Dadonequus Discord (Book 2)

by CrazedLaughter


Chapter 156 - The Investigation

The morning came, and you wasted no time preparing your own investigation in the Everfree Forest. You hoped you were wrong, you hoped it was nothing. But you couldn’t leave anything to chance and… Oh, goddammit! You didn’t even ask Chrysalis where the spot with the porcelain even was!

Ok, ok, first things first. You drop by at Chrysalis’s basement, teleporting the car with you. You’d simply ask her where she saw the porcelain and be on your way. But of course, nothing was simple with ‘Chrysalis’. She wouldn’t divulge the information until you had a ride with her, stating she wanted to make sure her speedster was exactly how she remembered it. It was, and you were still sure you’d be losing your life due to the crazy antics of her driving, from loop de loops to driving along the walls. Fucking crazy, but it put her in a surprisingly good mood. She showed you on your map that the porcelain wasn’t too far from her home, and surprisingly enough, left you to your own devices without asking for anything more. Seems she was busy with some of her ‘evil’ planning and didn’t want to be disturbed further. Although, you could have sworn she muttered a ‘Be careful’ before you left. But upon asking, she told you she said ‘paranoid loser’. Huh…

 In any case, you went back to Ponyville to recruit the only pony who could help you. The only one with the investigative skills you needed to make sure you didn’t miss anything. A mare who had not only the experience needed, but was also a mare you could trust not to spill the beans. A mare, ironically enough, that was typically a two for one deal. But for this mission, it had to be just you and her. The forest was too dangerous for more carefree ponies.

“I still can’t believe this. Anon, out of everything you have ever done, how could you have let this happen?! I’m telling you, I have to report this to Princess Celestia once we finish this investigation.” Bonbon said to you as she scanned the area around her. You all were deep in the forest, and she had to keep her wits about her in case anything tried to attack.

“Bonbon, c’mon, please don’t. Please? We need to keep this a secret, ok? I can handle the Storm Ravager if he shows up, alright? If Celestia finds out about this, she won’t trust me to handle Chrysalis.” Dammit, it was a mistake, it was a mistake to ask Bonbon! You thought she’d be cool about it and keep things a secret. If the Storm Ravager was about, you just needed to know where he was so you could take care of him. Problem solved.

“Can you? You said you had unlimited magic when you fought him, and if your guess is correct, and he’s here in the forest, then it means you didn’t really stop him at all. It’s basic protocol, Anon. If the situation gets out of hand, you get the princesses. And you wouldn’t have gotten me if it wasn’t serious. I’m sorry, but I have to do what I have to do.” Bonbon said, her tone serious as she marched through the bushes, and took care not to get close to anything that might be something else.

“Actually, Bonbon, wouldn’t we be condemning some of Anon’s friends if we let the princesses know?” Said a voice from behind.

Both you and Bonbon turn around, and then gasp to see Lyra behind the both you, smiling and then waving to the both of you as happily as can be.

“L-Lyra?! What are you doing here?! Don’t you realize how dangerous the forest is?! And, wait… How did you follow us without me even noticing?” Bonbon asked, utterly blown away as to how she didn’t notice Lyra’s presence.

Lyra giggled and shrugged. “Well, y’know, you and Anon were so deep into your conversations that I guess you guys didn’t notice me following. Storm Ravager, huh? That does sound pretty bad, but, it might be bad to mention it to the princesses too.”

Welp, that confirms it, there really is no way these two can be separated. It’s like magic, how did you not notice her?! And even then, she actually agrees with you? But wait, what did she mean by ‘condemning your friends’? “Y-yeah, it is pretty bad. But Lyra, what do you mean? The whole condemning thing.” You were still a little shocked by her sudden appearance.

“Yeah, you mentioned that mean guy, Neighsay, right?” Lyra was talking about a visit you had with her and Bonbon a few days prior to even knowing this whole “Porcelain” bullshit. “He hates your new friends, and yet he trusts you a lot. So it got me thinking, if he suddenly found out Chrysalis was your friend, then he might do something to Twilight’s school since he would figure your reports would be all pegasi feathers.”

FUCK! SHE’S RIGHT! “Bonbon, s-she’s right! Neighsay has it out for everypony that isn’t a pony. If he finds out about this, he’ll ruin Twilight’s school, he’ll ruin my friends! They’re really good guys, Bonbon... “ You look up at her with a pout, an adorable pout that already grabs at Lyra’s heartstrings.

