The citizens of Ponyville had stayed in the market square long enough to hear Princess Celestia’s explanation (Discord did this to you, but the Elements turned him into a statue, so it’s OK now) before wordlessly turning in to sleep. The Princess used her magic to repair a few houses that were on the verge of collapsing due to the fighting, before returning to Canterlot to find out what happened there.
The Royal Guard set down with their chariot outside the Apple homestead. Ragamuffin pushed ahead and knocked on the farmhouse door until Big Mac answered, with Granny Smith and his wife watching.
“There was a fight with Chrysalis and her changelings,” he told them, loud enough to be heard by the nervous guards behind him. “Everything’s in the open now. We would like to take you into our custody until everything is settled.”
“Alright,” Granny said with resignation. She waited until they were outside before assuming her native form, followed by Big Mac.
Ragamuffin and Mrs. Peel shared a look. Ragamuffin turned around and shed his armor and weapons. “The wife and I will save you a little trouble and surrender ourselves,” he said sadly, before they dropped their disguises.
There was a collective hiss of breath from the guards.
The next day a town crier dropped the bombshell about the Apples. Everypony stayed inside…
With a few exceptions.
Lyra, sitting in an improvised wheelchair, was being pushed around the town by Sweetie Drops. She was stopping before each home and trying to peer in through the windows.
“I wish you’d take some time to recover,” Sweetie said.
“She’s in this town somewhere,” Lyra replied. “Rozetri has been living next to me this whole time, and I never knew. Is she trying to avoid me? I…I wouldn’t blame her if she was.”
“She probably couldn’t see through your disguise,” Sweetie said. “If she witnessed the fight, she knows the truth. Wait for her to step forward on her own.”
“Or…I could ask Twilight! Everypony trusts her with their secrets.”
“Actually,” Sweetie said, “everypony trusted their secrets with Applejack. She was the only one in this town who knew that I was an ex-agent. And now…”
“I trust her,” said Lyra. “I couldn’t read her emotions, like she apparently could read everyponies’, but I saw no sign of betrayal in her.” She frowned as she added, “And I’m an expert in being betrayed by double agents.”
“I get the feeling that I wouldn’t like how spies operate in the N-Verse,” said Sweetie Drops.
“Absolutely not,” said Lyra.
Rarity knocked quietly on the library door.
“Come in,” said a voice from within.
Rarity crept inside, nervously looking around her and avoiding windows.
She found Rainbow Dash in the reference section, one of Star Swirl’s monster encyclopedias open before her.
“Twilight and Spike are upstairs,” Rainbow said softly. “They won’t disturb us.”
Rarity sighed, mentally kissing her equinity away. “Alright. Read it to me.”
Rainbow began to read the entry: “Agreppa. Offshoot of the Grepp. According to Marcus the Agreppa, the first ‘a’ stands for ‘advanced’ and the second…stands for ‘extra advanced’. Agreppa are not known for the smallness of their egos.”
Rarity rolled her eyes.
“Like the better-known grepp, agreppa have memory-related mental abilities and the magical power to disguise themselves as different ponies with an illusion—wait, I can do that? Ahem. In contrast, agreppa do not digest memories, but rather steal, save and treasure them, judging their worth relative to other agreppa based on the number and quality of these ‘Perfect Moments’, as they call them.”
Rarity slumped.
“Agreppa will sometimes spend years in the same pony disguise, acting to make significant improvements in their intended victim’s life, but this is always for the singular purpose of creating a Perfect Moment.
“Outside of this pursuit, agreppa prefer the company of ponies to their own kind. They tend to be articulate, highly educated, and very-well dressed, with some blinding exceptions.”
Rarity pictured both her mother and her father in their typical attire and was frankly unable to decide which one of them might have been her monster progenitor.
“The author only has Marcus’ word that his kind is related to the grepp, although that makes sense. In fact, no agreppa has ever been seen outside of their pony forms,” Rainbow concluded.
“Alright, that’s me,” Rarity said as Rainbow replaced the volume. “Now what?”
“Well, I couldn’t do anything with memories before Twilight shot me with that spell last night. Did anything happen to you?”
Rarity blinked. “I’m…I’m not sure. Perhaps now I’ll be able to put my stolen memories back. Did the book say anything about that?”
