Another kick, and the football bounced off the goal’s post, before flying back to Rainbow. She masterfully caught it with her foot, before kicking it this time into the goal.
As the leader of several sports clubs, she had the privilege of being able to stay after PE on the soccer field— under the condition that after she was done, everything went back to its previous place.
Another kick. The ball hit the post as intended, but it bounced off too high for her to catch it. She shrugged it off and took another ball from the box.
“Meep,” she heard a quiet voice behind her.
When she turned, she saw Fluttershy standing there, covering her face with her arms. The ball rolled behind her.
“Fluttershy! What are you doing here?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy removed the arms from her face, only to stroke her hair.
“Oh, ehm, am I interrupting you with something? I—”
“Not at all,“ Rainbow said, knowing her friend too well to not let her continue. “Just chilling here. What’s the matter?”
“Well, this little guy…” She took a squirrel out of her bag. “Wanted to give you a message.”
“Me?” Rainbow looked at the squirrel. “Is it about the one time I climbed up a tree and broke a branch?”
“No, he… You did what?”
“Uh… Doesn’t matter!” Rainbow grinned nervously. “What’s the message?”
“He said that he had to remind you about your secret pocket.”
“My…” Rainbow raised her eyebrows. “My what?”
The squirrel spoke to Fluttershy.
“Oh, he forgot to mention that the secret pocket was in your locker.”
Rainbow remained silent, trying to make sense of what the squirrel had said to her. She couldn’t remember any “secret pocket” in her locker, but with the memory wiping she couldn’t trust her memory much.
“Let’s check it out then. After I’ve cleaned up here.” She sighed and began collecting the stray balls.
“I’ll help!” Fluttershy offered.
In the locker were school books, spare jacket, timetable, posters, basically everything but a “secret pocket”. Even checking in the spare jacket didn’t reveal anything.
“Are you sure that you remember it correctly?” Rainbow asked the squirrel.
“Yes,” Fluttershy translated. “He said that it was you who told him through me to remind you about it.”
“Do you remember it?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened and she shook her head.
Rainbow scratched her head. She didn’t like at all that both of them had forgotten ever telling it to the squirrel. Just what did they forget?
“I don’t remember it either,” Rainbow sighed.
“You don’t trust your memories lately,” Fluttershy said. “You write down everything, just to not forget.”
“I know…” Rainbow took another look into her locker, looking for anything to stand out. Then she saw it: A tape on a poster was slightly brighter, seemingly being peeled off and then put back again.
She carefully pulled the tape off and bent the corner of the poster to look behind it. Indeed, there was some small text hidden behind it, but as excited as she was to have found the “secret pocket”, the only thing that stood there was “Not here”, with a smiley face that gave a wink and a stretched out tongue.
Rainbow groaned and looked around again.
“Ehm, Rainbow—”
“Secret pocket and locker! What a dumb idea!”
“This note—”
“Couldn’t I just tell myself where to look?”
“It isn’t your writing.”
“Huh?”
Rainbow bent the corner of the poster again. Indeed, that wasn’t her writing, the cursive was way cleaner. Too clean and beautiful.
“Rarity!” both girls said in union.
“That’s… indeed my writing…” Rarity stood perplexed before the locker, staring wide-eyed at the writing behind the poster.
“Good, then maybe you’ll be able to explain the ‘secret pocket’,” Rainbow said.
“But… I don’t remember writing it!”
Rainbow gulped. There was nothing in the morning in her hidden shelf at home, where she would hide any notes she had written over the day, but now all of her friends were somehow involved in something and had forgotten it.
“Wait…” Rarity took the spare jacket. “The seam on it…. That’s my work. But that means…”
Rarity turned the jacket inside out.
“Well, would you look at that, darlings! The ‘secret pocket’ you’ve been searching for!”
The designer took out a pair of scissors and cut a string, opening a sewn together pocket. In it was a piece of paper with a long string of letters and numbers written on it. The three girls stared at it in confusion.
“Is this some kind of scavenger hunt?” Rainbow asked.
“Looks like it,” Rarity replied. “I’m still worried that I can’t recall ever sewing that pocket on your jacket.”