“Awwww…” Lyra picks you up with her magic and holds you towards Bonbon as she makes her own pout at her. “Bonbon, please? I mean, unless it’s super super dangerous, we don’t need to tell anypony, right? You and Anon can take down that guy if he shows his ugly face. So c’mon, let’s not make anycreature sad, ok?”

Bonbon’s eye twitched as she looked towards the two of you. She had to tell Celestia… She had to… But if she did…

Bonbon began to tense, her mind going ten million miles a second. But looking at Lyra, more than you even, she finally seemed to back down, and let out a sigh. “You both are killing me, you know that? Fine…” Bonbon rolls her eyes. “But if things do get bad, I’m at least letting Princess Twilight know. That way she can decide how to do things without jeopardizing her students or POSSIBLY your friendship with Chrysalis.” Bonbon then noticed you and Lyra about to cheer, and raised her hoof quickly. “And no celebrating, we’re in dangerous territory and we’re already in the thick of things. With that said, Anon, how far are we from the destination?”

“Oh, yeah, right, er...” You pulled out your map, and took a look. “Not far actually, should be right past those trees.”

“Ok, good. Lyra, stay closHyah!?” Lyra immediately snuggled up to Bonbon’s side, startling her.

“Aye aye, captain!” Lyra said with an adorable cheer.

Bonbon sighed, smirking just a little as she continued forward. “Didn’t have to be that close, but fine, it’s alright, just remember this is a serious mission, ok?”

“I know.” Lyra said with a giggle. “Trust me, I’ll be keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.”

Bonbon couldn’t help but smile at Lyra’s adorably endearing nature. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Bonbon said as she continued forward, Lyra beside her and you behind. Indeed, it didn’t take long to find a small forest clearing deep within the woods. Despite the area being open, it was also dense with trees, bushes, and weird and spooky looking plants. Bonbon didn’t seem worried by it. In fact, she already spots something unusual. She spots large indents in the ground, as if something was shoved straight through it. “And what do we have here? These holes…”

“What about them, Bonbon?” Lyra asked, curious as she looked upon her friend getting closer to one of the jagged shaped holes in the ground.

“Large, somewhat deep, some rectangular in nature. You’d think somepony dug in these spots, or maybe something else. But in truth, the soil around these holes…” Bonbon took an even closer look, and slid around the surrounding dirt with her hoof. “It doesn’t match with the rest of the forest ground. And these rocks… Anon was right about what Maud said, they clearly don’t belong in the area either.” Bonbon said as she found a good sized rock. She shoved it back and forth, taking a close look at it. “No moss, no foliage from the forest, nothing. These rocks are recent to the area. Anon, you said you fought the Storm King and threw a huge kitchen sink at him. How big was it exactly?”

“Massive, like, super huge. Chrysalis also said she was shooting the ‘pieces of porcelain’ and blasting them to dust, which is why they aren't here. I was thinking, maybe, that something happened to cause the Storm King, or, as he calls himself now, Storm Ravager, to appear here. Because from what it looks like, the pieces of the kitchen sink totally did.” You step up to one of the holes closely, and lean in on one that was wide enough to actually fit your body twice over. “I don’t even see the dust though, I guess Chrysalis was thorough.”

“Hmmm, no, or else there’d still be some residue. It’s weird, it’s almost as if it disappeared. Maybe, if it did appear here, that it then went somewhere else. It’s created by chaos magic, right? It seems plausible to me…” Bonbon takes a closer look at the ground, and begins to look around the half dozen holes along the ground. "Because there is no porcelain dust, or any indication the Storm Whatever was ever here.”

Is that possible? Did he and the sink appear here? Then end up somewhere else? “Then, well, there’s nothing to worry about, right? Because if he showed up anywhere else, we’d have heard about it by now, right?” Like, no way that guy would be able to resist tearing up wherever he appeared at. And since Equestria didn’t seem to be in danger from anything, then it wasn’t your problem.

“Maybe…” Bonbon said as she took off her saddle bag and opened it up as she looked through the contents of it. She then took out a small foldable table, and some vials with odd colored liquids in them. “I want to test the soil, see how much magic residue might be on it. You might be right, and if that’s the case, I want to see how magically affected this area is and see if it could be of any danger to Ponyville.”

“Wow, Bonbon, I didn’t know you were into science stuff. That’s something you never told me.” Lyra said as she just stared on, impressed by it all.

“I’m not, really. This is just a basic test everypony in the field knows how to do. Helps us track and assess threats from magical creatures. I’m just using it to see if the soil here has any odd magical readings. If its teleporting things around, then it’ll nee-” But Bonbon stops herself as she mixed a concoction and carefully dropped a pebble into the vial. “Hrn? What in the…?” Was she reacting to something? Nothing seemed to happen. But her tone...

