Chapter 5
“Tyran and Genova”
Perspective: Tailspin
“Run that by me again,” I asked, slowly. “You’re saying the monster isn’t a monster anymore?”
Applebloom nodded. “Ah ain’t lyin'. He’s out there, and he’s a little guy, not big like he was.”
“Now that you mention it,” Pip said, tapping his chin in thought. “He did seem smaller when we saw him the second time. It was like he went from being a giant monster to being a normal sized monster.”
“Does it matter how small he’s gotten?” Diamond asked, looking around. “We can’t let him in! Who knows what he’ll do to us!”
"Ya'll heard 'em crying!” Applebloom pleaded, as she looked at me. “Come on, Tailspin. Ya gotta believe me when I say we should at least hear him out.”
“Why are you asking me?” I inquired.
“Cause yer the one with the plans” Applebloom said, knowingly. “Ya gotta hear him out and see he doesn’t look scary anymore.”
“It could be a trick,” Rumble pointed out. “He could just be a monster that looks like the other one to trick us into letting him in.”
“He could just be somepony who needs our help!” Sweetie Belle argued.
“Are we all forgetting that thing almost ate Dinky for lunch?” Pip fired back.
Arguing began to break out as some supported the idea, while many openly shot down the idea. This wasn’t getting us anywhere. I needed everypony to calm down. It was time to put my hoof down.
“EVERYPONY SHUT UP!” I shouted, quieting the group.
“Look, I know we are all scared right now,” I said, gently, “but the fact of the matter is, we can’t judge somepony we haven’t even really talked to. I’m going to talk to this guy, see if he really means us harm.”
“Tailspin!” Pip started to argue.
“I know what he almost did to Dinky,” I said to my best friend, “but you just gotta trust me on this one okay?”
Slowly the pinto nodded, “I’m sorry, Tailspin, I was just thinking about Dinky.”
The periwinkle unicorn blushed bright red at this. She smiled and nuzzled Pip on the cheek affectionately. Pip returned it slowly as I began to crawl towards the opening in the door.
I looked back and Scootaloo gave me a look. “Be careful, Tailspin.”
“Hey,” I said, with a smile. “I’m an Eye; we do stuff like this all the time.”
I put my mouth to the opening, “Hey, are you out there?” I put my ear to the opening waiting for a reply.
“You were arguing about me,” I heard the voice speak. It definitely sounded like a kid. “I’m sorry for scaring all of you.”
I spoke through the crack again, “Who are you? You got a name?”
“Tyran,” the voice said. “My name is Tyran.”
That’s an odd name, must be short for something. I decided not to beat around the bush. “Hey, why’d you attack us?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt anypony,” Tyran said, his voice laced with guilt. “I only wanted to get you guys back in the cages. Grandma would get very mad if she found out you all ran out,”
“Who’s this Grandma?” I asked.
“Grandma is the pony who raised me,” Tyran explained. “She left for a while, but now she's back. She's been taking care of me again for the past few months. I didn't like being here by myself. She told me to bring you guys here.”
“Why did she bring us here?” I asked, slowly. I could tell some of the group was getting anxious about hearing the answer.
Tyran’s response was odd, “I don’t know. She just said she needed… components I think the word was.”
I didn’t like that; I did not like that at all. Why’d she capture a bunch of kids for components? This was like something out of some weird horror story. I spoke slowly to Tyran, “Does Grandma know we are here?”
“No, no she doesn’t,” Tyran said, “I didn’t tell her because I was afraid she’d hit me or something.”
She certainly isn’t what I’d imagine a grandma to be like. Then again, I guess old ponies can’t all be Granny Smith. I looked out through the crack with my blue eye. “Come out, I want to see you.”
Slowly the overgrown bushes rustled and out stepped a small colt. His coat was the same scarlet as before, his mane was wild and overgrown. I noticed he was rather skinny too. His yellow eyes were not scary, but looked like everypony else’s eyes.
We were scared of just a normal kid in a big kid’s body.
“Are you gonna take us to Grandma?” I asked, slowly.
Tyran shook his head, “No, you guys don’t seem like bad guys. Grandma told me all these nasty things about ponies, but after hearing you guys talk things out and help each other, I’m… moved.”
“How old are you?” I asked, curiously.
“I’m eleven years old,” Tyran said, with a nod. “I’ve lived here my whole life.”
“Why were you big before?”