“No,” said Rainbow, thinking about Rozetri. “But I really hope it is true. For both of us.” At the look of shock on Rarity’s face she quickly added, “I never stole any memories, Rarity. I never knew about…” She gestured at herself. “…This, before three weeks ago.”
“Ah,” said Rarity. “That’s why you’ve been so melancholy.”
Rainbow nodded. “But I know someone with memory problems…and a serious case of self-denial. When she finally comes to her senses, I want to help her.”
“Rozetri?” Rarity guessed. “We don’t know that many ‘someones’ who aren’t also ‘someponies’. It wouldn’t be Spike. Your griffon friend from school would have been my second guess.”
Rainbow sighed, mentally wondering where Gilda might be at that moment. She both did and didn’t want to see her again.
Outside Ponyville, a lone griffon sat at the top of a tree, after taking the slowest possible path to get here. She had just gone through a very confusing night where everypony around her had gone absolutely insane. But things seemed better now—the ponies had pulled off the impossible. Again. Like they always did.
Gilda wondered if “forgiveness” counted as one of those impossibles. And wrestled once again with her worthiness of receiving it.
Twilight lay quietly on her bed, waiting for her two guests to leave.
Suddenly Spike coughed up a scroll from his spot in his basket and carried it over to her.
Twilight scanned it over quickly. “Princess Luna doesn’t know where Sonata is,” she said.
“Wait, Sonata’s gone?” asked Spike.
“I told you before we went to bed last night—I checked the basement, and her statue was gone, with a puddle on the floor. There were also residues of teleportation magic, but I was unable to trace the destination, other than to say it is far, far away.”
Spike shrugged. “I was too worn out after my rampage.” His lip wibbled. “Do you think the ponies of Canterlot will ever forgive me?”
“As your sister, I will spend every bit necessary to repair every building you demolished,” Twilight promised him.
“And I’m going to help rebuild!”
“I…I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Twilight said. “Nopony’s in a good mood right now. Half the population of both Ponyville and Canterlot are in the hospital right now. Everypony wants somepony to be mad at. A statue of Discord is not going to cut it, nor is a missing horde of changelings.”
“So, I get some of the blame, and the Apples get the rest,” said Spike. “It’s not fair!”
(The imprisoned Starlight Glimmer also stood to collect a considerable portion of unearned blame at her upcoming trial, but neither of the two siblings were yet aware of her situation.)
“No, it isn’t, but there’s nothing we can do about it yet.”
“No, I guess not,” Spike said. He got back into his basket and lay down, looking up at the ceiling. “I wonder what Sonata’s doing right now…”
The bright flash of teleportation faded, and Sonata Dusk rubbed her eyes with her hooves to try and regain her eyesight. The sounds of eager chattering, youths playing, even singing…all of it cut off shortly after her appearance.
Sonata lowered her hooves and slowly levitated in a circle. She was in a public park of some kind, surrounded by tall trees. Many of the trees had domed houses nestled within their branches. The park itself was on a terrace, with multiple broad steps leading to other levels, going down to the sea in one direction and up to the peak of an enormous mountain in the other.
And all around her were creatures she had never seen before, with beaked faces resembling griffons in some respects, but in most others looking like pegasi. All of them looked at her in shock. What stood out the most to Sonata was the fact that the majority of the creatures she saw were children. Poor innocent children—no match for her inescapable ability to corrupt and destroy with every utterance.
“Stay away from me!” she cried, wrapping her head with her arms and flying blindly down the mountain.
The creatures parted to let her pass, unsure if she was a threat or not.
~ ~ ~
When she reached a cliff overlooking the water, she dived right in.
The sea floor was quite deep here. She found the entrance of an undersea cave and swam in. The passage split and divided, and Sonata used her instincts to find the passage least likely to be visited by any aquatic life.
Finding a surface to the water she emerged into a dry cave, with no outlets. She found a corner where she hoped she wouldn’t be found, and tried in vain to activate the Suppressor, again and again and again.
And when that failed, she collapsed into tears. It was the first time that she could finally express her emotions after she lost Luna.
She didn’t notice the head of young Princess Skystar emerge from the water. The hippogriff climbed out of the water and walked over to the siren, resting one hoof over the poor creature’s shoulders.
END PART ONE