“I’m scared,” Fluttershy muttered and hid her face behind her hair.
“Whatever the case is,” Rainbow folded the paper, “for this part we’ll need Twilight.”
And what a scavenger hunt it was. Twilight had decoded the string of letters and numbers quickly, which had led them to Applejack’s barn, where they had to find a wooden box among the haystacks. Inside it was another piece of paper with a recipe for a cake, which led them to Pinkie, who quickly figured out that an invisible ink had been used. After heating up the paper, the revealed message had led them finally to Sunset’s apartment, where they had found a hidden safe behind a picture on a wall, which only contained a paper with an address, date and time on it.
“Okay, so we finally got to the end,” Applejack said. “Am I the only one confused on why I can’t remember a single thing?”
“Me too,” Twilight replied. “I wouldn’t have forgotten encoding a message with my method.”
“And when did I have the time to add a safe to my apartment?” Sunset tried to take out the object in question, but failed. “I only remember hanging the picture a few months ago, but there was no safe behind it then.”
As the friends were talking, Rainbow remained silent. She knew what the reason for the memory losses was, but it didn’t add up to what she saw during the night chase. Why would they forget a scavenger hunt they created for themselves, and most importantly, why did they even create one in the first place? Whatever the reasons were, Rainbow hoped that the answers would be found at the place the piece of paper was telling them to be tonight.
Fifteen minutes before the written time, very late in the evening, the friends had gathered before a closed down building. Yellow barrier tape covered the entire plot.
“What even happened there?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, you haven’t heard?” Pinkie said. “Vinyl used a spray can to dry her instruments, but it was so strong that it sucked out any water from the air and the whole building had to be evacuated, and because the chemical causing this is still remaining, the building can’t be housed anymore.”
The friends continued staring at the building.
“So, do we go in then?” Rainbow raised the barrier tape and went under it.
“I don’t know, Twilight replied. “Shouldn’t we be bothered by the danger?”
“I don’t like it too,” Fluttershy muttered.
“But we wrote the address ourselves,” Rainbow said. “I’m sure we knew what we were doing.”
“And then we forgot it.” Twilight looked around. “Besides, this is trespassing and punishable by law.”
Rainbow groaned.
“Twilight, we did all the clues leading into this building. I don’t know about you, but I’m interested in finding out what happened, so I’m going in.”
“Me too,” Applejack said and followed Rainbow.
Soon, one by one they passed the barrier tape, until only Twilight and Pinkie remained. The latter took her by her hand.
“Come on, Sci-Twi, you can do it! Trust yourself! Well, the Past-Twilight.”
Twilight sighed, before she followed.
Inside the building, Rainbow clicked on her flashlight and swept it across the empty floor, the others following suit a moment later. It was dusty and abandoned, but Rainbow couldn’t notice any dryness in the air — at least not an unusual dryness that would force the closing of the whole building.
“So, what now?” Sunset asked. “I expected that something would lead us further.”
“Maybe we need to find the clues first?” Pinkie clapped her hands in excitement. “After all, it’s a scavenger hunt!”
“Or you let me find it,” Rainbow said and put her hands over her wristwatch and activated her geode. Before any of her friends could stop her, Rainbow sprinted away and checked through every room and floor. Within seconds she appeared again.
“Found it! First floor, room 102.”
“Argh, Rainbow, that’s not fun!” Pinkie sighed.
“It’s not a game, Pinkie.”
“Yeah, because you ruined it!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and waved at her friends to follow her.
When they entered the apartment, Rainbow led them to a small table. She lifted it and picked up a small recorder.
“Oh, that’s one of my devices!” Twilight said.
“See, you were here before.” Rainbow grinned.
“That doesn’t prove it. Someone else could have put it here. Besides, which one of us did it?”
The girls looked silently at each other.
“I take that as either none of us or at least one of us forgot it. Well, let’s hear what the tape has to say.”
They sat down at the chairs that were in the room and Twilight pressed the play button.
“Hello, this is Twilight Sparkle,” the message began.
“And Sunset Shimmer,” a different voice spoke.
“Pinkie Pie!”
