//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Twenty questions. // Story: P.O.N.I.E.S: Shadow of Canterlot // by GoldenGust //------------------------------// "Favourite colour?" Rarity asked as she was limping alongside Silver. "Hmm, Blue. Least favourite colour?" Silver countered. "Green. You aren't great at this." Rarity giggled. "I'm bad at thinking of questions, ok!" Silver squeaked in embarrassment. Rarity laughed at the noises coming from the stallion as she thought of another question. "Ah, here's a good one. Your name, Silver Bullet, were you named before or after the invention of firearms as we know them today?" Rarity tilted her head. "After. Silver Bullet is a code name." Silver explained as he got a hang on his nerves again. "Ooo, like a spy?" Rarity said playfully. "Kinda, yes. I've had many names over the years. Silver was just the one that stuck. Now that I think about it, I didn't have a name before then," Silver pondered momentarily. "This is technically classified information, so don't tell anypony." Silver rubbed the back of his neck as Rarity put a hoof over her heart. "Wouldn't dream of it, darling," Rarity put her forehoof back on the ground before she stumbled over herself. "Now, I'm curious, though. How many code names have you had? What was the worst?" "Well, my job was to fit in, be innocuous enough that I could be a fly on the wall and collect information. A background pony, if you will. So usually the name is to fit the environment. Dusk Heart, White Song, and things like that. The worst one, though? Pony Horse." Rarity snorted in response to Silver's words. "Did you say… pony horse?" Rarity looked in disbelief. "As you can imagine, that moniker didn't last long," Silver responded with a smile. Rarity took a deep breath to collect her thoughts, deciding to move on before erupting into laughter. "Ok, I have another question. Don't feel compelled to answer this one if you don't want to. I'm simply curious, darling. Luna. What is your relation to the princess? I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with her. You seemed oddly consoling," Rarity asked, raising her brow. Silver pondered on how best to answer. "Luna and I met a while ago, back when I first did detective work for the royal family. The smaller, more nuanced stuff that you wouldn't be called in for. I dealt with mundane threats to Canterlot rule. Luna and I forged a friendship during the time I was stationed in Canterlot. She just understood me like Celestia didn't. Don't get me wrong, Celestia was jovial and kind, but Luna helped me; I've been trying to return the favour ever since. When this all happened, I wasn't able to get in contact with her. She wasn't in Canterlot at the time, thank Celestia. I had done some things for her off the books, so to speak. So when she called me in to investigate this, I just had to," Silver explained, reminiscing about his time spent in Canterlot before everything. "Did you ever see Twilight while you were there?" Rarity wondered. "Well, it's hard to go anywhere in Equestria without hearing about you six. But living so far away, I was never able to put names to faces. Plus, I never really paid attention, if I'm honest. Had my worries. I know you because of your influence in the fashion scene, but the others? Not much. I saw Twilight towards the tail end of my stay. She was interesting. Kind but dismissive, like her mind was elsewhere. A few collection chores later, and that was the last I heard about her," Silver pondered on his own words. "What did you get for her?" Rarity pressed, leaning in slightly. "Assorted herbs, some tools. Nothing out of the ordinary, unfortunately," Silver searched his archived memories for anything else before landing on something. "Wait, wasn't one of your friends a baker?" "Pinkie, yes." Rarty's eyes widened in anticipation. "Could be nothing, but I do distinctly remember the smell of pastry on her. No, I wasn't just sniffing the princess for fun. It was prominent. Kinda like a tea party." Silver and rarity thought for a moment. "Leading up to the disaster, there was this tension in the air, like something was wrong. Pinkie seemed to feel it the most. They were both acting off," Rarity let out a frustrated sigh. "I hate it. The more I think about it, the more confused I get. I wouldn't dream of accusing them of hiding something from us all, but what other conclusion am I meant to draw?" Rarity shook her head as the sight of a familiar town approached from the distance. "Let's hope we find some answers here." Rarity and Silver entered the town. The look on Rarity's face was one of a mind awash with memories, a mix of joy and sorrow conflicting to form an unnatural expression. Her old haunt now felt ghostly. "Let's go to the Boutique first. There are a few... personal things I would like to grab," Rarity somberly trotted towards a round, two-story building. There was a dilapidated horse statue on the roof, and an empty place where its twin once stood, now embedded in the ground. Rarity was stopped by her door. She pushed her back into the creaking door and slowly opened it with a screech. She stood panting for a moment and stepped aside. "My house is your house," she smiled weakly. "Such a gentlecolt," Silver smiled back and stepped inside, with Rarity following close behind. Silver felt the air in this place; it was thick with melancholy, which Rarity mimicked. "This is a beautiful place, even in this state," Rarity let a smile grace her face for a moment. "Thank you, darling. I enjoyed decorating the place. It was my pride and joy," Rarity sighed, dragging her hoof along a desk before pausing to think for a moment. "I want to find my old sewing machine. It's a custom model I made myself. It can do things the ones on the market can't." Rarity began her search. "I hope to Celestia it hasn't been stolen," she expressed with concern. Silver joined in the search, looking around the space for the distinctive sewing machine. "You customised it yourself?" Silver asked to fill the silent air. "Yes, I used to tinker in my spare time. Applejack taught me," Rarity smiles weakly. "It's a blessing and a curse to have memories like that. It's sad, of course, but it's nicer to remember the good we had. When rumours of a war started, she convinced me to acquire more practical skills. Being a tailor was good, but being seen as an engineer was better," Rarity chuckled to herself. Silver found a