It wasn't long before the two stallions had re-entered the inner workings of Ponyville, and avoiding the streetlights and eyes of passerby s was growing ever harder to accomplish. They had hardly gotten half way to their destination when Quick quietly noted that the streets were far too lit to proceed normally.
“What do you suppose we should do? It doesn't help to have everypony knowing we're out and about at this time of night.” Flash responded, acknowledging the importance of remaining unseen.
Quick wordlessly crept across a shadowed street and made a small gesture for Flash to do likewise. When they arrived at their destination, Flash found a small hay cart covered in a tarp.
“You don't plan on stealing this, do you Quick?”
“Not stealing, Flash, we're only going to borrow it until further notice. I doubt the owner would mind, knowing the peace of mind we'll be bringing him. Here, you get in the hay pile and I'll cover my face and pull the rest of the way.”
Quick produced from his pack a small woven hat and placed it over his head, shading both his face and covering his horn.
“Besides, they're looking for two unicorns and not a single earthpony farmer.”
Flash sighed and nodded in agreement, hoisting himself into the back of the cart and carefully covering himself in hay.
“How does it look, Quick?”
“Can't see a single bit of you. I'm going now, so get ready for the cart to shift.”
“Got it.”
Quick assumed the pulling position normal to any farmer who couldn't magically push the cart otherwise. The harness was a little loose on him, but he managed anyways, being slightly more concerned about just how heavy the cart was beginning to feel.
The wooden hay cart made surprisingly little noise considering its condition, and despite the uneven nature of the road, the pair moved along without even the slightest sound. From inside the haystack, Flash wondered if this was more of Quick's journalist magic, but decided such a thing couldn't be possible. After all, he rarely saw Quick use any magic, let alone anything as complicated as a silencing spell.
Before too much time had passed, Flash heard Quick whispering to him from the front of the cart.
“Drat, those two guards are still out here, would you believe it? There must really be some important information in there, otherwise we'd be wasting our time trying to crack this nut.”
And indeed the archives were still being patrolled by the same stallion guards as before who had seemingly and unflinchingly held their positions all afternoon and into the night. Normally a small hay cart approaching the archives at this hour of the night would have sparked their attention, but neither heard the cart come as far as it did, nor did they see the cart quickly shift down an adjacent alleyway without a sound.
“Alright, Flash, plan B. Out of the cart, we're going in the back way.”
When Flash poked his head out of the haystack, he found himself up against the brick-laid back wall of the archives.
“How in the name of Celestia did you manage to get around to the back of this place unseen?”
“I took a detour, Flash, and I doubt we'll find getting back any easier either.”
“Well how do you intend to get in from here? This is a sheer wall and it goes up quite a ways. Plus the only entrance not on the roof is well guarded.”
Quick gave his typical sly smile and removed his hat.
“I still have a few tricks up my mane. Think you can manage to climb a few sets of stairs?”
“Stairs? What stairs?”
Almost in response to this question, Quick began to produce another spell, a particularly complicated one by the look on his face. As he did, a few bricks within the wall began to glow softly and the mortar around them started to ripple like water. Slowly and laboriously, each glowing brick started to slide out of the wall slightly, forming an impromptu set of stairs, though only about an inch or two wide.
“Where do you learn these spells, Quick? I've never seen anything like it.” Flash whispered back in astonishment.
Quick looked around again, as if he was checking for an audience to their conversation.
“I modified most of them from simple practical spells the owner of this notebook of mine had jotted down for personal use. A spell to realign bricks that had been laid wrong, a spell to fix squeaky door hinges, a spell to help remember things forgotten, which works surprisingly well for hypnosis for some reason, among other little tricks I'll have to show you one day.”
“Wow, Quick, I was half expecting you to tell me it was a secret or something.”
“I guess you're right, but if I don't come out of this alive there are only two possibilities as I see it. Either you make it out and carry on my legacy, or you go with me and take the secrets to your grave as well.”
“What a pleasant thought that is, Quick. Might as well just pre-purchase your tombstone at this rate.”
This sarcastic remark left Quick a little taken aback, meeting only with a simple reply.
“Well when you die unexpectedly I'm certain they won't remember you nearly as well as 'here lies the great secret hunter, Reel Quick, who died doing pursuing his dreams'”.