“Fluttershy…”
Each of the Rainbooms introduced themselves, as the listeners’ eyes widened.
“If you’re listening to this,” the voice of Twilight continued speaking, “then it means that you have forgotten doing the recording two days ago – at least if you found the tape on the date we have ordered to come here.”
Rainbow took a deep breath. She hated it. She hated how easily they could just erase her and her friends' memories. Looking at her friends, they also weren’t comfortable hearing themselves speak, especially Twilight, as she put her head on her hands and nervously rubbed her temples.
“Now, the scavenger hunt was done over the course of a week, so if none of you can remember doing their preparation, then it either means that you’ve forgotten the whole week or that anything related to our plan has been forgotten. For that you have to look at yourself and see what applies.”
Rainbow thought. She doesn’t recall having forgotten anything over the week, but trying to recall the past days, it was clear that the memories were all blurry and generic.
“That explains… so much…” Rainbow heard Rarity mutter.
“If not every part of the scavenger making had been forgotten, each step backwards means one day further in the past.”
Twilight paused the recording and looked at Rainbow and Fluttershy.
“What?” Rainbow asked.
“Do you remember?” Twilight asked.
“No. We’ve told you already that a squirrel had reminded us to look for it.”
“So nine days, completely forgotten…”
“Well,” Applejack said. “I kind of remember that the usual day had been going on, so I guess the memory is only partly?”
“No,” Rarity countered. “I don’t remember making the dresses I had made. Every single dress is special to me.”
“It’s probably our mind filling up the holes with assumptions,” Sunset theorised.
“But why? What happened?” Twilight bit on her fingernails.
Rainbow groaned.
“Maybe if we would continue listening to the recording, we would know it sooner!”
“Rainbow,” Sunset put a hand on her shoulder. “Give those who need it time to process it. You have to agree that finding all this out is a lot.”
“Fine,” Rainbow sighed and crossed her arms.
After a short wait, the recording continued to play.
“I bet, knowing myself, that I would want to know why we would know that we would forget. First of all, it’s not Equestrian magic. But you need to be patient, as I’ll have to go a few steps back.
“Canterlot City is cut out. We may have internet access, but our inputs are very slow and on a queue, and any phone calls to outside the city are blocked. We’re told it’s because of a short circuit accident that is still not fixed.
“Same goes for any vehicle of anyone trying to leave the city — they all break down.
“All of that is done on purpose.”
Rainbow looked at the others. The realisation of them being the reason for any of the mentioned things hit her soon after the night chase, so it wasn’t a surprise for her. However, she knew that many of her friends, especially Twilight, had found these things strange for a longer time, so while some gasped, others nodded in agreement.
“The reason is actually quite simple: to suppress the knowledge of Equestrian magic. We don’t know yet why the whole city is contained, but that’s not what the recording is about.
“Rainbow had encountered in her night rides a kind of monster — No, I will tell that — a kind of monster looking like a police officer that was out to kill her. She could escape it, but only because a helicopter with a machine gun appeared and shot at it.
“However, the monster was able to follow her into the city, and only after Rainbow led it back to the helicopter, it was killed.
“It got several spectators of course, but on the next day none of them remembered it, because a gas from sewers was released that made everyone forget.”
Twilight pressed pause again and took a deep breath.
It was silent. Rainbow saw each of her friends being deep in thoughts, or fear, based on Fluttershy sunken fully on her seat and hiding her face behind her hair and hands.
“You remember it?” Applejack asked.
“The night chase? Yes.”
“Then why haven’t you told us about it?” Applejack gave her a fierce expression.
“Are you kidding me?” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “How else would Twilight tell us it?”
Applejack facepalmed.
“Sorry, it’s just… too much, and you don’t seem surprised by all of that.”
“A lot of details are left out, yet, but you would see why many things don’t surprise me.”
“When did the monster thing happen?” Twilight asked.
“Almost two weeks ago. We should continue listening.”
Twilight nodded and pressed on play.
“Rainbow could run away from the gas, but was — listen, you can tell that yourself later in more detail — but was being chased by people in black uniform trying to make her forget it. They didn’t succeed.
