ocean doesn’t need this kind of damage done to it, thanks.” A croaky voice called out. “Uhm, excuse me?” Looking to his left, Spike spotted a pony near the pie-encrusted center fountain they were just about to pass. He was a green elderly stallion with a red mane and a fishing hook for a cutie mark. “Might you two be Novo the hippogriff and Spike the dragon?” Spike grinned and replied sarcastically. “Really? What gave us away?” The old pony snorted and shook Spike’s hand. “I am Mayor Gruffwind, a pleasure to meet you. Sorry to say that you came here at a poor time for our village, but then again, you wouldn’t be here otherwise.” Spike nodded, conceding the point. “True, we haven’t had any issues or problems with the Island Nations, so there was never any need to send a representative till now.” Spike explained. “So, what the hay happened here?” Gruffwind gestured around the town. “Pretty easy to see, isn’t it? From all accounts I could find from two days ago, ponies around town heard a battle cry just as the attack began.” “Anything notable about the battle cry?” Gruffwind shook his head. “Nope, just your typical cry of ‘food fight!’ before the first wave of pies hit the walls.” “Gotcha, yeah, nothing odd there. What happened next?” “Welp,” Gruff continued. “Once the guard posts and walls were too slippery to hold, the fighting hit the rest of the town. From what I heard, the bakeries were hit next. Poor Melda Maples lost her entire stock in just a moment as the raiders grabbed all her munitions and either ate em or turned em on the town.” “That must have been horrible for her to see.” Novo said, feather bristling. “Is the poor mare okay?” “She’ll recover, but she witnessed every baker’s worst fear, having your own creations turned on those you love” Gruffwind replied. “But, after the walls fell, it was nothing but pure chaos. I was lucky, my grand kids insisted I stay inside, but the militia was completely overwhelmed.” “I...I see.” Spike swallowed hard. “What happened after that? What did they take?” “Well now, that’s one of the odd things. Asides from not paying for Melda’s pastries, they didn’t really take much. A couple kids toys, marbles, but nothing important. The local hospital is full of ponies who claim to have been ‘wedgied’ somehow. They weren’t wearing anything, but the bruises are there. The attackers just seemed to have left their calling card and vanished.” “Wait,” Spike asked uncomfortably. “wedgies are their calling card?” “What? No! Those are!” Gruffwind pointed out to a few small flags sticking to the houses, or smeared in with the pie remains. “Those are the flags of Bury, one of our neighbors. Never did trust them, but I don’t understand why they would do this without a declaration of war. They seem to be staking a claim on the island.” “Are you sure it’s them?” “It would have to be, no other reason to stick those flags in town other than to lay claim to the island, that’s just tradition after all. Once we clean up the town, we’ll have to make plans of our own.“ Gruffwind gave a grim look. “Besides that, they are using weapons from the forbidden island, that alone means-” SPLAT! Something cracked against the side of Spike’s head, mushing into a paste that covered half his head and partially blinded him. A far too sweet smell hit his snout. He tried to wipe it off around his eye, but his hands just became sticky and smeared it around in the process. It looked similar to that white and orange good he had seen on the walls of some of the buildings, with some chocolate mixed in. Whatever this was, it was thick and hard to clean off, almost like a syrup. “There he is!” Novo cried out and ran out of Spike’s limited vision. “Use this.” Gruffwind said, putting a small rag in Spike’s paw. “Thanks!” Spike rubbed the rag over his eye as he took off after Novo. “Get back here!” Novo shouted from far in front of Spike, who was struggling to keep up while cleaning his face. After a few moments of this Spike rounded a corner only to hit a dead end between two houses. “Darn it.” Spike gasped out, panting. “I swore Novo went down here, I better-” A creepy feeling went down Spike’s spine as he faced the wall in front of him. He was used to this feeling on Nightmare Night, when Rainbow Dash was on the prowl. It was the feeling that somepony was watching him. Just stay calm, Spike. You’re a big dragon, Twilight’s Right Hoof! If she can lead a nation, you can just, just turn around and deal with whatever it is. Okay? Okay. One...Two....Three! Spike spun around as fast as he could, only to see nothing there. “Oh thank Celestia! O-okay, I better find Novo in case she’s in trouble.” Spike started to head out of the alleyway but paused after a few steps. That feeling was back again, and stronger than ever. Slowly, he took one step forward. Step,step. He took another. Step,step. There was no doubt in Spike’s mind;something