If Scootaloo were to look out any of her home’s windows, she might have felt uneasy. The pegasai weather team was cooking up something truly nasty; a storm with only the most potent ingredients. A combination of an endless stream of enormous water droplets and near typhoon-level winds created what must have felt like less of a sprinkling shower and more like a hose blast, to put it mildly. And of course, there was the thunderous lightning. Forming like cracks across a glass sky, they both lit up and shook the entire town at once.
But the only window that Scootaloo was looking through was the one giving her a view to the interior of the oven. Inside she could see it baking something with only the sweetest ingredients: Auntie Lofty’s world-class cookies. She squinted her eyes, anxious just to get a clearer view of the goodies. Her excitement would have been apparent to anypony who found themselves on the receiving end of her restless swishing tail.
Lofty was unfortunate enough to currently be at the mercy of that psycho furry whip. Even though her hind leg was being assaulted, Lofty didn’t so much as glance to the filly next to her. Instead she stuck to finishing up the dishes in the sink in front of her, letting the filly’s tail swat away at her.
It wasn’t until she got to the last dish that she finally said to Scootaloo while still not looking at her, “You know you’re a bit old to be sitting in front of the oven waiting for the cookies to finish, right?”
“Says who?”
“You could have just played a board game with Holiday or something to pass the time.”
“Trust me, Auntie. Your cookies are worth the wait!”
Almost immediately after she said that, Scootaloo heard a sound that caused one ear stand straight up and the other to spasm involuntarily. The best way she could describe it was a distant, low-pitched hiss that was very different from the wails and moans that the wind was producing. Much like those winds however, the sound clearly came from outside. She trotted away from the oven went up to peer out the window.
Her eyes scanned the back yard in search for… well Scootaloo wasn’t really watch she was supposed to look for. All she knew was that whatever that was, it didn’t sound like any creature she’s heard before and that’s a lot more creatures than the average filly her age normally encounters. Just when she was about to give up, her eyes finally locked onto something off in the distance. In the trees towering from the other side of the fence was the eerie, mesmerizing glow of two bright red orbs.
Scootaloo was having trouble believing her eyes, but that didn’t change the fact that after several blinks those circles hadn’t vanished from her sight. It wasn’t flashes of lightning illuminated for a split second that she could vaguely make out some sort of shape surrounding those circles, a silhouette more accurately; it was then that she put together that she was actually locking eyes with a being unknown to her. Scootaloo tried discern more details about the beast’s appearance, but not only was it too dark out, her gaze also kept being drawn back to those two hypnotic crimson eyes. She wasn’t sure why she still hadn’t screamed or even said anything. She was… paralyzed? Well, not by fear. Not the specific kind of fear that comes from being hunted.
For this thing to be able to instill that sort of fear, she would need to detect malice from it. Even though the vibes it gave off were far from good, the way it stared at her didn’t make her feel like it was out to get her. Rather, it was the type of gaze one would expect from an outside observer that was personally disconnected to whatever it was witnessing. It somehow didn’t even feel like it was like was looking at her so much as through her. At least, that’s how she could best describe the glare it was giving.
*Ding
Scootaloo’s train of thought was interrupted by the cooking timer going off. She turned around to see her Aunt, potholder in mouth, opening the oven and lifting out the tray of cookies. She gently slammed them on top of the stove.
“Alright, we’re going to let these cool off for a-“
*CRACK-BOOM
The entire house shook briefly, while the lights flickered for several seconds until finally going out. Both Lofty and Scootaloo began to rub their own eyes after the eye strain of going from a room that was brightly lit to total darkness. Lofty quickly gathered herself and went off to search for the lantern. Hopefully she can remember where she kept the darn thing.
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back!”, she told Scootaloo.
Scootaloo watched her Aunt slowly walk out of the room with one hoof out to feel her way around the house. Once she was gone, Scootaloo dared to turn her head back around. Out the window she saw her backyard, her fence and the trees sprouting out from behind it.
“Where did it go?”
*CRASH
The house once again shook, this time hard enough to lift Scootaloo off her hooves. As she raised her head back up, the filly once again detected the sounds of drizzling rain and the howling winds, but somehow it didn’t seem to be coming from outside anymore. Whatever had just shaken the house was definitely not a lightning strike this time. She pulled herself from the ground and hurriedly yet carefully began trotting her way out of the kitchen and into the dark maze that the rest of her house had become. As she made it past the dining room she began to feel a sort of draft running through the house that certainly wasn’t there earlier. But that wasn’t thing she felt. The violent crash had knocked seemingly every household appliance, utensil and knick knack onto the floor and she kept bumping her hooves against as many of them as possible.