“You don't seriously have a tombstone picked out and waiting already, do you?”
This was met with another awkward silence, broken at last by Quick.
“Well, let's not waste any more time. I saw some skylights on the ceiling of the archives when we went in the first time, so I suppose they will do for a quick and easy entrance.”
The makeshift staircase proved to be just as narrow as it looked, leaving just about enough room for half of one hoof, forcing both stallions to balance awkwardly as they hopped from one brick to the next, hoping the freshly re-solidified mortar held strong enough to support their weight. By the time they reached the top, Flash could have sworn he was developing a case of vertigo.
The roof of the archives was nearly as ornate as the front steps. Every surface was dotted with small golden spikes, presumably to discourage birds from landing and taking roost. Just ahead, a single apple, bright red and almost glowing in the moonlight, rested on the tip of one of the spikes.
“Another apple, Flash. Somepony must be trying to send us a message.”
“Yeah, keep out.” Flash whispered in reply.
Only a short distance ahead was a skylight just as Quick had predicted. Both stallions approached the small window and peered into the gloom down below.
“Lucky us,” Quick said shortly after, “we seem to be directly over the archive rooms.”
Quick eyed the simple latch holding the window shut. With the most basic of unicorn spells, he took hold of the latch from inside and unlocked the window with little more than a thought. But getting in silently would be a little more difficult.
“Wait for me to go in first, Flash, I think I know the easiest way to do this.”
Quick concentrated again, producing a spell similar to the door silencing spell and coated his hooves in a light aura.
“I hope this works as well as I planned it.” Quick then wordlessly leaped over the edge of the window frame and came crashing to the floor below.
Except there was no sound.
Any pony able to see Quick's landing would have immediately sought medical attention to check for possible hearing loss, but Flash was only slightly more concerned Quick was hurt from the fall. He didn't seem to be moving much. But Flash knew better than to shout to his friend below, lest he give away their element of surprise.
Quick, who had landed not nearly as softly as he had hoped was in quite a lot more pain than he was willing to admit. Thankfully, he was just as adept at simple painkilling spells as he was at silencing, and managed to pick himself onto his sturdy, if not slightly numbed, legs. He then dusted himself off and made eye contact with Flash. This next spell had to be a lot more complicated if he wanted to keep Flash from screaming out in pain. He gestured for Flash to wait where he was. Quick then swiftly produced his tattered notebook from his bag and shuffled through the pages for a spell that would suit his needs better. At last he found one perfect for the situation. This was a softening spell for, as he saw it, helping somepony get a better night's sleep on a stiff mattress or, if needs be, a simple wooden board as notes in the book pointed out. Taking the spell into his mind, Quick focused on a few tiles on the floor, making a small square area glow softly. He tested the ground to see if the spell worked and was surprised to find the tiles as soft as a down pillow despite their solid appearance. Motioning to Flash, he indicated the area to land and started work on the silencing spell to be safe. He gave the signal for Flash to jump and gave a reassuring nod.
To Flash, who was far from reassured that the fall wouldn't snap all four of his legs on impact (an awful lot of broken legs to have, by the way), the motion to jump was the last thing he wanted. He had been hoping Quick would magically summon a ladder or slide or anything else than a plummet to the ground below, but if he had done it, Flash figured it wasn't impossible. Gathering his courage. Flash aimed for the spot Quick had outlined and dropped himself as neatly to it as he could. For one split second he was hurtling through space seeing as much of his life flash before his eyes as he could, but was quickly jarred to his senses by sprawling out on what felt oddly like a giant pillow. When he finally managed to lift his head from the oddly comfortable position he seemed to be in, Quick was offering him a hoof to help get back onto his own hooves. Flash reluctantly accepted, finding the ground here enticingly plush. He wondered for a moment if this was what clouds felt like, but was instantly reminded what the ground felt like when he returned his own hooves to the tiled floor.
Quick turned to Flash and whispered as quietly as possible.
“This room is big and really echo-y if you know what I mean. Try not to make too much noise.”
Flash nodded silently and took a single step forward, releasing a hoofstep that echoed so loudly and so clearly throughout the room that he was surprised it didn't set off some sort of alarm.
“I said to not make too much noise, not to make as much noise as possible” Quick whispered angrily, “I'm going to have to reinforce the silencing spells if we're going to do this, hold on.”
