She felt like the ground had disappeared from beneath her, freefalling in a massive, empty expanse of shock and disbelief, anger and confusion.
“Say, you seem to know this Ocean Breeze personally,” Rex said suspiciously, studying Gusty’s expression. “Perhaps we should take you in for questioning…”
Gusty didn’t respond - she couldn’t. She felt somepony’s hoof on her shoulder, gently steering her away.
“Thank you, sir, so much,” she heard Maggie say. “My friend here is new - she doesn’t know much about what goes on here. She’s looking for him because she needs to give him a few punches to the face, if you know what I mean. Now, I think I hear a nice lunch calling my name, so if you’ll excuse me…”
“I can’t believe it,” Gusty muttered, almost incoherently. “He lied about my parents, he lied about his job… He’s apparently a wanted traitor…” She shook her head. “I need to find him and give him a free lunch. I packed him a sandwich. A hoof sandwich. Argh, I really wish there was something I could punch right now.” She scowled at a pair of foals playing some strange hopping game on the side of the street.
“I feel like this is something best digested over lunch,” Maggie suggested, steering her towards a tall wooden building with two floors. A large sign over the double doors said HOTEL.
“Oh, no,” Gusty said, pulling away from Maggie. “I can’t go there. My brother says that the ponies in there are too rough for me…” She trailed off as she recalled what she just said.
“Has your brother been really a good source of information lately?” Maggie asked. “I think you should see things for yourself before you make any decisions about them. Trust me, I go here for lunch almost every day. It’s not that bad, really,” she added, seeing the hesitation in Gusty’s eyes.
“...All right,” Gusty relented.
This is a really bad idea, Ocean Breeze cautioned in Gusty’s mind.
Wonderful advice from an outlaw, Gusty replied snarkily. I’ll just listen to you after everything you’ve lied to me about, shall I?
Gusty-
“So what’s for lunch?” Gusty asked Maggie loudly, ignoring Ocean.
“Usually just sandwiches and soup,” Maggie said, paying the unicorn at the door three silver coins - two for her and Gusty’s lunch, and one for a tip. “I just hope that you aren’t allergic to most vegetables.”
The steaming bowl of soup that was placed in front of Gusty smelled amazing, but she was too troubled to eat much. Her thoughts kept straying back to her brother.
Remember when you were younger, and you tried to convince me that you were allergic to vegetables so that you wouldn’t have to eat any? Ocean Breeze said in a voice that clearly said that he was trying to make her laugh.
Gusty didn’t feel even the slightest bit amused. Shut up, you lying, traitorous worm, she snapped.
Gusty, please, you have to listen to me, Ocean begged. Everything I’ve ever done to you has been to keep you safe. Maybe if I had been straight with you this whole time, it would have just put you in more danger than you are already. I-
“Just SHUT UP!” Gusty yelled, slamming her hooves on the table, upsetting the bowl of soup. Twin patches of embarrassment appeared on her cheeks as everypony stared at her. “I - I was talking to, uh…” Her traitor of a brother inside her head? Somehow, that didn’t seem like a compelling argument. “To him,” Gusty decided, pointing her hoof at Rex, who was sitting across from her. “I mean, the guy has no manners. Have you heard how loudly he eats?”
“Just like all those earth pony pigs!” called a voice down the table, followed by a loud cheer from the present unicorns and pegasi. Rex’s face flooded with color, and he glared at Gusty, who collapsed back into her chair from the hatred and anger in it.
Maggie gently put a hoof on Gusty’s arm and whispered, “Come on.” She led the way out of the hotel, and the two of them walked around town, Gusty in a daze. After a few minutes of blessed silence, Maggie asked, “So… what was that about?”
“Ever since my brother left, I’ve been hearing his voice in my head,” Gusty sighed. “I was… having an argument with him, and just screaming inside my head didn’t seem like enough.”
“Your… brother is Ocean Breeze?” Maggie asked, her voice softer than a whisper, her green eyes darting around to make sure that nopony was paying attention to the two unicorns, even though the street that they were on was deserted, apart from them.
Gusty growled, “Yes. I would rather be related to a haystack,” which made Maggie giggle. “I’m assuming he isn’t the most popular pony around here?”