“WaaAAA-“
Scootaloo cried out in surprise as one of the misplaced objects on the ground made her slip. Just before she could fall face first onto the floor, she caught herself on something on another body. She looked up to see her Aunt Lofty, with the lower half of her face illuminated by the little lantern in her mouth. Despite how the rest of her face above the muzzle was still shrouded, the look of panic in Lofty’s eyes could still be seen.
“Hab u sheen Hullindey?”, she asked the best she could with the lantern still clamped between her teeth.
Scootaloo didn’t answer but began looking around the room for any sign of her other aunt. Without hesitation, Lofty turned and galloped to and up the stairs. Scootaloo followed the glow of her Aunt’s lantern up the steps. She couldn’t help but notice that the further she got up the steps, the more intense the breeze invading her house became. Even though she had already realized what that meant, she still wasn’t looking forward to seeing it confirmed. When they reached the door to the bedroom Lofty took the lantern out of her mouth to call out for her wife as she entered in.
“Holiday, do you know what ju-RYAAAAAH!!!”
The mare shrieked at the sight before her. The first thing to notice were the branches of leaves and shrubbery that took most of the room. All of it led to a tree trunk that had invaded the room via a gargantuan hole in the wall and ceiling. No doubt this was the earth shaking crash from a minute ago, with the tree tipping over and colliding with the house. However, that was nothing in comparison to what really made Lofty scream. Lying on the bed, crushed under the weight of the collapsed tree was none other than Aunt Holiday.
Scootaloo was now uncontrollably hyperventilating. Everything seemed to fade away around her. The room, the hole, the storm outside and even Lofty vanished into an all consuming void of blackness. Nothing existed except her and Holiday, who was staring straight into her eyes. Her poor aunt looked like she was trying to say something though her blood trickled mouth, crying out for help probably. But all that came out were incomprehensible vocalizations that could almost be called gasps, except no air was actually coming in.
As the desperation in Holiday’s eyes gradually gave way to emptiness, an ear splitting monstrous shriek in the distance grew and grew until it consumed all of Scootaloo’s senses.
“Wake up, Scoots. Wake up!”
Sweetie Belle did her best to jostle Scootaloo out of the stirring “restless” rest that she was in.
Scootaloo finally jolted from her sleep, waking up with a sharp gasp. She immediately rose up from her sleeping bag, her eyes flicking all over the place to scan her surroundings. Her eyes finally landed on her friend sitting next to her. Sweetie Belle may not have had insight into what exactly Scootaloo’s dream was. But it must been quite something if her friend’s mixed expression of panic and bewilderment was anything to go by.
“Um… are you alright?”, Sweetie Belle asked.
“…yeah. I’m good.”
“Okay. Well, Rarity’s got breakfast for us downstairs. Come on.”
~
“So, that’s the plan we’ve drafted for Wind Sprint. Y’all wanna make any final changes?”, Apple Bloom asked.
“Nah. Sounds fine to me.”
“Okay, Sweetie. What do ya think, Scootaloo?”
The pegasus filly in question did not respond. Instead, she continued to stay at the window where she stared out at the raging storm.
“Scoots!”
Scootaloo finally snapped out of her trance, then turned her attention back to her fellow Crusaders and said, “Uh… sure. No objections from me.”
The other two fillies couldn’t help but project looks of concern as they looked upon their friend. All too aware of the incident that destroyed Scootaloo’s house and left her two aunts unscathed, but temporarily homeless. Until that massive hole was fixed, Lofty and Holiday were stuck staying in a rickety shack with questionable structural integrity. The worst possible situation to be in during this stormy season. It’s been clear to them since last night that Scootaloo’s had that on her mind nonstop. However, they also knew that there wasn’t much they could do about it until the weather was clear enough for them to go out. Unfortunately, it looked it still wasn’t going to let up anytime soon; not before it would get too dark out for them to leave.
“Well, glad to hear it.”, Sweetie Belle said. “Now that our crusader business is done, does anypony feel like watching more of those Bedtime Stories?”
“Sure.”
“Sure.”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo echoed one another. The former wanted to kill some time and the latter really could use a distraction right now. With her magic, Sweetie Belle flicked on the crystal ball to reveal the list of stories on a holographic screen. Using the pen she began to slowly scroll up past the story they watched last night. She barely even got two stories up before Apple Bloom stopped her.