“Now, as far as we know, the memories are being erased whenever someone figures out that the city is being held as a prison, or more specifically whenever any action done by the organisation would reveal them. It also includes knowing of any kind of anomaly that is not Equestrian magic.”
The speaker took a short break, giving the listeners time to digest what was just said.
“Anything that’s paranormal, a truck that is faster than any motorcycle, a camera that shows the desire of the photographed person, a hallway that repeats itself between rooms despite going in a straight line, these kinds of unnatural things that aren't Equestrian magic.
“They exist in our world too, and the people that keep us in the city keep their existence and knowledge of them hidden from the public. And to them, we are just another anomaly they contain.”
“Pause it!” Rarity suddenly said.
When it was followed, she stood up and left the room, muttering something under her breath.
The atmosphere was tense. No one knew what to say, as even Rainbow herself was surprised to hear about non-Equestrian magic stuff.
When Rarity came back, she stomped to her seat.
“Anomalies, pshaw, I’ll give them anomalies! We’re not like animals to be kept in zoos!”
“Honestly,” Twilight said, “I have wondered why our magic barely got any attention.”
“I don’t care! They can’t keep me trapped in this city. Who do they think they are?”
With a sigh, Twilight pressed on play.
“We wanted to test how exactly their memory erasing plays out, and that’s why the scavenger hunt was made. Rainbow did the right thing by waiting a few days after the night chase before telling us about it. This way, she made sure that she’ll keep at least these memories. However, once she told us we immediately made a plan.
“First, we came up with a made up story on how we have figured them out and when, in case they would do an investigation. Then, on each day, the next step of the scavenger hunt was prepared, giving also hints on who did what. Now, early in the morning, we are making this recording.
“Once we’re in school, we’ll tell everyone about the organisation that keeps us imprisoned and how they are able to erase memories. This will force them to come out and make us and the other students forget them. You’ll have to see how much and what they made you forget.
“This concludes the recording. Once we say stop, pause the recording and process what you’ve heard. Once you’re ready, continue listening to the recording for further instructions.
“Stop.”
With a push of the button the room became silent.
Rainbow looked at her friends, each deep in their thoughts. Fluttershy was clinging on to Pinkie, who hugged her back to comfort her. Rarity was making an expression that could kill, and Sunset had taken out her book and opened it, but wasn’t writing anything in it.
“So what?” Applejack asked. “What do we do with that knowledge?”
“I tell you what,” Rarity hissed. “We pony up and break free!”
“Not gonna help,” Rainbow replied.
“Rainbow, we have superpowers! We have you with superspeed, Applejack with super—”
“And they can deactivate our geodes.”
“What…” Rarity’s expression changed to horror. “What do you mean?”
“They have something called SRA, which can neutralise our powers.”
“But how?” Sunset stood up from her seat. “It’s Equestrian magic, something that hadn’t been here before the Fall Formal!”
Rainbow shrugged her shoulders.
“Then we have to do a surprise attack.” Rarity said. “Give them no time to react.”
“Rarity,” Rainbow sighed. “You underestimate who we’re dealing with. They’re like the military, they even have a helicopter with a freaking machine gun!”
“And I have crystals to shoot at them!”
Rainbow couldn’t prevent herself from growling.
“Listen, I get you, but we can’t let ourselves get carried away from our feelings.”
“Says you!”
“Hey!”
“Girls, please!” Sunset stood between them. “Now is not the time to argue!”
“What I’m curious about is if we had the same conversation before,” Pinkie said.
Everyone gave her a confused stare.
“Think about it. The recording us knew about it for nine days, but they also had the moment where Rainbow told them about all that for the first time. Do you think we reacted the same? That would explain why they would leave us further instructions and give us time to react, as they knew what each of us would have wanted to do afterwards.”
“Huh.” Sunset sat down. “Now that you say it, I’m curious what further instructions they have for us.”
“Me too,” Twilight said. “Should I continue?”
“Give me a moment, darling.” Rarity put her face in her hands. “I need to calm down first.”
“Sure. Fluttershy, are you alright?”
When Rainbow turned to her, she saw Fluttershy with her arms wrapped around her legs.