Oh god, that sounds bad. “W-what is it, Bonbon?”

“What isn’t it is more like it.” Bonbon gently shakes the vial, then scoops up a little soil, dumping into the vial to test it more directly.  “No reaction.” Bonbon notes as she stares at the unmoving liquid. “There’s zero magic in the soil. Nothing in the rocks either. I’d say this is normal, but even a leaf from a bush this deep into the forest would have caused something. The Everfree Forest is very magical in and of itself, so I just don’t get it. it’s as if something sucked the magic from the area dry. Or, not the area, just everything that came from the chaos realm. Anon, you said the Storm Ravager was even more powerful than he was when you fought him back in Canterlot. Could he absorb chaos magic?”

“No, actually. He couldn’t really use it either, at least not in a chaotic sense.” Oh god, did he suddenly gain the ability to absorb magic? He could only really block it, albeit easily, back then during your first encounter with him way back when he was ‘The Storm King’. “Y-you don’t think it's part of a new power he has, do you?” Shit! Bonbon was going to tell the princesses for sure now!

“I don’t know, and I can’t even begin to guess without a sample from him. A hair, a piece of his armor, skin, a bone, something” Bonbon stepped away from her little chemical set and began to look around the area. “It’s a small chance, given the forest is always shifting, but if this is where he ended up, then there has to be a sample lying around. Everypony, just take a look around and don’t touch anything. Don’t stray too far either, we need to stick together in case he or any other creature shows up.” Even as Bonbon said that, she kept her ears straight up and her eyes constantly moving. So far, you all had gotten lucky with no encounters, but with the Storm Ravager skulking about… Well.

In any case, Bonbon began to investigate the holes again, while you just put your face to the ground and slowly walked around in a circle. You had to find something, anything! You had a charge you could use, but if you were attacked after using it, you’d be shit out of luck.

As for Lyra, she simply did a cute little salute to Bonbon and began her own little search, humming to herself lowly while checking trees and bushes, using her horn to produce a light to make it easier to spot anything. Though, for her, she does find something in quite a short amount of time… Or she smells something anyway. “Hey, guys, I think I found something smelly in these bushes over here.”

“Smelly? Lyra! I said to be careful! Lots of creatures have funky smells, but that doesn’t mean they're not dangerous! Back off from there, immediately!” Bonbon said as she jumped to Lyra’s side, ready to defend her at all cost.

“Bonbon, c’mon, I’m not gonna get hurt.” Lyra said with a giggle as she reached her head into the bushes, looked about for a moment, and found the source of the smell. When she brings her head back in, she has an old basket of rotten apple cores in her mouth. “See? It’s just apples.” she says in a mumbling tone before putting the basket down and waving her hoof towards her nose. “Really smelly apples, who would leave these out here?”

Wut? “A basket of eaten apples? What was somepony doing way out here? Geez, I didn’t know ponies picnic this far into the forest. I thought this place was dangerous?” Like, seriously, what is a basket doing out here?

“I… Don’t know. It is, and… Nopony would come out this far for a picnic. What in the wide world of Equestria? No, there’s no way anypony would.” Bonbon said, astonished as she looked upon the basket, too weirded out to be bothered by the smell as she looked upon the basket and apple cores. “But somepony did. These apples were eaten by somepony, and there’s no real damage to the basket aside from some tears. This had to be recent, given how much these cores have rotted through. I’d say about two weeks ago, maybe a bit more. It’s possible a pegasus pony may have stopped here to eat, maybe left the basket in a hurry.”

“That makes sense, I guess. Nopony would just travel through the forest and put themselves in danger for some apples. Had to be a pegasus pony.” You nod to yourself, agreeing with Bonbon.

“I’m not so sure…” Said Lyra.

“Why do you think that, Lyra?” Bonbon asked as she continued to investigate the basket.

“Because what about these two baskets then?” Lyra said, as she placed down a basket next to another.

WUT?! “What?! Why are there two more baskets?!” And even worse, the two also had apple cores in them, of varying rot. There’s no way a pegasus pony would come down on the same spot three times to eat apples here. But then, why were they here at all?!

“Beats me. Maybe pegasi really like this spot? If they do though, they’re probably crazy.” Lyra commented as she looked around. Indeed, this being a darker and spookier part of the woods, with twisted trees and weird looking plants, you’d have to be nuts to eat casually here. "Like, they'd have to be crazy right? It looks like even the trees would eat you here."