“Hol’ up!”, she exclaimed before pointing her hoof at the title and reading it aloud. “Who Are The Men In Black?Didn’t the Mothman story mention those guys at some point?”
“Yeah, I think it did. Now that you mention them, I’m kinda curious to know what business they had in Point Pleasant. What’s their deal?”, Scootaloo added with one eyebrow quirked up.
“Well, looks like we’ve got our next story!”
With that, Sweetie Belle clicked the story of choice and took a seat between the other two fillies in front of the screen. They were immediately greeted by the image of a human in a black fedora standing up close and staring directly at the viewer. Several feet behind him was the silhouette of a similarly dressed human standing next to one of those “car” thingys.
“Why did they choose to not draw the eyes?”, Scootaloo puzzled at the empty black holes where the human’s eyes should have been.
The narrator, in his usual rhetorical fashion, opened this story by pondering the nature of these Men in Black. Were they government agents of suppression or extraterrestrial visitors in disguise? Could recent “CCTV footage” finally prove their existence? He then declared that “we” would attempt to pull back the veil on these highly mysterious individuals.
As the intro played, Apple Bloom the opportunity to ask, “What does he mean by ‘government agents of suppression’?”
Sweetie tapped her chin in thought before replying, “Maybe he’s saying that these guys might be working for a tyrant?”
“You mean that West Virginia or North America or… whatever this place is has a ruler as bad as King Sombra?”, Scootaloo asked.
“*shiver… please don’t remind me of him!”, Apple Bloom chided, not wanting to reminisce about the time she lost control of her own mind to that monster.
“Basically, yeah. That is what means to suppress, after all. Abusing and controlling other people, stuff like that. Or… was that actually the definition of oppress?”, Sweetie struggled to recall.
When the intro had finally begun to fade out, the growing absence of the song was being filled by an initially quiet, but increasingly louder sound of a ticking clock; it was also accompanied by the occasional electronic percussion. This soundtrack had the effect of adding suspense and increased the girl’s anticipation for what was ahead. The narrator started explaining how the “Condon Committee” was surveying the public’s attitude towards UFOs. In 1968, they asked a cross-section of the American public whether they believed that there was a government agency maintaining a top secret file on UFO reports that are deliberately withheld from the public. Almost two thirds of all people surveyed agreed with that assertion; agreement with the statement was apparently almost 75% amongst teenagers.
“But why would the government lie about that?”, Apple Bloom asked. “What would be the point of keepin’ UFOs secret?”
“I mean, everypony has secrets. So, why wouldn’t the government have secrets too?”
Sweetie Belle earned herself several seconds of silence and deadpan glares with that comment.
“I was just kidding.”, she clarified with an eye roll.
It’s believed that if that survey was handed out today, the percentage of those in agreement would be even higher. According to the narrator, this shouldn’t be a surprise with how their world was undergoing an age of information (or misinformation depending on how one sees it) with the advent of the internet. It’s now become commonplace to question or make accusations against those in power. But over half a century before, this distrust towards government was nowhere near as prevalent as it has become today.
The screen then cut to something that the three fillies found to be near jaw dropping. Two human figures stood silhouetted in front of a truly gargantuan disk-like object sticking straight up from the earth. The object would be a complete circle if it weren’t for the large of it missing on top. Apparently, this image was meant to represent an event that according to the narrator made the idea of government conspiracies and coverups mainstream. An event simply known as “The Roswell Incident”.
“That looks just like those flying saucers you see in UFO magazines!”, Scootaloo said in a breathy tone.
“Wait. If these humans are seeing spaceships that look exactly like the ones ponies here in Equestria report seeing, does that mean this proves that aliens are real?”, Sweetie Belle wondered with wide open eyes conveying her moment of clarity.
“Ah guess, but are we not lookin’ at somethin’ made by aliens right NOW?”
“Aliens that are talking about possibly being visited by OTHER aliens, no less!”, Sweetie added enthusiastically onto Apple Bloom’s question.
During the 1950s, UFO witnesses and investigators apparently started getting harassed, threatened and ordered into silence by mysterious individuals known as the Men in Black. These strange men were always described as wearing all black suits and hats as well as driving around in black cars. At the time, it was believed that they worked for a secret government organization, tasked with suppressing any mention of UFOs or extra-terrestrials from the public domain.