“I… I’m fine. As one can be right now.”
After Rarity gave a signal, Twilight let the recording play.
“I hope you all were able to process it without too much fighting. We had our differences in what we wanted to do until we came up with the scavenger hunt.
“First of all, if they are able to erase the memories of nine days, then there’s no doubt that they would be able to go further. Keep the knowledge a secret, at least for now. You can’t write anything about that in any chats or talk about it at school or even at home. We don’t know how much they control or listen, so better safe than sorry. Remember, you’re the main anomaly for them, so you’re their focus. Act as normally as you can, and don’t make them suspicious of you.
“Now listen carefully until the end. Equestrian magic seems to pull anything unnatural from our world into this city. We don’t know why, but it does that by creating space rifts where the object or a subject will either fall or come through.
“We made precautions in case you wouldn’t find the recording, but today at around midnight a space rift will be big enough for an anomaly to come through. Based on the Desire Camera, it’s a robot that wants to destroy any living being.
“Stay where you are, for it will appear in the same building you’re in. Be cautious, we don’t know what its abilities are. Expect the unexpected.
“Good luck stopping it.”
The recording stopped.
“That’s it?” Twilight asked.
“Huh, we have about an hour left,” Rainbow said after checking the time.
“How will we even stop it?” Fluttershy muttered.
“Why do we have to suddenly stop a threat?” Rarity groaned. “We just got a revelation, but have to ignore it? What was the whole purpose then?”
“Maybe in understanding the threat better?” Twilight said. “After all, we would have assumed that it was Equestrian magic causing it. Knowing of other unnatural things will make us more cautious and prepared.”
“The only thing it did was make me angry!” Rarity stood up. “At least I can use that robot as a punching bag.”
“How will we prepare for it though?” Applejack asked. “We only know that it’ll appear somewhere in the building.”
“Maybe we should wait outside and see what it’s capable of first,” Twilight suggested. “No one lives here after all, so until it leaves the building, no one is in danger.”
“Won’t that attract the organisation to look at what is going on?” Sunset replied.
“Good point. Since we know the time, we can return here at midnight and…”
Suddenly a sound of something falling interrupted Twilight. Everyone remained silent, trying to listen where it came from.
Slow, metallic-sounding steps soon became audible. Fluttershy gasped. That was enough for the being to stop in its movement.
Rainbow walked as silently as possible to the door connecting to the floor and peaked through it.
There it was. A robot, somewhere about one metre in height, constructed of various electrical devices like an analog measuring instrument as its head and a speaker for its chest. The eyes, consisting of two lenses, were aimed at her direction.
“Who dares to walk on the path of Doom-Master 2000, the Robolord of Darth Claw?” It ran towards her.
Rainbow closed the door and locked it.
“It’s already here!”
“But how?” Twilight asked. “Shouldn’t it only appear after midnight?”
“Doesn’t matter! Everyone, pony up!”
With a flash of a light, the girls were in their superhero outfits. Rarity summoned crystals that were floating next to her, and everyone stood in fighting stances.
Just in time, as several knocks on the door were made.
“Open the door, so I can trample on you with my mighty feet! My wrath will be unleashed upon you!”
Rainbow slowly walked backwards towards her friends, awaiting the moment the robot would smash down the door.
“Release me to you! I, Patheticon the Pesterbot, shall bring destruction over you!”
“Patheticon?” Pinkie asked.
“Patheticon the Garglemost! I am the Prime Minister Sinister, Doom-Master Thirteen Seventy Master of all Killflex!”
Rainbow unintentionally relaxed from her fighting stance, dumbfounded by the titles. Was the robot serious? Only Pinkie’s laughter could be heard in the room.
“You dare to laugh at me? I will rend you with my pinchers! I, Shivatron, will despoil your laughter! Open the door so I can bring you your doom!” It kept knocking on the door.
It only made Pinkie laugh harder, as she fell on the ground and held her tummy with her hands. At this point everyone else relaxed from their fighting stance, with some still having a dumbfounded expression, while others already couldn’t prevent a giggle.
