The two mares stared slack-jawed at their previously lost friend for several seconds. Carrot Top quickly recovered, jumped off the bench, and galloped over to her roommate, with Octavia only a few seconds behind her. As Carrot caught up to Derpy, she gave her friend a large hug as tears ran down her face. "Where have you been? Dinky and I were worried sick!"
"Uh," Derpy said uncomfortably. "I was just, y'know, doing my job. I had to leave early in the morning for, um, a special assignment. Yeah." Carrot Top looked relieved, and released Derpy from the vice that was her hug.
Octavia stared at Derpy and said, "Well then, it's about the time Dinky gets out of school. How about we head over to Cheerilee's classroom and pick her up?"
"Oh, that's not the best idea," Derpy said, frowning. "I still have to deliver this really important package." She pointed at her mailbag, which from the bulges seemed to contain a large parcel. "You could go pick her up for me, I should be home later."
Carrot Top began to answer, but Octavia cut her off. "Actually, if you don't pick her up she's already going over to her friend's house. Why don't we join you on this delivery? You can never be too careful." Derpy looked like she was going to argue, then shook her head and smiled.
"Sure! The more, the merrier!" she said, and started down the road, Carrot Top and Octavia right behind her. They headed out of the park, and down Main Street. "So, what did I miss today?"
"Oh, you know," Carrot Top said, "just me spending all morning looking for you." Derpy shot her an apologetic glance. Carrot smiled back. "Sorry, it's just I've been worried sick about you." She paused for a second, her eyes scrunched up in thought. "What was with that thing last ni—"
Before she could finish her sentence, Octavia cut it off by pointing her hoof and speaking over Carrot Top. "Hey, is that Fluttershy?" Indeed, less than twenty meters ahead of them was Fluttershy. She had a harness strapped to her back, and was pulling a large cart. The inside of the cart was filled with various cages, crates, and containers. At Octavia's exclamation, the trio walked up to the pegasus struggling to pull her cargo down the road. "Why, hello there Fluttershy. How are you doing this fine afternoon," Octavia said in greeting.
"O-oh. Hello there Octavia, Carrot Top, Derpy," Fluttershy said. Her cheeks were blushing, and her eyes were darting around, never looking directly at any of them for more than a millisecond. Silence reined for some time.
"So," Octavia said, "are you going to tell us what you're doing with that contraption, or are we going to have to guess?" In response, Fluttershy stammered and looked at the ground.
Carrot Top shook her head, then said, "Let me take a shot in the dark: something is going on tonight. This mysterious 'something' holds the lives of everypony in Equestria, if not the whole world, in the balance. Not only that, but the only ones who can stop it are you and your friends, and you were specifically told by the Princesses not to talk about it to anypony. Does that sum the situation up pretty well."
Fluttershy blinked, looked up and into Carrot Top's eyes, then nodded. "That's exactly it. I-I'm not sure how you found out, but something terrible is going to happen tonight!" Tears welled up in her eyes. "T-the chances are likely that tonight I might d-d-d, that I might not be here tomorrow. Some of my animal friends can't really s-s-s-s, can't really live on their own. That's why I'm buying these containers. I'm going to make s-sure that if anything happens to me, they'll be sent to somepony who can take good care of them."
Octavia and Carrot Top smiled. "Good luck then. I'll be quite cross with you if I wake up tomorrow and there's no world to wake up to," Octavia said with a smile.
Fluttershy returned her smile with one much smaller. "I hope you two have a good day too. Oh, and if you see Derpy again later, tell her I said it to her and her children as well." Fluttershy turned and started back down the road. After a second, Carrot Top and Octavia's eyes narrowed, and they look behind them. Derpy was nowhere to be found.
Carrot Top and Octavia collapsed onto the ground, huffing and puffing as they did so. "Well," Octavia managed to say between gulps of air, "since we've been running for more than ten minutes, and still haven't seen hide nor tail of her, I'm going to guess she flew off." Carrot Top nodded, stood up, and steadied her breathing.
"Dammit," she swore. "I knew something was wrong! She wasn't worried about Dinky, she didn't mention her increasingly odd encounter with Bon Bon last night, and, and," she rambled. Carrot stopped for a second, deep in thought. "Something just didn't seem right about her..."
"I know what you mean," said Octavia, finally having recovered. "Something about her did seem 'off'. Well, more 'off' then usual."