All three girls, especially Apple Bloom, were pretty perplexed by this notion. Equestria’s government has maintained a pretty open attitude in regards to UFOs for many years now. There are several government-funded research projects dedicated to the study of UFO reports and there are even more that are receiving funding under Princess Twilight’s new reign as ruler of Equestria. All of this is widely available to the public’s scrutinizing eye. They also couldn’t imagine a government acting so sinister and secretive. They’ve only ever known their own rulers as a benevolent force in their lives in the form of their Princesses; Celestia, Cadence, Luna, and now Twilight. Unless this really was a ruthless tyranny the humans were living under, which didn’t seem that way, this behavior was incredibly strange to them.
However, this initial assumption that these individuals are government agents has evolved over the years. It is now posited by many that they are actually extra-terrestrial in nature. In 1997, one “film”(?) by the same name made light of the Men in Black conspiracy with disarming comic effect. But for those who had supposedly been visited by these entities, it was no laughing matter.
“Ah take it none of us know what a ‘film’ is?”, Apple Bloom asked the room.
“I mean, there’s camera films. Maybe it has something to do with that?”, Scootaloo said with a shrug of her shoulders.
In 1952, a former “US Air Force” serviceman turned author and amateur ufologist named Albert K. Bender set up an organization called the International Flying Saucers Bureau to investigate and report on any strange UFO activity being witnessed all over the world at that time.
“US Air Force? Is that like the military sky division? I don’t see any wings on him though.”, Scootaloo thought as she scrutinized the image of the bespectacled and bow tie clad human in front of her.
The organization was initially a success, publishing a weekly newsletter to its small but dedicated audience of around 2000 readers worldwide. All of sudden, Bender then mysteriously shut down his operation, ceasing all publication in 1953. In the newsletter’s final issue, he left the following ominous message: “We advise those engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious.”
Colleagues reported that he exhibited odd behavior at the time, stating that he seemed agitated and nervous. It felt as if something or someone had scared him out of his wits. He did not eat or sleep properly for weeks after he closed the bureau and was said to have suffered terrible headaches at the time. When questioned about his sudden and inexplicable decision, Bender refused to elaborate; he maintained his silence for many years afterward. Sweetie Belle couldn’t help but feel unnerved listening to this.
“Jeez. What did they do to him!?”
Almost a decade later, Bender finally began explaining his actions. He claimed that three men dressed in black seemingly appeared out of nowhere. They paid him a visit where they had warned him not to continue his work on UFOs. A similar, chilling encounter was reported years later in 1976 by a physician named Dr. Herbert Hopkins. At his residence in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, Hopkins was home alone studying a UFO incident from months prior, until the “phone” suddenly rang. Through this device, Hopkins heard the voice of a man claiming to be a representative of the New Jersey UFO Organization (a claim which later turned out to be bogus).
“This ‘phone’ thingy sounds like it could put poor Spike out of a job. Ah mean, not only sendin’ messages in real time, but hearin’ the sender’s voice relayin’ their message to ya?”, Apple Bloom spoke with marvel at the incredible technological advancement these primates possessed.
“That might be good for him, actually. Spike gets pretty bad stomach aches if he has to send too many in a day.”, Sweetie countered.
The voice on the other end of the phone asked Hopkins if he was alone and whether he could talk to him about the UFO case he was investigating.
“Wait, how did he know Hopkins was studying a UFO case?”, Scootaloo said with one eyebrow raised.
When Hopkins agreed to let him come over, the man told him that he would “be there shortly”. The moment he hung up, Hopkins went up to his front door to turn on the porch light. As soon as he got to the front of his house, he noticed the man was somehow already there climbing up the front steps. A detail that unsurprisingly disturbed all three fillies to no end.
“This is soundin’ creepier by the second!”, Apple Bloom exclaimed.
Hopkins was obviously every bit as, if not more, unnerved by this at the time as the Crusaders were now. He didn’t fail to point out how impossible it was for the man to have reached the front door in the minuscule span of time it took Hopkins to make it from the phone to the light switch. Both the fillies and the witness were struck by the man’s bizarre appearance as they saw him enter through the door. Dressed in a dark suit that didn’t fit and a black derby hat, the man was not only very tall and thin but he also had skin that was both deathly pale and unbelievably smooth. No hair could be found on him. None on his head, no eyebrows, not even any eyelashes according to Hopkins.
All three girls gave a collective gag in response to that last part. There was something universally icky to them about not having eyelashes.
A major detail that the girls weren’t able to tell from the illustration was the fact that the stranger’s lips were bright ruby red. He supposedly spoke in a tone that was totally expressionless with no inflection or intonation and all of his words were evenly spaced. Throughout their conversation, the strange man in black had sat motionless, his mouth being the only thing that moved. On one of the few occasions that the man moved any other part of his body, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. This left a red smear across his cheeks.