“Well, it certainly wants us dead,” Applejack said. “But come on, Minister Sinister? Does it want to kill us with laughter?”
“Maybe that’s the tactic,” Twilight replied. “It shows itself laughable to make us feel safe, and then strikes when we’re not expecting it.”
“Then let us face it now,” Sunset suggested and took back her fighting stance. “Rarity, bring back the crystals as shields, Rainbow, open the door.”
Rainbow slowly walked towards the door and unlocked it. Then opened it slightly and ran behind the shielding crystal.
Immediately the robot slammed the door and walked into the room. However, the door crashed against the wall and bounced back, knocking the robot to the ground.
“You dare to attack me?” it spoke, waving its arms and legs. “Your foolish attempts are your death sentence! Prepare to be crushed against my claws!”
It had no claws. And it couldn’t get up from the ground.
Pinkie fell again, her contagious laughter making it impossible for everyone to stay serious. At last, Rainbow was the first one to break out in the laughter too, and was soon followed by the others.
“Laugh! But once you will face the wrath of Pesterbot the FiestaStop, you will beg for mercy as I sing my damnation upon you!”
“Stop it! Stop it!” Pinkie begged. “I can’t breathe anymore!”
“Beg for air!” the robot continued. “You‘re just insects that I will crush with my pinchers!”
“Girls?” Fluttershy raised her arms, but got ignored.
“Maybe we should help it up?” Sunset wiped a tear from her eye. “I want to see it fall again.”
“Girls?”
“No, I won’t survive this!” Pinkie’s laughter turned into a silent gasping for air. “It’s… too much.”
“Girls!” Fluttershy’s voice was barely hearable through the laughter.
“Already on it!” Twilight used her telekinesis to help the robot up in the air.
Once the magic let it go, it ran towards Rainbow, bumped on her leg and then fell back to the ground, resulting in an even louder laughter.
“WATCH OUT!” Fluttershy pointed towards the window, and when her friends looked towards it, they saw fire crashing through the window.
Before Rainbow could react, she saw a crystal being summoned before them, shielding them from the attack.
When it stopped, the girls ran out of the room and out of the building, as the fire started to spread. Outside, Rainbow couldn’t believe what she saw.
Before them stood a real red dragon, its size being at least three times of a human. Its mouth produced another wave of fire, which was shot at the building they just left.
“You have dragons too?” Sunset asked in surprise.
“No, they’re just fairytales,” Twilight replied. “At least they’re supposed to be.”
“Less talking, more fighting!” Rainbow took a stone and threw it at the dragon. “Hey, you! We’re down here!”
“Rainbow, you i–” Before Twilight could finish her sentence, it aimed the fire breath at them.
Despite the fire being blocked by a summoned crystal, Rainbow could feel the heat of it. The crystal began to melt and Rarity had to summon another to block the attack.
“Enough!” Rarity shouted when the fire stopped and summoned several small crystals. “It’s time to end this once and for all!”
The crystals flew at high speed towards the dragon, but simply bounced off it.
“You’re not in character!” the dragon spoke and shot another fire breath at them.
Another shielding by the crystals, but this time Rarity’s arms were shaking.
“I can’t hold that much longer,” she coughed.
“Retreat!” Sunset pointed at the building they had left. “Hide behind it!”
“As if!” Rainbow picked up more stones from the ground and ran with superspeed around the dragon, before using the speed to throw the stones at it.
One of the things she had to learn when using her superpower was to not let any object on her accidentally fall off, as they would be like bullets against anyone or anything else. However, the stones she threw were not even affecting the dragon at all. It simply turned its head towards her.
“Not in character!” it said and swung its tail at her.
Rainbow dodged, but the tail crashed into a building.
“What do you mean not in character?” Rainbow ran back before the empty building.
But she had to run again, this time back to her friends, as another fire breath was shot.
“Great job, Rainbow!” was the sarcastic comment by Twilight that she was met with.
“Shut up! Someone had to do something!”
“And making it angry?”
“What does it mean by ‘not in character’?” Pinkie asked.
“Beats me,” Applejack replied. “Sunset, how are the dragons in your world?”
“I haven’t met any, but they like to eat gems. No idea if that applies to the dragons here too.”