dusty sewing machine and table combo. The machine was red with some golden highlights and a metallic wheel, standing out even under layers of dust. "I think I found it!" Silver shouted, his voice echoing slightly in the quiet space. "It's bigger than I thought it would be." "Oh, thank Celestia!" Rarity comes rushing over and hugs the machine. "It's so good to see it again!" Rarity giggled and stood up, igniting her horn, and making the machine puff into a colourful cloud of smoke. "I hope they won't question a random sewing machine appearing out of thin air," Rarity laughs and smiles fondly at Silver. "Thank you for joining me." Silver felt his cheeks light up a little, "It's no problem. Do you need anything else?" Silver smiled back. "No, let's get to why we are here." Rarity took one last nostalgic look at the room before exiting with silver. Silver kept his ears perked as he felt the clammy air on his face. Rarity pulled out her gun, and Silver followed suit. "So, we are heading to the big treehouse?" Silver asked, and Rarity acknowledged with a nod. "After that, we go to th- Agh," as Rarity glanced over to her old friend's bakery, she held her hoof to her head and grunted in pain. Silver did the same, feeling a burning sensation in his brain before he forcefully ripped his gaze away from it. "I'm guessing that's the psyfield you mentioned?" Silver asked. Subcontiusly standing between Rarity and the anomalous bakery. "We will need to visit the rock farm after all. Starlight will have something. Plus, it would be nice to see her again," Rarity admitted as she continued limping her way towards the treehouse. Silver reached the big red door first; there was an empty candle holder on it with a broken window above. Silver nodded to Rarity, and Rarity nodded back. Silver opened the door, leading with his firearm. Any attempt to be sneaky was trumped by the squeak and cry of the door. They both made their way inside and began to search the rooms, finding the place completely barren. Empty bookshelves and hardly any furniture. "This place looks ransacked. But what would raiders need with some old furniture and a dragon's horde of books?" Rarity was puzzled, standing at the top of a double staircase. Silver took another look around his surroundings before thinking it over. "They wouldn't. No scrape marks from the furniture being moved, which means it was teleported or floated away. And specifically, all the books are gone. It would be more disorganized if raiders did it—if they wanted the books at all," Silver analyzed the surroundings and noted a circular groove at the base of a bookshelf. "I've found something; seems Twilight needed a secret door." Silver made his way over and looked over the bookshelf for anything out of place. Rarity made her way next to Silver. "Locking hex, and a powerful one at that. With my horn in this state, I won't be able to open it." Silver looked over to Rarity. "Wanna learn some espionage magic?" Silver smiled. "I could give it a go but Twilight was an alicorn." Rarity said werily. "Magic is odd. Alicorn magic may be powerful, but there are things you can do to help yourself. Place your hoof on the door," Silver asked, and Rarity obliged. She felt a small vibration in her hoof. "Feel it vibrating? Kind of pulsates too? A trick I learned was to match your breathing to the pulse." Rarity nodded and breathed slowly. "Now, envision the person who made the lock and picture them giving you the key." Rarity furrowed her brow in confusion and chuckled. "I'm not joking; it does help!" Silver giggled softly and let Rarity get on with it. After a moment of picturing, Rarity's horn burst into magic, which seeped into the wood of the bookshelf. Rarity stumbled backwards and landed on her haunches with a thud. "What just happened?" Rarity blinked in shock. "You just revered an alicorn spell, well done!" Silver laughed and went over to help rarity to her hooves. "Where did you learn that?" Rarity shook her head to regain her composure. "Got to thank Luna for that. Magic is as much about knowledge as it is about feeling. You can learn a spell, but to master it, you need to understand its nuances from emotions. Then you can truly harness it," Silver explained, turning back to the bookshelf and pulling it open. Peeking around it, he shook his head and laughed. "What's wrong?" Rarity tilted her head. "Twilight is always prepared, huh? There's a vault door behind this bookshelf. Combination lock." Silver continued to open the bookshelf, "It's not magically locked I don't think but..." "There's always a but." Rarity playfully rolled her eyes. They landed on something pinned to the inside of the bookshelf, "What's this?" Rarity used her magic to float the note over to herself. "To Twilight, You know what you did. I refuse to be a lab rat anymore. I know you know the combination off by heart so I took something else. This door won't open until you come to see me and we talk about this. mare to mare. I'm waiting. p" Rarity blinked a few times. She felt the hostility in the letter. It shook her, "This… this can't be right, can it?" Silver moved to look at the letter, "A lab rat? Was Twilight doing tests on Pinkie?" "No!" Rarity snapped, her face was contorted into anger for a moment before it softened, "I'm sorry." Rarity stuttered for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Sometimes the past hurts, I don't blame you but, we need to look at every possibility" Silver was compassionate, making Rarity smile. "This must have been the cause of all of the tension I saw. They must have sorted something out because Pinkie went to see her before everything collapsed. She even had cupcakes." Rarity held her head in confusion, "Can we magic this door open?" "We would need to disengage the lock first. It's a vault door so rods are holding it in place. We'd need to move them first. It seems like Pinkie has something vital to the door opening, maybe even the code itself. Either way, we need to get into that bakery." Silver huffed in frustration. "Let's get on the way to the rock farm then. Times wasting!" Rarity pocketed the note.  "Even if it's hostile, Maud would probably want it." "Family?" Silver asked. "Maud is Pinkie's sister, their parents owned the rock farm before it was converted into a research base." Rarity explained before heading to the door. "Let's get going. Sure hope Pinkie has what we are looking for." Silver nodded with determination.