“Okay. So, he was wearing red lipstick? What’s so important about that?”, Sweetie asked the orb, even though it couldn’t hear her.
Not only did Hopkins come to the same realization, he also finally noticed that the man did not even have a pair of lips; just perfectly straight slit for a mouth.
“That’s it! There is no way that this guy is flesh n’ bone! Ah’m callin’ it right now.”, Apple Bloom declared.
Scootaloo concurred with her and very simply punctuated Apple Bloom’s statement with one word.
“Definitely.”
Having become very frightened at this point, Hopkins complied immediately when the inhuman visitor asked him to remove the copper coin from his pocket.
“Wha-. Bu-… how did he-?”
Like Apple Bloom, Hopkins had no clue how the stranger knew about his coin. But for some reason, throughout their conversation he got the distinct feeling that this man was somehow reading his mind. With no alternative explanation of her own, Apple Bloom felt compelled to just accept the one that had just been given.
Once Hopkins held out the coin in the palm of his hand as instructed, all three fillies leaned in out of anticipation for wherever this was going. As Hopkins stared at the coin, he saw how it inexplicably transformed from copper to silver before his very eyes. While the Crusaders found this action to be bizarre, it was certainly not threatening, helpful even. That’s what they thought until the further described how the coin then became blurry like it was going out of focus, before finally disappearing altogether. While the strange man told the doctor that he would suffer the same fate as that coin unless he destroyed all evidence he collected on the UFO case, the girls simply sat in stunned silence with the occasional eye twitch. They may technically have seen things more bizarre than that in their lifetimes, but that didn’t undercut the threat and display of power this action exhibited.
“And here ah thought only Discord could do somethin’ as crazy as that.”
“For all we know, these guys might be old roommates of his or something.”
“If that were true, should that make me more afraid of them or more afraid of Discord?”, Sweetie asked, capping off her friends’ lines of inquiry.
As the visitor spoke those last words to him, Hopkins stated that the man’s speech got slower and more slurred. The strange man then told him that his energy was running low and that he needed to leave. The doctor showed him to the door and watched as he walked down the steps while holding on to the railing as if he were crippled. After the man hobbled around a corner out of sight, there was a bright flash and then what followed was absolute silence.
Sweetie Belle looked back and forth between her friends and simply asked, “So… alien robot?”
“No shit.”
“No shit.”
Her two friends swore in perfect unison. Meanwhile, Hopkins was so disturbed by this experience that when his family came back home later that evening, they found him sat in the living room staring out into space and every light in the house turned on. There have been many other reported encounters with Men in Black over the last 50 to 60 years. Since their existence extremely difficult to prove, belief in these supposed MIB encounters has often boiled down simply to the witnesses’ credibility. This is why these reports have often been met with high levels of cynicism or even outright derision from the wider community. However, in 2012 some interesting CCTV footage recorded from a camera in a hotel lobby near Niagara Falls four earlier surfaced on the “internet”.
“Wait! They have a place called Neighagra Falls too!?”, Sweetie Belle asked in disbelief, not noticing how the little white text spelled it differently.
Apple Bloom would have joined Sweetie Belle on that front if she weren’t hung up on something else that was mentioned.
“What’s the ‘internet’? Is it some kinda special Butterfly net?”, she asked with narrowed eyes and a cocked eyebrow.
Two weeks prior to the recording, after witnessing UFO activity over the Niagara River early in the morning, one hotel employee told his friends and colleagues about it. The hotel then later received a visit from two strange men dressed in black. The camera captured the two men entering the hotel lobby; they appeared to have walked in exactly the same manner, wore exactly the same clothes and even looked similar in facial structure and build. According to witnesses, these men looked like they were identical twins, the spitting image of one another. Both were said to be tall, thin, completely without hair and failed to give off any sign of emotion or facial expression; exactly like the description that Hopkins gave.
While the narrator rattled off all this information, the fillies’ attention was instead entirely on the “footage” on screen. Their eyes dazzled at the moving pictures of the two men walking through the hotel doors on loop
“I know we keep bringing this up, but dang these humans have the coolest stuff!”, Scootaloo said in slack-jawed awe.
“I know, right? What sort of magic does it take to make a photo move?”, Sweetie Belle added while turning to look at her friend.
The two men had identical, hypnotic icy-blue eyes that never once blinked. Under these men’s gaze, employees and staff felt exposed while talking to them. Like they were having their innermost thoughts read like an open book. The strange men in black kept asking to see the young man who witnessed the UFO activity two weeks earlier. Luckily for him, the man in question was not at work that day. Realizing that they couldn’t get ahold of him, the strange visitors asked the staff members about other UFO sightings and conspiracy theories.