“And how is that supposed to help us fight it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s hungry?” Sunset shrugged with a nervous smile.
“Speaking of fighting that thing,” Rarity said. “Shouldn’t that organisation with their helicopter appear? Or do they want us to deal with it?”
“Good question,” Twilight replied. “Unless they want the city to be fried, they better act fast.”
“Look!” Pinkie pointed to the building, which the dragon had by now torn down to debris. Behind it, the dragon saw the girls and jumped at them.
“I’ll distract it!” Rainbow ran to the side and threw anything she could find at it, but none of them made the dragon look away from her friends.
“Alright, it’s on me then.” Applejack tore down a tree and charged towards the dragon.
Already expecting the obvious, Rainbow ran towards her and, when the tree broke down in pieces without even making the dragon flinch, pushed her out of another fire breath.
“I would have gotten it!” Applejack said.
“You’re welcome for saving your life,” Rainbow muttered.
Sudden loud bangs made her cover her ears. Turning to the source, she saw Pinkie throwing her sprinkles at the dragon.
“Not in character!” it responded, unaffected by the explosions, and swung its tail at her.
Pinkie was covered in a purple aura and floated away just in time to dodge the attack.
“Anyone else have an idea?” Sunset asked.
Suddenly a net was thrown, pinning down the dragon and making it struggle to free itself. Coming closer, Rainbow saw that the net was made out of chains and… were those people in knight costumes holding down the net?
“At last, it has come!” one of them spoke. “Thy time ends, and victory prevails for us!”
The dragon screamed and pulled with its claws against the net. “Foolish humans! The net will only prolong your inevitable death!”
“The knights will achieve glory and wealth for thy legendary victory!”
Another man in a knight costume appeared and stabbed the dragon with his sword. It cried in pain and stood up, forcing the others to let the net go.
As relieved as she was that the organisation had come to fight it too, Rainbow could only watch with a baffled expression as more people in knight costumes came out with swords, spears and bows and arrows and attacked the dragon — and their attacks actually did something to it! It felt like a joke.
Nonetheless, it was obvious that they struggled, and when a breath of fire was unleashed on them, only the summoned crystal from Rarity was able to save them.
“I got it!” Pinkie exclaimed. “You defend the knights. Fluttershy, you come with me!” And the next moment they were gone.
The fight kept on. The remaining girls protected the people in knight costumes from any attacks, either by shielding or pushing them away. But defending them was the only thing they could do, as any offence from the girls remained ineffective. Nonetheless, the combined effort was able to keep the dragon in place and prevent any further damage.
But still, Rainbow wondered why any guns or other, more effective weapons weren’t used — or rather, why those swords and spears damaged it, but not a stone flying at high speed.
The answer was about to become clear when Fluttershy appeared, flying in the air. Several birds were around her, but what stood out to Rainbow was the fairy costume she wore. She even had fairy ears and hid her pony ears in her hair.
“Who dares to disturb the peace?” Fluttershy spoke — loudly and clearly, to Rainbow‘s surprise. “I, the Elf queen of the Everfree Forest, demand answers!”
“Elf Queen?” the dragon laughed. “May she prove herself then!”
Fluttershy pointed her finger at it, and the birds flew at the dragon, attacking its eyes with their beaks. It screamed and waved its arm around, but the birds were too small to get hit.
“Attack!” one knight declared, and with a battle cry the others raised their weapons and hit anything of the dragon that they could.
“Ohh,” Twilight spoke. “In character as in mythology!”
“Yup!” Pinkie suddenly appeared between them. “It wants to play a game of middle age fighting and that’s why these people are in knight costumes. However, I thought it would be smarter if we used other mythology creatures to incorporate our powers in them. Twilight, take the witch costume.”
“And us?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “Why didn’t you give any of us a costume?”
“That’s because the guy in the van told me that anyone who attacked the dragon out of character won’t be able to harm it anymore.”
“The who in the what?” Applejack asked.
“The guy in the van down the street looking over the fight.” Pinkie replied in her usual cheerful voice. “Knight costume, computer on lap, radio operator — one member of the organisation.”