was behind him. Slowly he turned his head. Nothing. He turned his head to look over his other shoulder. Still nothing. As fast as he could, Spike turned completely around. Nothing was there, but he could swear he heard somepony moving behind him again. Thinking quickly, Spike bent down and peered between his own legs only to still find nothing. At least, for the few seconds it took something to land on his back. “And you didn’t see who it was, hun?” Novo asked skeptically. “I’m telling you, she was following behind, mocking me! She just giggled and ran off after I fell over!” “Uh-huh.” Spike grumbled as they made their way into Bury, the second town on their list. He shuddered as they passed two fillies running along the dock. Their laughter brought Spike back to the oddly familiar giggle the pony he had been pursuing did before fleeing. I swear I’ve heard that laugh before. But who was it? Definitely a mare, but she was gone before I could see. “Ah’m not saying I don’t believe you, hun, but we searched the island over an didn’t find hide nor hair of anypony who didn’t live there.” “W-well, she must be good at hiding.” “I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt, who knows what might have happened if there were more of them.” The conversation trailed off as they entered Bury. Thankfully, the town was in good shape this time, though something had clearly happened not too long ago. There were still some notable pie stains on the sides of several houses. Spike took notice of a few piles of rubble that likely had been houses at one point. The two were met by the town’s leader Gulf Stream, a middle-aged Pegasus stallion with baby blue fur and a yellow mane with a cloud and a hook for a cutie mark. “It’s terrible,” Gulf explained after introductions, “Cad is exactly what they claim to be, a bunch o’ low-down cads! It’s good to see sum’ interest from Equestria an’ the Hippogriffs, but don’t you worry none, we’ll be taking care of this ourselves.” “It kind of looks like you already did.” Spike explained. “Somepony attacked Cad just a few days ago.” Gulf raised an eye at that. “Hmph, well, serves em right for what they did here. Woke up in the middle of the night a month ago to them jerks flinging pies into the town. They trashed the place, put their claim to the island down, and left before we knew what was happening.” A cold breeze blew in, causing Spike to shiver a little as Gulf stared at him and Novo hard. “Whoever hit em didn’t do enough, as far as me and the town of Bury is concerned. You want to look around and see what you can see? That’s fine, we won’t stop ya, but we’ll be headed to Cad in the next few weeks to show em that Bury ain’t no chickens! Nor do we need to break taboo and steal eggs from the sacred island to fight.” “S-sacred island?” Spike asked, teeth chattering as the mid-afternoon began to fade and the temperature dropped on the island. “Yeah, I mean, it’s not ‘forbidden’, or anything silly like that. But you are only ‘supposed’ to go there late in the Spring as part of a pilgrimage, or to prepare for a ‘sacred’ war, though one of those aint happened since I can remember. Well...till now, I suppose?” “We’re not all that sure Cad actually attacked you.” Novo explained. “I mean sure there are a bunch of flags of theirs laying around here, but why wouldn’t you suppose the Storm King or some creature else isn’t egging you on?” Novo questioned. “Hmmm, well, now, there is a thought. But, the Storm King was always more about sending in ships and his goons to fight us directly, not that he particularly bothered much with us. Nuttin here he wanted, I guess. But he weren’t big on being sneaky.” Gulf Stream shrugged. “As fer anypony else? Wouldn’t make no sense. They know how ta attack, how ta lay claim, they went and got some of tha sacred eggs to be throwing at our town. So they knew about how ya declare a holy war of sorts. And besides that, all the islands know Cad’s been jealous of our place on the Island council since forever. Just makes sense they’d try to take us down a peg.” “Could you please just wait until our investigation is over then? Let us make sure it’s not some outside group trying to make your islands go to war?” Spike pleaded as Gulf shook his head. “I can give you a few weeks, we are still cleaning up and need ta prepare for the Fall, but we ain’t taking this lying down. Once we are ready, we’re taking the fight to them. Now, if there isn’t anything else, good luck, and enjoy your time on our island.” With a slight bow to both of them, Gulf walked passed them and down one of the roads. “Well, ain’t nothing but trouble brewing on these islands.” Novo commented. Spike rubbed his arms together to get some heat before sighing. “Apparently. Let’s see what the rest of the islanders have to say, but whoever is behind this is really riling everypony up.” The real question though is why?