Twilight continued staring at the stallion as Thorax tied him up with one of the blankets from the bed. The name Iron Spade rang a bell in her mind. It took a while for her to remember where she had heard his name before. Until she remembered the documents Luna had given her. He was that stallion that went missing with his brother and the mysterious death of his parents. “Thorax, I think this is the stallion from the document that I was reading. I believe Iron Spade fought in the Great Changeling War in Manehattan. Iron Spade, what happened to you and your brother? And what killed your parents?”
Iron Spade’s disfigured face whipped up to look at Twilight. He huffed and he breathed deeply as if enraged by this personal detail that was only meant to be known to him. “How do you know that?! Who told you this?!”
“Well, your name was in a folder Princess Luna gave me on matters of this investigation. And it so happens that your case seemed to be a point of interest to me, because of a disappearance of a stallion and his brother, who were proud soldiers of this war, suddenly vanishing with their parents dead and the Tallmare being spotted in photographs in the smallest of details, sounds very off-putting to me.” She looked down at him suspiciously and raised his blood-caked chin with her hoof as she glared down at him.
Iron Spade’s eyes seemed to turn to pinpricks as he took in this new revelation with painful catharsis as the mare he tried to kill and opposed stared daggers into his very soul. “No. NO! No! NO!! You didn’t tell my squadron that they hid those spies amongst our group. Oh let me guess, they’re probably expecting us to overthrow these corrupt, lazy-ass business owners that sat on their flanks while we fought outside of their homes protecting them from YOU bugs from their lives. And oh, let me tell you more. Let me tell you more bitch of magic, that faceless thing made this whole experience worse. It all started as some old yip yap, then got out of hoof. Then things started getting crazy when we found out that a small celebrity by the name of Octavia happened to be in the city while it was being seized down. What was worse was that I had to protect this pathetic musician who barely had any training, any rifling, despite the clear fact that she seemed to not need our protection. Of course, my parents being some traditionalists in me and brother's experience in this world, they tried to bust our union militias and send some officers to watch over us.”
“So, wait, you are from Manehattan and the siege happened kind of while you were there and your parents didn’t really help keep your morale and sanity in check?” Thorax asked as he inspected the white hoodie Iron Spade had, realizing it was a wartime trench coat.
“Yeah, what do you think insect? Things then started to get even more crazier when I saw the tall creature itself, and it was amongst some changeling prisoners of war. Of course, only one of them unfortunately died and I got some evidence of the silent queen’s existence through something that was then a pony. And to quicken things up, I can quickly summarize the events before my fleeing of the battlefield. That Vinyl mare came to the rescue Octavia and we heard reports that she died while trying to save her. Don’t know how she’s still alive, but she is. And the day of reckoning… the day when those changelings brought their special tanks out of the forest outside of the city and gassed our trenches. I could feel my face and my comrades’ faces all boiling up from the noxious gas. I believe you guys call this event the “Attack of the Dead Ponies” and that makes a lot of sense. I was the one to actually lead the charge. I saved my comrades from dying slowly and painfully. Once they thought we were dead, despite our faces being covered by the back of our hoods, we attacked them. I remember my comrades relishing the anguish, suffering, all of it was taken out on those bugs. I was practically almost dead when a changeling decided to briefly spray my face with a flame thrower. Then, in short, for some fucking reason, the silent queen decided to heal me. Then I decided to bring my brother with me and dispose of my parents and attempted to dispose of the rest of the bourgeoisie in Manehattan. Of course, we fled and concluded that attacking the heart of this corrupt system would properly liberate the common pony from the wrath of this false goddess. And I just felt more enraged as the little sickness that the faceless mare gave me, gave me revelations that you may be surprised about.” He said with a gleeful chuckle as his two captors stared at his monologue intriguingly.
Twilight gave a self-satisfied smirk at him as she felt like she and Thorax were actually getting answers. “Alright, tell me of these revelations you have seen.”
“Well, I suppose I should simplify it for you. The world is created by these gods that are equally insane in nature. We had three worlds destroyed and created again and-”
“I already the story Iron Spade. You don’t have to tell me again. I saw it all on the cave paintings in the local cave in Ponyville.” Twilight said as she dismissively interrupted him with an uninterested roll of her eyes.
“Umm, umm, ok…. So what now?” Iron Spade looked around the bedroom with wary eyes as he spoke, clearly clueless on what else he should talk about.