“Hmph.” Rarity crossed her arms and raised her head to the side. “He better leave when the dragon gets beaten.”
“You are aware that the people in knight costumes are also part of it, aren’t you?” Sunset asked.
“I am, darling. I am.”
“Shouldn’t we pretend we don’t know them?” Applejack asked.
“Oh, I did,” Pinkie responded. “He waved at me himself.”
“Done,” Twilight put on the witch hat, the last part of the costume, on her. “What do I do?”
“Stay in character,” Pinkie answered, “and keep doing it even when the dragon is dead. For the rest of us, we have to go away if we don’t want it to revive after being killed.”
“Revive?” Sunset asked.
Pinkie shrugged.
“That’s what I was told.”
“Ugh, I hate it!” Rainbow turned her view towards the dragon. “There is this one opportunity for me to finally fight a dragon and now I can’t do it.”
“Maybe another time!” Pinkie smiled.
“Good luck then.” Applejack gave a punch on Twilight’s shoulder. “Show that dragon what we’re made of.”
“See you later then,” Twilight responded and ran to the fight.
There were many things Rainbow expected after the dragon being defeated: Gas release to erase memories, the organisation knocking them out and putting them back to their houses — considering how they just got an audio recording of themselves destroyed in the building by the dragon, Rainbow wrote down after leaving the fight scene the most important parts and hid it in an inside pocket on her jacket.
However, the last thing she expected from the organisation was doing simply nothing.
“So, what happened?” Sunset asked the returning Twilight and Fluttershy.
“Well,” Twilight responded, “after I introduced myself and used telekinesis to hurt it, it got mad and called it ‘cheating’, said that it will never return again and disappeared in thin air.”
“So knights that it’s able to kill are fine, but someone from its league is cheating.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Hypocrite.”
“And the knights?” Rarity asked.
“They just left, didn’t even bother to tell us anything.”
“But why?” Rainbow asked. “When the police monster appeared, they chased us all around the city until they erased our memories!”
“That is indeed strange.”
“Really? I think it’s obvious,” Pinkie replied. “You see, in your case they had to use their equipment, which meant that anyone seeing them would figure out that a military organisation is keeping the city as a prison, but with the dragon and the knights, no one will suspect a bigger organisation behind it. Besides, we fought it, so many will think it’s another case of Equestrian magic possessing anything, maybe even some time travel stuff – and they won’t have to explain the burned down building.”
The girls stood in silence, processing the presumption.
“Makes sense to me,” Twilight said. “If they are limited in resources, they would only use the gas when absolutely necessary. And who knows what kind of side effects repeated usage might risk. ”
“Here’s what we’ll do then,” Sunset said. “Everyone goes back to their homes. I’ll go through the portal and tell Princess Twilight about what we’ve found out. If I hadn’t already before.”
The girls nodded and parted their ways.
Rainbow closed the curtains on her windows and pulled her desk towards her. When enough space between the wall and the desk was made, she went towards the back and pulled on a secret shelf. There were several notes of papers with any recent incidents happening, and when Rainbow pulled another paper from her jacket, she read through it one more time.
Despite the inactivity of the organisation, she still didn’t want to risk waking up with any lost information. She took a pencil, added a few more notes, and then put the paper on the shelf with the others.
After she pushed her desk back against the wall, she changed into her pyjamas and went to bed.
Today was definitely something. It still wasn’t as thought-consuming as the night after the night chase, but there was still the newly learned fact that other unnatural things outside of Equestrian magic were out there in the world.
However, she would definitely understand if none of her friends would be able to fall asleep tonight. She expected to wake up in the morning with several new messages in the group chat — surely not about the new found out things, but something to pass the time.
Well, maybe they would talk about the dragon. Rainbow was still angry that the once in a lifetime opportunity of fighting a dragon was lost because she was “not in character”. What a stupid concept.
Her thoughts wandered towards the robot that they met in the building and she giggled. That robot was painted so dangerous through the Desire camera, and yet it was so pathetic.
Suddenly she sat up.
Desire camera? What it did was obvious, but… Where did they even get one?
And most importantly, how did they know about the space rifts?