“Grandma gave me this medicine to make me big,” Tyran explained. “I didn’t mean to hurt anypony. I only wanted to help Grandma.”
“You look hungry.” I noticed his skinny body. You could almost count the ribs on his stomach. No colt should be that skinny.
Tyran looked down, and flushed in embarrassment. “Grandma hasn’t fed me yet, so yeah, I’m hungry.”
Just then Applebloom spoke behind me, “We got food in here! We can give ya some grub!”
Everypony looked at her like she was crazy. Then again they didn’t see the pitiful creature in front of me. They didn’t understand this guy was probably going to starve if we didn’t feed him.
I spoke through the crack “All right, we’ll give you food, but you gotta promise not to tell Grandma.”
“I promise,” Tyran said, with a nod. “I promise I won’t hurt anypony either. I only want to be with other kids.”
I nodded and backed away from the door. I looked at the group and said slowly, “Unbolt the door.”
“Are you nuts?” Rumble’s jaw dropped. “Did you hit your head or something? He’s the one who tried to capture us, again!”
“I agree with Rumble!” Diamond argued. “In case you forgot that thing attacked us!”
I had enough! I glared at Rumble and pushed him to the crack of the door. He protested a little, but I spoke firmly, “Take a good look at him, Rumble! Do you really think this is the same monster that attacked us?”
Rumble stopped struggling and took a good look out of the crack. The grey Pegasus slowly turned to me. He stared at me for about a minute before looking over at Pip. “Come on, give me a hoof.”
Pip looked at me; I nodded for him to help. My best friend sighed, and walked to the door. “I only hope you guys know what you are doing.”
Honestly, I hoped so too.
Slowly but surely the boards were pulled out using the hammers. When the last board came off, Pip opened the door. Everypony saw Tyran for the first time. Not as the scary beast he was before, but as just a hungry looking kid.
He looked at us slowly. “I’m sorry for scaring everypony, I really am.”
Applebloom was the first one to approach the colt. She gently smiled at him. “It’s alright; we ain’t scared of ya no more.”
Rumble and Pip closed the door behind Tyran as the colt entered. He sat down and the group just stared at him. That’s when I noticed Snips digging inside his bag. “What’s up Snips?”
The squat unicorn pulled out a pair of scissors and a comb. “He needs a mane cut bad. I’m hoping to exercise my skills on him.”
“I wondered what your cutie mark meant,” I said, smiling; I looked at Tyran. “Would you object to a mane cut?”
Tyran backed away slowly. “Will it hurt?”
Geez, this guy was sheltered. He’s never had a mane cut before? I gave him a gentle smile. “Nah, Snips here will take care of that wild mess of a mane.”
The scarlet stallion nodded and sat on his rump as Snips went to work. I was surprised that the short unicorn had quite a bit of skill with his magic. He handled the scissors on Tyran’s wild mane well.
I wonder if he'd be willing to look at Private’s hat mane once in a while. I crawled over to Truffle. He was just finishing up some stew in a makeshift pot he brought along. “How’s the grub coming?”
“Well, it’s not perfect when all you have is canned carrots, and some noodles, but I think this’ll get everypony’s stomach full.” He dug a spoon into his creation and offered me a taste.
I gladly tasted it and smiled. “It’s great, Truffle, let’s hope everypony can get their fill.”
The fat earth pony nodded and went back to work. Everypony was pulling out candy bars and potato chips as the feast began. We just shared all we had together. Whether it was some cookies that Sweetie Belle brought along, or some great crackers that Twist brought along, we all got to taste and enjoy it.
Tyran looked at all of us; his mane was certainly shorter now. It was cut into a short and windswept style that made him look like he belonged in No Direction. He smiled at Applebloom as she came with some of the stew inside one of those water bottle cups. He looked at the grub and then at her, then took a spoon and began digging into it.
Applebloom’s eyes went wide as she saw how much the weird colt ate. “Wow, were ya starvin' or somethin'?”
“I've just never tasted anything so good,” Tyran explained. “Far better than any of the food Grandma would give me.”
“What exactly did she give you to eat?” Applebloom asked, slowly.
“A bunch of these vitamins” Tyran explained, as he dug into a candy bar provided by yours truly. “She never cooked anything like this.”
“Thanks,” Truffle said with pride, as he started to clean up the empty pot with a rag he brought along in his bag.
“You know you aren’t so bad,” Pip said, with a smile at Tyran. “You just needed some food in you.”