Quick was already getting visibly tired from all the magic, and he barely looked like he had enough strength left to reproduce a complicated spell over again, twice. With as much labor in his voice as in his magic, Quick finally responded.
“Alright, that covers both of us, now let's get this over with, shall we.” He paused for a moment and was reminded that the room outside of the moonlit shaft they were in was pitch black.
“Allow me, Quick, I can handle this one.” Flash replied before Quick could exert himself anymore.
Flash produced a small but intense light from his horn, covering a large area in front of him. He carefully adjusted the size and angle of the light to cover as much as he could without making too obvious of a difference.
Without any further delay, the two quickly made their way to a set of wooden tables in the center of the room and magically pulled from the surrounding shelves various binders full of old newspapers perfectly preserved from their various years of printing.
The process was slow and meticulous, and left both stallions rather worn out, but results started to pop up before long. Quick pointed out a few assorted pages.
“Look here, an ad for a missing pegasus last seen in Ponyville, and a sunbeam merchant too. And over here, a news article about the two famous pegasi who had invented the revolutionary method of growing them in artificial light! This has to be some kind of clue in here.”
Flash was also meeting with surprising success.
“You think that's suspicious, check this out. 'Rouge Fires Consume Appleton Factory and Appleburg Farms'. Not only was nearly every apple factory and farm destroyed within the space of only a few months, but the sole producers of Apples in Equestria were Sweet Apple Acres and a small, local business owned and run by none other than the Rich family.”
“Don't suppose they're in on it too, do you?”
“Well, normally I'm skeptical of things like this, but this is just too perfect to be coincidence. Look at this, the Rich family proceeded to buy up most of the destroyed businesses throughout Equestria, making them one of the largest producers of secondary apple products there is!”
“Not just the largest, Flash, the only. Any farms not secured on private cloud banks off of Cloudsdale seem to be targets and even those seem to be targets of rouge whirlwinds every now and then by the looks of this.”
The sudden development of details was astounding to both. Quick was amazed he might actually be right, and Flash was amazed such awful things could go by unnoticed to this day. Flash quickly produced one of his miniature cameras and began snapping pictures of the documents.
“Oh my, check here, Flash. This one's only a few years old. Says a suspicious barn fire claimed the lives of both of Sweet Apple Acres owners, Golden Delicious and Royal Russet. Their accidental deaths left Applejack and her family the sole beneficiaries of a massive life insurance policy which was used to expand the farm.”
“Sweet Celestia, you don't think Applejack would have done something like this, it's just too awful to image.”
“Flash, for generations this 'Applecore Syndicate' has been systematically wiping out every apple salespony across almost all of Equestria and has apparently amassed a massive grip on the economy here as well. I wouldn't put anything past the intentions of anypony when so much money is involved.”
“This is too much, Quick, we have to take this to the police.”
“The police? Don't you think the police might already be in on this by this point?”
“There has to be somepony around here we can trust!”
“Well we can certainly trust that these ponies are bound to be out to kill us now.”
By this point the two suddenly realized they had escalated to shouting at one another. The sudden epiphany left both staring at each other in silence, even more so when they became aware of somepony else breathing heavily behind them. Both Quick and Flash slowly spun around to find themselves face to face with another pony garbed in a black body suit marked with an apple patch on the flank and an equally black balaclava covering all but a pair of startlingly green eyes.
“I suppose you're here for us.” Quick said, breaking the silence.
The masked figure replied with a nod and stared at both of them. It produced a single apple from a pouch on its flank and held it up for both to see.
“This about the apples right?” Flash said sheepishly.
The pony replied only by slowly crushing the apple between its hooves, watching as the juices slowly ran out and spattered on the floor.
“I figured as much,” Quick replied, suddenly realizing this wasn't going to end well, “any bright ideas now, Flash?”
“Only one.” Flash said, quickly glancing back at Quick.
“Well it better be good and it better be fast, because I think this pony is running out of patience.”
The masked figure was now closing in on the pair who were pressed up against the desk, all they could see was illuminated by Flash's horn and a small moonlit shaft from where they had entered.
Just as the pony was about to bear down on them, Flash suddenly released his light spell and the room plunged into total darkness and for a split second, all Quick could see was the green eyes staring back at him from the darkness.