That sobered up the red unicorn. She pointed wordlessly at a tall wooden post across the street from them, where a weathered scroll was plastered, fluttering forlornly in the breeze. Gusty crossed the street and pinned one of the flapping corners to the post so she could read it better: WANTED for TREASON and BETRAYAL. OCEAN BREEZE. Last seen in the marketplace 10 years ago. DESCRIPTION: Black pegasus, cutie mark: blue castle tower. REWARD: 10,000 GOLD COINS.
There was a sketch that accompanied the words, a rough sketch of what Ocean Breeze was said to look like. Gusty studied the drawing. They got the looks right… more or less, but it was the expression on her brother’s face that shocked her. His face was twisted into a cold, cruel sneer that was so unlike the Ocean Breeze she knew… or thought she knew. It sort of fit the pony she knew now.
Gusty’s gaze shifted upwards to a poster advertising Grogar and how “glorious” he was. Gusty had a feeling that every town in the land was mandated to have something like this plastered all over the streets. The poster had a picture of Grogar glowering down at her with the words CONQUER FEAR in big, bold text. Gusty almost snorted, because she couldn’t think of anything that could be less associated with the tyrannical ruler of Equestria. SCREW FRIENDSHIP would have been more appropriate.
She looked into the drawing of Grogar’s eyes and felt a jolt of realization. Her gaze flicked back and forth between Grogar and Ocean Breeze. The same cruel expression was frozen on their faces.
Gusty desperately hoped that wasn’t a bad omen.
“What exactly did he do?” she asked Maggie, who had come up next to her.
Maggie sighed. “Eleven years ago, ponies in this town were planning to start petitioning for more rights. They were going to start peaceful, you know, but they would turn to violence if needed. Before they could even start, though, the leaders started going missing.” Maggie shuddered. “It was a scary year. If you even hinted that you slightly disliked anything Grogar did… you vanished. Just poof, disappeared. Sometimes entire families would go missing. Somepony finally put it together that Ocean Breeze was behind it, and they set a trap for him, and he fell for it. Of course, he tried to keep doing his job, but…” She shrugged, her sky blue hair falling over her shoulders. “The cat was out of the bag now. They put a price on his head and… he hasn’t been seen around here for ten years.” Maggie gave Gusty a sideways look. “He never mentioned having a sister…”
“My bro - he kept me hidden for my entire life,” Gusty grumbled. It felt good to be able to rant about it to somepony. “Apparently Grogar killed my parents when I was just a filly, so he kept me hidden for my whole life to ‘protect me’. I just recently found out that he was lying about my parents’ death - he used to tell me that they died in a flood - and he ran away that night, saying he was joining the Equestrian army. Then I came here and just found out that he’s been a traitor for over half my life-”
“He knows?!?” Maggie yelped, looking more alarmed than she had all day. “He knows about it?”
“About… what?”
The red unicorn glanced around furtively, though the street was still empty. She grabbed Gusty and yanked her into an alleyway, lighting her horn and casting a shield around them.
“Ow! Okay, what was that for?” Gusty demanded, rubbing her arm.
“We can’t discuss this out in the open,” Maggie whispered, her eyes darting around. “Too dangerous.” She took a deep breath and looked at Gusty with a strange look on her face. “I’m not sure I should be talking to you about this. I mean, you are his sister-”
“Right now, my brother’s worst enemy is my best friend,” Gusty grumbled. “And, by the way, I tend to get very angry at ponies who don’t tell me things, so-”
“All right, all right,” Maggie hissed, shushing her. “Okay… the group of ponies who tricked Ocean Breeze? They began to… do other stuff that hurts Grogar’s reign. They were called the Resistance, and they were so undercover that some of the ponies working for them didn’t even know what they were working for. Then Grogar caught wind of it and put it down… Or so he thought. They just reorganized, but this time, they’re an army… sort of. But they’re almost ready to begin.”
The words gave Gusty a feeling of thrill that she only felt when imagining Grogar’s demise. Only this was real. Grogar’s throne might really be toppled.
“I want to help,” she announced. “I’ve wanted to do something about Grogar my whole life,” she plowed on as Maggie opened her mouth to protest. “Please don’t take this chance away from me.”
Gusty’s new friend sighed and lowered her shield. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but fine. Come on. I’ll take you to meet the leaders.”