“I’m sorry about throwing you about,” Tyran apologized. “You just caught me off guard when I went for the unicorn.”
“Hey, it’s nothing,” Pip said, slapping Tyran on the back. “Just make sure you stay in normal colt form so we won’t have to deal with it.”
“Yeah,” I said, with a smirk, “because if you really hurt Dinky, you’d bet Pip would get very mad.”
Pip blushed furiously as Tyran raised an eyebrow. “Your cheeks are turning red; maybe you should see a doctor.”
“I’m fine, really!” Pip said, way too fast.
“He’s just thinking about a certain unicorn shaped angel of his,” I said, laughing.
Everypony in the room laughed, except for Dinky who just giggled at Pip. Pip blushed furiously and looked away. Slowly Dinky walked to Pip and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I think it was very brave, don’t let anypony say otherwise.”
Tyran looked at the pair oddly, then he looked at me. “What’s gotten into them?”
I rolled my eyes and smiled, “They've been twitter patted.”
“Twitter patted?” Tyran asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“You really need to see more Disneigh movies,” I said, chuckling.
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Perspective: Private Eye
We walked down a long corridor for a few minutes. Twilight walked beside me closely, her coat pressed against mine. I looked over at Twilight and her troubled eyes met mine. “What’s wrong?” I asked, slowly.
“I just can’t stop thinking about Dawnbird,” she replied, sadly. “I can’t believe magic can be used so perversely.”
I pressed my head into Twilight’s, and gently nuzzled her, “It’s all right, Twilight. We’ll put a stop to this, I promise.”
Crash!
“Hey guys!” Big Mac shouted from up ahead. Big Mac was standing next to a suit of armor with Fluttershy on his back. The suit of armor had been knocked over, probably by the Pegasus, if I had to venture a guess.
Fluttershy got off Big Mac and looked at me “I knocked it over while I was looking out for spiders and, well…” She blushed in embarrassment.
Big Mac just smiled at her. “Well, if you hadn’t we wouldn’t have discovered this!” He pointed to a button on the stand where one of the armor’s boots was.
I pressed the button and a door opened in the wall. It was dark inside but I could see there was a staircase leading down. We were on the bottom floor; this had to led to the basement. I wondered what was down there.
I pulled out Blackbird and slowly began walking down the stairs into the darkness. After nearly ten minutes of walking downstairs I saw light coming from the passage way.
When I entered, I shuddered at what I saw. There were large floor to ceiling glass tubes everywhere. All filled with a strange blue liquid. That, however, was not all there in the tubes. Each also contained a corpse…
My companions all walked inside the strange lab. Liquids bubbled inside the beakers. Lab notes were everywhere, in some seemingly random system. I walked up to one of the corpses and stared wide eyed as I recognized it.
It was Tangerio… His corpse showing where Scarwing killed him by bucking him in the face. He was the first victim I’ve ever had to deal with in Ponyville. His father assassinated him in an attempt to frame Big Mac. Not only that, but it was also so Mandarin Orange could cover up the fact that Tangerio was illegitimate.
What is his corpse doing here?
“Private! Dustmane’s corpse is right here!” Twilight said, looking at another tube. “It looks like he’s been dissected.”
“Who would do something so horrible?” Fluttershy asked, looking at the corpse of Dustmane. He was a stalker of Rarity’s. He had assisted Blueblood in kidnapping Sweetie Belle as revenge. He had a change of heart during the operation and tried to send Rarity clues as to Sweetie Belle’s whereabouts. He paid for this with his life. Now he was floating in a tube, with his eyes gone.
“This is sick!” Big Mac said, bucking a wall in frustration. “Who would defile all these dead like this?”
“Somepony looking for test subjects,” I said, slowly. It was then that I noticed a smaller tank, farther in. My eyes fell upon a small filly floating inside it. It was a unicorn; it had a yellow coat, a periwinkle and pink mane, a long sleek tail. Wait, it looked like it was mashed together from various ponies.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders…
I saw a label on the tube and read it aloud, slowly.
“Genova, Izanami to the master race.”
“Izanami?” Big Mac asked, with a raised eyebrow. “What’s that gotta do with anything?”
Twilight spoke knowingly, “In some historical records, the first unicorns were named Izanagi and Izanami.” She looked at us. “Whoever is doing this, believes this filly is the mother of some new race.”
“What race?” I asked, slowly.
That’s when I noticed, she wasn’t a unicorn.
This filly, was an Alicorn….