“What’s a ‘conspiracy’, anyway?”, Apple Bloom asked.
“I’m pretty sure it’s when a bunch of ponies or creatures secretly plot together to do something bad.”, Sweetie Belle spoke up (who else?).
Giving off no signs of being either satisfied or dissatisfied with the staff’s answers, the two men logged the information and abruptly left to never be seen again. While reports such as these suggest that the Men in Black are extra-terrestrials, there are also tons other reports where witnesses reported no such odd appearances or behavior from the men who visited them. So, the narrator asked, what is to be believed? Are the Men in Black human, non-human… or both? Are they really humans and extra-terrestrials working together towards the same goal?
“Or, in other words, a conspiracy?”, Scootaloo thought.
The narrator then rhetorically asked if the MIB even exist at all. There is apparently very little evidence to prove their existence. Even the CCTV footage is highly questionable, since it happened to be released at the same time the third Men in Black “movie” was being heavily promoted online. This leads skeptics to believe that it was only part of a viral marketing campaign. But this doesn’t explain the 2008 time stamp or the numerous witness accounts which back it up.
“There’s actually that many humans out there who think THAT was faked, just to advertise some sort of big event?”
Scootaloo wasted no time answering Sweetie’s obviously rhetorical question with, “Like I said yesterday, think back to when we worked for our school’s paper.”
While Sweetie Belle deadpanned at her friend who wasn’t even looking, story continued explaining the skeptics’ position. One of the biggest points they raise is how this MIB phenomenon is solely reported in the land of North America and nowhere else in the world. Since then, it’s an ingrained facet of American culture. Not only that, but its peak notoriety was during a time when paranoia about UFO activity was at an all time high. Finally, they argue that this all began because of one man: Albert Bender. They believe every subsequent report was copied from his account with the intent to further inflate the legend.
However, not all of these claims are entirely true. Reports of MIB’s are not just limited to the United States, they’ve also been spotted in Europe and Australia among other parts of the world.
“Wait, ah thought they said North America was supposedly the only place they were seen?”, Apple Bloom questioned to no avail.
Whilst the modern depiction of Men in Black can mostly be traced back to Bender’s account, there’s some evidence to suggest that the phenomena actually goes back hundreds of years. There were many during the “Middle Ages” of strange men dressed in black robes and black hats. There were said to be odd in both appearance and behavior and supposedly possessed “inhuman” capabilities. With how eerily similar every description of these strange men were, many were lead to believe that they were actually all manifestations of one man: the devil.
Apple Bloom turned to Sweetie Belle to ask her, “What’s a devil, Sweetie?”.
Sweetie Belle looked back at Apple Bloom with incredibly incredulous expression on her face.
“I don’t know! Why would you assume I’d have the answer, anyway?”
The connection to this so-called devil has made some speculate that these Men in Black are spiritual, paranormal or even “demonic”. Further links have been made to “shadow people”. Particularly the “Hat Man” for reasons obvious to everyone except the three fillies watching.
Additionally, people have also claimed that these MIB’s have some sort of connection to some “Black Eyed Children; numerous reports have been made of MIB’s riding in the same vehicle as these black eyed kids. It was at this point that the Crusaders realized just how much they were going to have to get used to references that went right over their heads.
Scootaloo once again looked upon the drawing of the one Man in Black she saw from the beginning of the video. The way the artist drew it staring back at her with empty black eyes now seemed appropriate given what she now knew about these soulless automatons.
Regardless of the lesser known, it is mostly accepted by the fringe community that MIB’s are extra-terrestrial visitors who have infiltrated various governments around the world. Not only do theorists suspect that these governments are aware of the visitors’ presence, but they also believe that they are colluding with these aliens for reasons unknown. Whoever they are, it’s still remains true that no good comes from meeting them face to face. Every single person who’s come into contact with these mysterious individuals has felt intimidated, threatened and utterly disturbed by their presence. As part of the conclusion, the narrator told the audience that if they were lucky enough to witness a UFO or some other supernatural event later hears any knocks on their front door in the dead of night… he advises them not to answer it.
“I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Storyteller!”, Sweetie Belle said before adding a quick, “Phew!”.
As Sweetie Belle melodramatically chose to wipe her brow with her hoof, Apple Bloom felt now was the time to get something off her chest.
“Y’all mind if ah ask ya somethin’?”