"That's not the point!" Carrot Top shouted. "What matters is that we took our eyes off her, and she disappeared! Again!" She sighed, then let out a low chuckle. "This is easily one of the weirdest days I've ever had."
Octavia smirked. "What about that one case Luna sent us, with the Diamond Dog ambassador? And the Minotaur assassin?" Carrot Top groaned.
"That. That does not count." Carrot Top growled while Octavia snickered. "Firstly, it was not a 'day.' That particular mission took us two weeks! Therefore, it didn't meet the qualifications of my statement. But even if it did! I still said, 'one of.' This day a little more than half over, it can get weirder from here!"
Octavia opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she heard a familiar voice yell out, "Hooveston, we have a problem!" They turned their heads, and behind them was Vinyl Scratch, running frantically towards them. She skidded to a stop a few centimeters in front of Carrot Top. "Lyra's gone."
"What." Octavia asked flatly. "What do you mean by 'gone,' exactly? And how exactly did that happen!?" she asked.
Vinyl stepped back if few paces, her hoof rubbing her mane awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. So, we were looking around for a while, when all of a sudden we ran into Bon Bon! I thought something was weird, but Lyra didn't care. She was too busy bawling and hugging her." Vinyl paused for a moment before continuing. "Like I said, I thought something was up. So I told them to stay there, and I'd try to track you guys down. I trotted off in the direction you went, but after five minutes couldn't find you.
"So I headed back to where I'd left Lyra and Bon Bon waiting. Except when I got there, they were gone! I looked around for hours, but I still couldn't find them! At all!" Vinyl let out a long, sad sigh. "It's my fault. I should have stayed with them. Splitting up? I thought I was smarter than that. I mean really, w—" Vinyl was silenced as Octavia put a hoof on her shoulder.
"I'll have no more of that rubbish. You made a call. It was brash, short-sighted, and maybe a little idiotic," Octavia said.
"If this is supposed to be a pep talk, you're really lacking in the pep department." Vinyl interjected.
"But," Octavia continued, "flagellating yourself over it now won't help Lyra, and it just isn't who you are."
Vinyl blinked. "I'm sure that's supposed to be really insightful and smart, but I have no idea what that word starting with 'f' means." She choked back laughter. "Kinda ruins your epic speachifying skills."
"Yes, I suppose it rather does," Octavia said, a smile creeping into her lips. "Okay, how's this then? You are Vinyl Scratch. You are brash, short-sighted, and a little idiotic."
"Hey!" Vinyl cut in. "I take offense to that! I see just well, thank you very much! These glasses are not prescription."
"Vinyl! Quit going off topic! What I'm attempting to say is that you shouldn't 'beat yourself up' over your choice. If I had been there with you, as usual, I would have shot your suggestion down. But I wasn't." Octavia took a deep breath. "I apologize for last night. I acted rudely and unfairly. If you want to keep playing a," she paused for a moment, "psion, then I won't stop you."
"I accept your apology Octy. I guess it wasn't all your fault anyway. You were right, I was kinda ruining the game. Next time I'll try to, uh, restrain myself when character building," Vinyl said sheepishly.
Octavia gasped. "So you'll give up on min-maxing then?"
"What? Are you insane?!" Vinyl said with the return of her million-watt smile. "Changes in small steps Octy, don't get greedy. Next you'll want me to clean the kitchen or stop wearing my AwesomeShades© or, blech, start playing some boring old classical instrument." Octavia scowled for several seconds, before bursting into laughter. She then pulled Vinyl into a fierce hug. "Wait a second, who are you and what have you done with my Octy!? My prude never laughs! Are you some kinda shapeshifti—ouch, hey!" Vinyl said as Carrot Top punched her lightly in the shoulder.
"Listen, I'm glad you two made up and all, but we need to get going. Something around here stinks, and we need to start making some progress."
It was late afternoon as the street the three mares were walking down transitioned into the market area. Carrot Top looked around and sighed. "Great," she said. "Still no sign of them." Vinyl trotted over to her friend and slung an arm around her shoulders.
"Listen CT," the DJ said excitedly. "You need to stop being a sour puss, focusing on all the bad stuff and, and stuff!" Carrot Top turned her head to look at the grinning pony.
"Really, Vinyl? Then what, pray-tell, should I be focusing on?" Carrot asked.
