//------------------------------// // Tick, Tick, Tick... // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// The following day was spent mostly with Rainbow Dash inside the Correctional Facility with Barnaby as he did a truly monumental amount of paperwork. The disaster in the mines on top of his usual work and the work he needed to do for getting Rainbow a temporary apartment added up to a lot. While he clearly wanted to do something more proactive when it came to finding Dolph and uncovering the truth about the explosion, that had to temporarily wait. Rainbow and Barnaby were still both very thankful that nopony had been hurt back then. So close to around dinner time, Barnaby and Rainbow Dash left his office to check out the apartment building he lived in in the Copper Section. It was just a short ways away and in the same area as the facility. Barnaby told her that most of the time he slept in his office anyways so he didn’t use his actual home for much but he still had food there so they could grab a bite to eat and he could tour her around the vacancies. Rainbow Dash didn’t really care where she ended up but a place on one of the top-stories would’ve been nice. They passed a single pony reading a newspaper in the lobby and an elevator ride up to the 25th of 25 floors ended with Barnaby and Rainbow Dash stepping out into a quiet hallway. “So you live at the very top, huh?” Rainbow asked him. “A combination of personal preference and it being the most secure in my view,” Barnaby answered. Rainbow Dash grinned and nodded. “Oh yeah, I get that. Are there any vacancies on the top floor? I’d totally go for a place up here too. I can just leave my window open and fly in and out.” Barnaby chuckled but shook his head. “Sadly, no. No vacancies on this level. The highest floors only have a few larger apartments on them to begin with so there isn’t as much room.” As he said that Rainbow Dash looked around and noted that they had barely passed by any doors after coming out of the elevator. All of the apartments were indeed pretty spread out. Barnaby had to take them around another corner before they arrived at a door marked with the number “4”. He took a key out of his red suit and unlocked the door, holding it open and allowing Rainbow Dash inside. She took a brief look around, not like she really needed to get a feel for this place since she wouldn’t be living here, but she was still interested in the kind of place Barnaby lived in. It was unsurprisingly fairly spartan, with the living room they walked into having a coffee table and couch to her left, while a door leading to a small bathroom was on her right with a large grandfather clock pressed up against the wall right past it. There was just the faintest of ticks coming from the clock that reached her sensitive ears and provided a white noise in the background. Besides the coffee table there was another table behind the couch that had a couple of fake plants sitting on it and a large rug over the wooden floors. Directly ahead there was an opening that led into the kitchen and a door on the other side of the clock that probably went into a bedroom or something. “Make yourself at home,” Barnaby said and walked beside her over to the couch and coffee table. Rainbow Dash shrugged and joined him, seeing a bookshelf across from the coffee table loaded with all kinds of things. Though she doubted there was anything that interested her in that collection. “Tomorrow I was going to personally visit Dolph’s family,” Barnaby said to her as she sat down. “I figured that would interest you too.” “Yeah, I’d like to be there for that,” Rainbow said. “There’s also the issue of where that TNT came from. There are a number of warehouses it’s stored in after coming from the manufacturer and before being taken into the mines, so I was going to investigate that too,” he said. Rainbow grinned. “And here you said you don’t need to do the grunt work yourself.” “This is quite a bit more serious than the average theft or illegal bootlegging and unsanctioned gambling that goes on in this city,” Barnaby said with a frown. “Nopony was hurt—something that’s enough of a miracle that it had to have been on purpose—but it still caused damage and delays to our mines, which means everything was slowed down in the city. Everything in Oreville starts in and revolves around those mines. We even draw up geothermal energy from some of the deeper areas for power. It’s just crazy to think that anypony would want to do something like blow up part of the mines.” “Anypony?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at him. Barnaby bit his lip. “Yes… I think it’s obvious that Lord Copper is involved if not outright responsible.” “He definitely is,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ve got an eye for this kind of thing and you saw how he was acting too back at that meeting. I don’t know what that moron’s deal is but he’s totally involved. And he’s a bad liar.” “That’s certainly true...” Barnaby sighed and shook his head. “But as much as I’ve always disliked him he’s still one of the Three Lords. To bring him down for this… not only would it be incredibly difficult but the repercussions across the city would be terrible. Our citizens would be horrified. I always wanted to find a way to get that slimeball out of power, I know he’s done all sorts of other illegal things, but something like this? The ponies of Oreville won’t be glad to be rid of him, they’ll be scared and disgusted that he was ever a Lord to begin with. It could very well shake the foundations of Oreville and it might even lead to a lack of trust and faith in Lords Silver and Gold as well.” Rainbow Dash looked at him and awkwardly grimaced, tugging at an errant strand of her mane. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was right at six. “I’m not going to force any decisions on you or nothing—this is your home, not mine. But… it’s still the right thing to do, right?” “Yes. Absolutely,” Barnaby nodded with an iron frown on his face. “If he truly is responsible or even just slightly involved in something like this then I will bring him down like I’ve always wanted to do. I just hope I can do it in a way that causes the least amount of problems for Oreville.” “Well no matter how it goes down, I’ll be there to help you out with it. That’s the kind of pony I am,” Rainbow Dash thumped a hoof over her chest. “You sure are quick to form bonds and friendships...” Barnaby smiled. “Lot better than making enemies everywhere I go,” Rainbow shrugged. “Certainly true,” Barnaby sighed and stood up from the couch. “Either way though—there’s nothing for us to do involving that until tomorrow, let’s give you a look around my building and you can decide which vacant apartment you like the most.” His eyes then turned towards the kitchen. “Oh, after a quick bite to eat first.” “Sounds good to me. I don’t think I’m gonna have any preference for the places you show me but hey, whatever.” Rainbow Dash stood up too and walked over towards the kitchen. She stopped in front of the clock and frowned. There was a nagging feeling she had, butterflies in her stomach telling her that something was off in this apartment. Something her eyes and ears noticed but her brain hadn’t fully caught up on yet. Rainbow Dash looked up at the face of the grandfather clock, golden pendulums swinging beneath it behind the glass front case. She tilted her head to figure out what about it was confusing her like this and she finally realized; there was no second hoof. It was an old-fashioned clock that only had an hour and minute hoof that only moved when the time was right. There was no constant “tick, tick, tick” from a second hoof coming from it. So where was that noise coming from? Rainbow Dash placed her ear nearly against the clock and listened in. Yep—the ticking sound in this apartment definitely wasn’t coming from it. “What’s wrong?” Barnaby said, noticing her weird behavior. Rainbow Dash looked over at him. “Do you hear that ticking noise?” Barnaby frowned at her, “I don’t think so...” “Listen harder,” Rainbow said and held a hoof up for silence, trying to figure out the direction it was coming from on her own. Barnaby stood silently for a moment and moved his ears around to listen in as well. His ears weren’t as sharp as Rainbow’s but now that he was actively looking for it he started to hear the ticking as well. “I do hear it… what is that?” “I’m not… sure…” Rainbow’s eyes suddenly widened and she sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Out!” She yelled. “Get out now!” “Wha-” Barnaby had no time to finish his sentence as a rainbow blur crashed into him and swiftly pulled him towards the front door. When they had reached the doorframe an explosion went off and wreathed the apartment in flames. A resounding bang was heard down the city block and ponies below the apartment building looked up to see the top floor suddenly explode in a fireball, raining burning debris down onto the street below. Ponies of Oreville screamed and ran in terror while inhabitants of the building started running out of their homes to safety. Constables came running from down the street to see what had happened while multiple ponies were already on the radio for the fire department. And in an alley a couple buildings away a single pony with a red mop of mane stood behind a pair of trashcans, trying his best to stay out of sight while his shaking hooves held a two-way radio. A newly discarded newspaper lay crammed into one of the trashcans. Snrrrkt! He turned the radio on in his hooves and a voice came through the speaker: Well? If you’re contacting me now that means you did it, right? “Y-Yes,” Dolph bitterly said into his radio, tears spilling from his eyes and falling to the ground. “The bomb just went off in Barnaby’s apartment.” So he and that rainbow pony are dead? “I think so. I don’t see h-how they could have survived...” Good. Very good. “Good?” Dolph’s voice cracked. “Y-You said that nopony would be hurt. You said that I-I wouldn’t have to do something like this...” Barnaby was too dangerous to keep alive. And that other pony from outside was a clear troublemaker too. I didn’t want anypony to have to get hurt either, and from here on out nopony should be, but this was a necessary step. Dolph cried freely into the radio, shaking his head. “I don’t want to do this anymore, p-please, just let me go back to my family.” If Barnaby is truly dead then you can consider yourself free, you and your family will be threatened no longer. However it will be some time before you can go back to your family and live a normal life in Oreville again. For now return to the safehouse I set up for you until we know for sure what’s happened. Dolph peaked his head out from behind the trashcans and looked towards the burning building, hearing both the sound of crackling flames and screaming ponies. “What if he and that other pony survived?” Then you had best prepare to do more work for me. I own you, Dolph. The radio cut off and Dolph was left alone in the alley once more. He collapsed to the ground and cradled his head in his hooves, crying until his eyes were dry.