“Sure, what’s up?”, Scootaloo replied.
With one hoof rubbing the back of her head she asked them, “Do ya think there’s a chance our rulers cover up stuff like this?”
This question gave way to a moment of silent contemplation on her friends’ part, genuinely trying to consider whether they could find any basis to such a notion.
“I mean, I can’t say for sure. But so far, I’m drawing a blank on anything that might have been covered up by the Princesses… or anyone in government.”, Scootaloo replied while tapping a hoof to her chin.
“I can’t think of anything, either-“.
Sweetie Belle paused as her eyes not only widened twinkled with realization.
“Except…”
“Except what?”, Apple Bloom pressed.
“Okay, okay. So, you know how before Nightmare Moon returned, her story was just considered an old mare’s tale; never once was it in our history textbooks?”
Upon hearing this query, Scootaloo raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Wait, it wasn’t?”
It was at that moment that Scootaloo wished she kept her mouth shut. Because that question earned her looks from both her friends that was the right mix of perplexed, astounded and disapproving. It very clearly communicated, “You should feel bad for not knowing this.”
“Which is something that I already knew!”, finally added while looking off to the side, not daring to make eye contact.
“Ya never studied, Scoots.”, Apple Bloom shook her head at her pegasus friend in disappointment.
“Anyways…”, Sweetie continued. “How did something that important fade from historical record so easily?”
“Ah mean, ah assumed that ponies overtime just forgot. Plus, weren’t they pretty bad at record keepin’ back in the day?”
While Apple Bloom raised a good point, that still didn’t satisfy Sweetie Belle.
“Again, that still seems way too big to just forget and not write down. Plus, there was one pony who was always around that could have set the record straight.”
“Who?”, Scootaloo asked.
“Princess Celestia, of course!”
After thinking about it for a second, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom began to wonder if Sweetie Belle might actually be onto something. Why would Celestia allow all record of her younger sister to fade away into obscurity? Why only allow it’s memory to persist as a myth?
“I’m just saying that maybe, just maybe, Celestia forbid any mention of Luna’s banishment from being written down.”, Sweetie Belle said.
“Woah, hold on! Then why did we still have the legend of the two Alicorn sisters and the Mare in the Moon?”, Scootaloo asked.
“I mean, have you noticed that the story never mentions the two sisters’ names?”, Sweetie paused to let her point sink in.
“It probably wasn’t a problem to publish a story that happened to be about two Alicorn sisters who ruled ponykind together. Just so long as it was described as a ‘myth’ and it never described either sister as being Celestia or Luna.”
“So, what are ya sayin’? That Celestia covered up her sister’s existence because…?”, Apple Bloom trailed to allow Sweetie Belle explain herself more clearly.
“Well, I don’t think she was trying to completely erase all memory of her. Just forbidding people from talking about her sister’s banishment, especially in front of her. Ponies probably legit forgot entirely about Luna because they didn’t write nearly as much about her before she was sent to the moon as they did Celestia.”
“Okay, but what are you getting at? Are you saying that Celestia just didn’t want to be remembered as the Princess who banished her own sister to the moon?”, Scootaloo reiterated Apple Bloom’s question.
“Well, yes.”, Sweetie admitted. “But she also might not wanted to have ponies constantly bringing it up to her. Can you imagine grieving for a thousand years and all the while random ponies keep trying to talk to you about the worst day of your life?”
Apple Bloom looked down, a frown forming on her face while she pictured herself in Celestia’s place.
“Yeah. Ah would hate havin’ everypony else addin’ on to mah own guilt.”
“I guess it sorta makes sense.”, Scootaloo chimed in. “Still, I’m pretty sure if there was a government conspiracy going on, we’d definitely know about it.”
“Why’s that?”
Apple Bloom had no idea what possessed her friend to make such a claim. However, even if they turned out to be nonsense, she still couldn’t help but want to know the reasons behind this assertion.
“Hellooo? Equestria to Apple Bloom? Are you forgetting about the six greatest heroes in Equestria today?”
With one raised eye brow Sweetie Belle answered with, “You mean the Elements of Harmony?”
“Yup! We’re all personally connected to one of the Elements in one way or another.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with us bein’ in on conspiracies?”, Apple Bloom continued to press.
“Think about it, Apple Bloom! Not that long ago, all six of the elements reported directly to her highness, Celestia herself.”, Scootaloo spread her hooves wide, gesturing towards the here and now. “Later, one of them became Princess and now the rest report to her. The elements of harmony are practically part-time government agents!”