“They’d have to be. But even then, why not take the baskets with them? Who just leaves baskets lying around?” You say as you begin to take a closer look at one of them. Even from where you were looking at, it was clear that these two baskets, despite the small damage they incurred, were more recent, with the one you were looking at having apples that have rotted away for what… three days maybe? “The hell? Bonbon, look at these apple cores, they look a lot more recent. There’s no way, right? There’s no way somepony would just come here multiple times just to eat some apples, right?”

“Not likely. And if they have, then what reason do they have to leave the baskets behind? They could just reuse them instead of wasting them. It’s as if… They were leaving them behind for somepony else… Hmmm.” Bonbon began to take a closer look at the baskets, now fully intrigued by their very existence and purpose. 

You yourself began to ponder on the existence of the baskets. Why were they here? This is where the Storm Ravager had to be, and yet, so conveniently, you ended up finding baskets instead. “What if there was some delivery of apples, and the Storm Ravager attacked the delivery pony?”

“No, as you noted, this basket’s apples have much less rot than the others. There were probably more baskets at one point… Maybe.” Bonbon said as she narrowed her eyes, catching something odd. “Lyra, can you shine some of your magic on this spot?” Bonbon asked as she pointed at a gnarled end of the basket.

“Sure thing!” Lyra said as her horn began to glow yellow, shining its light close to where Bonbon pointed. “What is it, Bonbon, did you find something?”

“I did… Anon, you mentioned your horn can perform basic telekinesis and barrier magic, right? Look here.” Bonbon pointed her hoof to the spot. And to your surprise, you see some long white hairs caught in between the broken weave of the basket’s end. “I need you to carefully pluck these out. Lyra, keep them well lit so Anon can get them.”

W-white hairs?! Oh no… OH NO! The Storm Ravager had white hair. D-did he kill a pony for apples? No, no, he couldn’t have. As was already noted, these baskets and apples are days apart in quality from each other. So... Dammit, what could it mean?!

You put on your horn and carefully pluck the hairs out. “These hairs… They’re the Storm Ravager’s. I can tell…” You said as you looked at the hairs more closely. It made sense they’d be in this location, but... “But it just doesn’t make sense. What is with the baskets? Why did he have them?”

“It really is almost as if somepony was bringing him food to eat, right? You don’t think it was Chrysalis, do you, Anon? She did guess something happened, so, maybe she already knew? Maybe this is part of her plan to get Princess Twilight. I-I don’t mean that as a bad thing, e-even though it’s a bad thing. I mean.” Lyra sighed, it made her feel sad at the possibility that you were led away from the town so Chrysalis could make her move. “Er… Mnnnn.”

“No, no, it’s not that. I mean, Chrysalis might try to do that, but not with the help of the Storm King or anycreature she’d have to share Equestria with. And given it’s the Storm King, I figure even she knows she can’t trust him. But then… Still, these baskets. And… Wait.” Why did he have to survive on apples? Ok, maybe he had to recover from the fact a giant sink landed on him. But for weeks? With that body and form, it should have taken a few days at most. “Bonbon, these baskets are definitely from weeks apart, right?”

“That’s what we deduced. Why?” Bonbon asked. “Did you figure out what they mean, Anon?”

“No, I didn’t. But I know with all that chaotic power, there’s no way his body would take that long to heal. If he has been sitting around eating apples, then there has to be a reason why. And that reason?... I mean, I don’t know, but we have to figure out why!” Why? Why is he taking his time? Where did he get the apples? Was he biding his time?

“Well, place the hairs on my table. I want to see how much magic we might be dealing with here. If he’s around, and he’s at full power, then this is something we have to report to Princess Twilight.” Bonbon told you as she pointed to her table.

Ngh… “But, c’m-” But she interrupts you right there.

“We already agreed, Anon. We’ll let Princess Twilight decide what happens next.” Bonbon said, sterner than before.

“But Bonbon, what if he’s like, super weak and stuff? Then we can just pummel him ourselves, right? That way, the day is saved and nothing gets messed up!” Lyra suggests, optimistically so. "Because, y'know, Twilight might still mess up the whole Chrysalis thing."

"Sorry, Lyra." Bonbon shook her head “If what Anon said is any indication, that isn’t very likely. We don’t even know where he is right now, anyway. But, while I perform my tests, I need you both to keep a look out. Anon, if anything happens, use your magic to get us out of here, ok?

“Y-yeah, but Bonb-” But she cuts you off again, in a way that even makes Lyra’s ears fold as she feels bad for you.

“No buts. We’ll figure out how we’ll proceed after these tests. Now let me do my work.” Bonbon said as she took the white hairs, and began her testing.