Thorax could tell Iron Spade felt quite fumbled by the two companions foiling his plan and current predicament of being at their whims. Thorax kind of smirked at the realization and just continued to stare blankly at Twilight as the three shared awkward glances at each other before Rarity barged in.
“Oh Darlings, it seems like you’ve had quite the fun time in there. I didn’t know you were into that violent stuff but… dear Celestia! You’re friends with that creep?!?” Rarity squawked as she saw Iron Spade also known as Jeff.
Twilight whipped her head towards Rarity and glared at her before trotting over as Iron Spade started cackling.“Oh my fucking Luna, we did not do what you think we did! I’m not even into Thorax or this random fucker right here! Jeff just happened to be in the wardrobe planning to get us if we tried to stop him before he did!”
Rarity flinched back as Twilight stared daggers into her eyes. “Oh… that’s rather unexpected. I just thought you were done but apparently, you weren’t doing what I thought you were doing. I mean, I did think you had been eyeing each other but then again it was rude of me to barge in. Just, I also would like to announce that Applejack wanted me to tell you to come down here because of a ruckus downstairs. She’s concerned that there is something in here with us. So I just want you guys to come down and check with her.”
“Uh.. ok. Just, we’re going to go check real quick, leave Iron Spade in the room, then we can go back to sleep.” Twilight ended with a grumble as she and Thorax followed Rarity downstairs.
All the lights in the boutique were turned off and the only source of light was the shimmering blue light of Luna’s moon creeping through the window. The Element of Generosity then turned to a simple nondescript white door and turned the knob revealing a massive storage closet of mannequins and dresses all scattered about and Rarity’s diamond blue light cast shadows throughout the room. The room was spacious and it looked quite old. It looked like it went through recent renovations with freshly painted walls and a plastered ceiling with one single broken light bulb above in the center of the ceiling.
Rarity took a small breath before releasing it with a scoff as her expression turned to that of annoyance. “AJ said that this was the room where the ruckus was coming from. Ugh! It must be somepony like Filthy Rich trying to steal one of my fine dresses and sell it in their family shop. Those buggers have got to stop their poor excuse of a burglary before I file a lawsuit on their flanks!!” she screamed as she slowly guided her two friends to the center of the labyrinth of mannequins. As they started to enter they intertwined with various mannequins with their various clothes. Twilight couldn’t help but feel an odd sense in her gut as they scooted in between the standing mannequins while their eyes looked around the room, checking for any mannequins that happened to fall over or signs that hinted at somepony touching Rarity’s outfits.
As they continued to trot in a single file line they reached the right side of the back of the storage and stopped. Twilight couldn’t tell what Rarity was staring at since her view was blocked by both Thorax and Rarity standing in front of her.
“Huh, I don’t remember making any formal modern businesswear or ordering a mannequin so abnormally tall and skinny. Oh my goodness and I hadn’t realized until now that my horn is flickering. And is the ringing in my ear supposed to be this loud?” As Rarity started to whine and desperately rub her horn, Thorax and Twilight started to pick up on it too. That’s when Twilight and Thorax both grabbed Rarity by the mane and tried to pull her along. Rarity shrieked from the pain of her mane being pulled and when she started to see the mannequin stepping over the other ones. Its legs made long stilted strides towards her as her horn glowed with pain and overwhelming sensation. They continued to pull Rairty along while mannequins got pushed over as they blindly ran to the door and closed it as they got out.
The trio stared at the door in silence as Fluttershy and Applejack rushed over to the door to see what was up. They could all feel it, the pain in the back of their heads, the ringing in their ears, and the presence of something there. Throax could taste the undescribed emotion of that creature behind that door and it only vaguely tasted like rage but like something so much more than that, something he couldn't he put a hoof on.
Then suddenly the group of friends heard a voice echo through their heads. It sounded like a mare, a stallion, a foal, and all 5 of them, like they were allmelted together. "Well hello my little ponies, It seems like you finding out what this world is and understanding what I am better." The voice spoke with a hint of annoyance in its voice as its hoove-steps could be heard behind the door.
"Let's make a deal, I shall greet the Princess Of The Night at her old castle and help her remember her repressed memories. Then in the morning, please meet us at the abandoned Everfree Military Sanitorium where we make peace."
"WAIT TILL MORING?! THAT ANI'T FARE YOU SACK OF HORSE-APPLES! COME BACK HERE SO I-" Before Applejack could even speak there was an intense feeling of something, something like the feeling somepony gets from staring down and endless hallway. Then as the feeling left, it was day.