For a solid ten seconds, neither Apple Bloom nor Sweetie Belle said anything. Instead, they pondered Scootaloo’s assertion until they realized that, in a weird way, she was kind of right. For the longest time they knew their sisters as noble heroes, role models and as the best at what they did. But they never thought of them as agents to the crown. While they weren’t sure why, this did make them look at their idols in a way that felt… different somehow. It wasn’t until an extra few seconds after this realization that Apple Bloom finally spoke up.
“Alright, Scoots. Ah will admit that while at first ah thought that was nothin’ but horse apples, yer actually sorta right now that I’ve thought about it.”
“I don’t know if they would ever let us in on any government secrets, though.”, Sweetie Belle piped in.
“Why not?”, Scootaloo asked.
“I mean, when did you learn that humans even existed, Scootaloo? Who was the one to finally tell you about them? Cause it sure wasn’t Rainbow.”
“I mean-“
Before Scootaloo could finish, Sweetie Belle turned and pointed a hoof at Apple Bloom.
“And Applejack, YOUR sister and the Element of Honesty, also thought it best not to tell you about the fact that Princess Twilight regularly goes through a portal to another world where humans live.”
Hearing this caused Apple Bloom to shift uncomfortably in her seating spot on the floor; so did Scootaloo. Both fillies had always taken taken pride and comfort in the idea that their sisters (or surrogate sister in Scootaloo’s case) always shared everything with them. The idea that they even kept secrets from them… while neither would want to say it hurt, they weren’t sure what other word to use. Scootaloo began looking down at the floor, using one hoof to trace circles along it. Apple Bloom was only able to muster up two words in response.
“Well, shucks.”
Seeing how poorly both of them were taking this, Sweetie Belle decided to speak up once again.
“If it makes you feel any better, MY sister didn’t tell me about this either. Remember, I had to really pester Twilight just to get her to tell me about it.”
“It’s fine, Sweetie. Really. It’s just-“, Apple Bloom looked her in the eye before pointing a hoof in her direction. “how much other stuff do you they think don’t tell us?”
In response, Sweetie Belle did nothing more than simply shrug her shoulders. Scootaloo, meanwhile, had finished staring off into space and spoke to her friends once more.
“You know, this has all got me wondering about those ‘friendship missions’ that they always go on.”
Pausing she looked back up at her Sweetie and Apple Bloom. Both silently looked upon her with anticipation, the latter motioning with her hoof to continue speaking.
“Do any of us really know what they do on their friendship quests? I mean, they always say that the ‘cutie map’ sends them off to fix a ‘friendship problem’. But we don’t ever really see it for ourselves.”
“Ya think that ‘friendship problem’ might be a cover somethin’ else they’re doin’?”, Apple Bloom asked.
“Maybe.”
“Well, what do ya think they actually do when they’re out on those quests?”
“Probably something wicked and top secret! Something that top government agents like them only do!”
While Scootaloo thought up of fanciful Daring Do-like secret adventures that Rainbow Dash and her friends went on, a very different and unsettling thought came to Sweetie Belle’s imagination.
“Or Men in Black type stuff…”
“What?”
“Wha?”
“Well, what if ‘friendship problem’ is a cover story for whenever their doing missions that involve the type of stuff those guys did?”, Sweetie Belle punctuated her sentence by pointing back at the orb.
Upon realizing what Sweetie was implying, Scootaloo sloppily sputtered out her next words.
“Th-that’s crazy talk! How could you ever think they’d do anything like that!? Plus, they’d be too high profile for that type of job.”
“But really think about it! Does Equestria really need six of its most accomplished heroes to help ponies whose friendship are a rough patch? Or would they be called on to do the government’s dirty work?”
“Okay, ah think that’s enough!”, Apple Bloom interrupted.
“What? It’s just a theory.”, said Sweetie Belle.
“Ah know it is, but this conversation has gone on for way too long. How about instead of makin’ up stuff about our sisters bein’ part of some shadowy government conspiracy, why don’t we watch another story?”
Sweetie and Scootaloo looked to each other before answering in unison.
“Okay.”
“Alright, then. Sweetie, can ya sneak us some sodas n’ snacks from downstairs while me and Scoots choose the next one to watch?”
“On it!”, Sweetie Belle cheerfully said before dashing out the door.
Listening to the clip clop of Sweetie’s hooves going down the steps, Apple Bloom finally let loose a sigh of relief. She absolutely did not come here to listen to her sister be accused of doing sinister things like deceiving the public or intimidating innocent ponies. That’s not who she was.