"We're not bored!" Vinyl shouted. "Think about it, how long has it been since anything interesting happened last? I thought I'd die of dullness, but now here all this is! Three friends, missing! Something crazy's going down tonight with our faithful and stalwart heroes, the Bearers!" As she praised the six, sarcasm bled from every word. "And even that crazy doctor guy and his ever vigilant companions the Flower Shop Trio are doing something, even if it is just running from statues! The only way this day could be better if it turned out the ponynapping was part of a plot that could end up destroying the world!" As Vinyl continued her rant, she talked faster and louder and Carrot Top's glare intensified.
"Why, so we can risk our lives again with no recognition for our duties? I think I've had enough of that..." Carrot Top muttered under her breath.
"How in tarnation did y'all find out about the attack tonight?" asked a voice not five meters to their right. Standing there was Applejack, next to her sales stand. Carrot Top rolled her eyes.
"Let's just say we've had an action-packed day and Rarity isn't the best at keeping secrets." Carrot said. She looked pointedly at the cart, then back at Applejack. "This is probably an odd question, but why are you doing this? All your friends seem to think it's likely this is your last day alive, and you're spending it selling apples?"
Applejack shrugged and answered, "There are lot's a ways folks could die. My family knows, and we've made our peace, but our cryin' and moanin' ain't gonna support the farm!" She paused a second, before grinning. "Besides, I ain't fixin' to die tonight." Carrot Top and Applejack looked at one another. "I don't know exactly what's going on, but it sounds dangerous. Y'all better still be here tomorrow, or I'll be ornery at ya."
Carrot Top burst into a small chuckle, then nodded. "Same to you." Applejack nodded in reply. "Come on you two," Carrot said. The three mares set off down the road. Once out of earshot (or so they hoped), Vinyl tapped Carrot Top on the shoulder.
"I heard what you muttered back there. Are you thinking of quitting the...the...whatever it is our group is called!?" Vinyl asked.
"No!" Carrot exclaimed. "That isn't what I meant." She looked away. "It's just...frustrating. We work and sweat and bleed so everypony can stay safe, but nopony will ever know but us!" She said, gesturing around with her hoof as she spoke.
"So?" Octavia asked. "We didn't start doing this because we wanted praise, in fact we knew from the onset it wouldn't come our way."
Carrot Top sighed. "I know. I just didn't think it would hurt this much."
It was nearing evening as they passed the library. The sun's fading light made the shadows between buildings long and deep. As they scanned ahead, they caught sight off a pair of ponies standing in the area off in a nearby alley. "Wait a second," Carrot Top said slowly. "Is that...it is!" As they trotted closer, they could clearly see a grey pegasus standing next to a guard, and a package between them. Said guard looked from Derpy to the three strange mares.
"I thought you said you gave them the slip," the Guard said in a deep, disapproving voice. Derpy started sweating.
"Uh, hey guys. Sorry about ditching you like that, but talking with Fluttershy was taking too long, and I really needed to get this package delivered." Derpy said.
"Really?" Carrot Top asked. "Funny that. Usually you deliver your packages to actual houses, not strange guards in backalleys."
"Oh!" Derpy stammered. "W-well that's an interesting story, y-you see—"
"Shove it." Carrot said flatly. "You weren't concerned about your own daughter, and last night isn't making any sense."
"You didn't let me explain!" Derpy snapped. Vinyl approached her right side, and reached towards her eye. "Quit it! I don't want to go blind!" The looks of the three mares in front of her turned cold. "Uh, did the temperature just drop 5 degrees?"
Carrot Top shook her head. "You just sealed your fate. That was a test." Her glare intensified. "You see, there's this thing about Derpy Hooves: her eyes aren't too good. There's the obvious fact they don't go in the same direction half the time (which yours have failed to do all day mind you), but she's actually completely blind in her right eye." She turned her head and spat. "I've never seen one of you before in the flesh, but I know what you are. Hello, changeling."
Derpy(?) looked stunned for a second before grinning. Her right eye drifted off towards the sky. "So, her eyes are always like that? I just thought we hit her too hard. What an odd—ow!" The guard, who has been standing silently, smacked her over the head with a hoof.
"You have failed a basic disguise. Thanks to your carelessness, our entire mission may have been put into jeopardy. This mistake will not be forgotten." He turned his harsh gave towards Carrot Top, Vinyl, and Octavia. "It seems you three know the truth. It's a shame, but there's no stopping it now. Looks like you'll be joining the others." Carrot Top started to move, but the guard's horn glowed with a bright green and everything went dark.