Chapter 9
Applejack knocked on the door to the Ponyville Library; it swung open to reveal Rainbow Dash standing in the opening.
“Go away Applejack,” Rainbow said flatly.
“Rainbow, wait. Ah know yer mad at me, and ya’ll got every reason ta be. Ah been a jerk, Ah been actin’ stupid. Ah know tha’ now, and Ah came ta apologise.”
Rainbow Dash stood in the doorway staring at Applejack with a neutral expression on her face for about thirty seconds before finally stepping aside. “Come in,” she said.
Applejack stepped inside the Library; Twilight looked up from A Complete History of the Kingdom of United Welara, 1170 SE Edition, and towards Applejack, surprised to see the earth pony at all.
Applejack closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Ah wanted ta say, Ah’m sorry fer mah behaviour. Ah been stupid, an’ Ah see tha’ now.”
Applejack opened her eyes and looked at Rainbow Dash and Twilight. “Ah hope ya’ll can forgive me.”
Both Rainbow Dash and Twilight gasped loudly, their mouths dropped open.
“What?” Applejack asked.
“Applejack... your eyes,” Twilight said, levitating a small mirror for Applejack to look at.
Applejack looked at her reflection in the mirror, she gasped. Her irises were blood red.
...
Pinkie Pie rolled a spool of wires away from the Pie farm house as the spectral Monty Ulhan watched from the side.
“I have to ask...”
“Where did I get dynamite?” Pinkie Pie asked. “Puh-lease! I used to use nitro-glycerine to bake cupcakes! Mister and Missus Cake made me stop.”
“One has to wonder how your baking has yet to kill anypony,” Monty said.
“Beats me, I liked to experiment,” Pinkie Pie said as she finished unspooling the wires, connecting them to a detonator.
“Is this wise?” Monty asked.
“I know how to work with explosives Monty,” Pinkie Pie assured him. “I may have acted silly all the time in public... but when I was by myself...”
Pinkie Pie’s voice trailed off as she finished the connections. They were nearly eight hundred metres from the house.
“Is there a reason why we’re this far back?” Monty asked.
“Pinkamena Pie doesn’t do small,” Pinkie said, grinning like a madmare and throwing the switch on the detonator.
The Pie farmhouse, silo, and barn, exploded brilliantly. Causing Pinkie Pie to smile, the physical evidence of a rotten childhood was gone. Now the real work could begin.
Pinkie Pie had yet to notice that her eyes had changed. The irises were blood red.
“Montana Ulhan” allowed himself to smile at his handiwork; he’d succeeded in turning Pinkie Pie to his cause. She could return to Ponyville in triumph, bringing with her a valuable resource they needed for the upcoming war. Concrete.
His enemies, the siblings Nightmare had manipulated her into revealing her true self, driving her to misery and self-imposed exile away from Ponyville and her friends. Now with the Siblings hold on all but one of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony broken, he was one step closer to stamping out the influence of the Herald of Chaos forever. Equestria would soon be subjugated to his world without strife, without conflict, a society of pure order, with him at the helm.
The current leadership be damned.
...
Scootaloo had found herself hiding in the Cave that she and Apple Bloom had found in Whitetail Wood. She was standing the in room with the ashes on the floor, though they had been scuffed about by the Cutie Mark Crusader’s last visit.
Scootaloo had wished that she had told Vinyl that this was where she was coming, she was afraid that her hiding place was too good, and her de facto sister wouldn’t find her here. Scootaloo was tired, she was hungry, and she really wanted somepony to talk to.
“Scootaloo? Is that you?” called a stallion’s voice from the open end of the cave.
Scootaloo looked up; it was Nightshadow, the kind unicorn apothecary that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had befriended. Scootaloo nodded in affirmation, and the unicorn approached her. He was looking at the ashes on the ground, and noticing that ring was broken, smiled and stepped over them.
He walked over towards the filly and sat down next to her.
“Scootaloo? What are you doing here all by yourself?” Nightshadow asked.
“I... I’m hiding,” Scootaloo said. “So that they won’t take me away.”
“Who won’t take you away?” Nightshadow asked.
“Social Services!” Scootaloo cried out.
“Why would they take you away?” Nightshadow asked.
“Because... they...” Scootaloo realised that she’d backed herself into a corner; she didn’t want to take the risk that Nightshadow would turn her in. She didn’t know the unicorn that well, what if he wasn’t trustworthy? “I can’t tell you.”
Nightshadow deadpanned the filly, but said nothing, eventually giving her a small shrug and standing up. “Fair enough,” he said finally.
“You won’t tell anyone I’m here, will you?” Scootaloo asked.
“Where is here?” Nightshadow asked with a smile. “Goodbye,” he said, and trotted off casually towards the exit.
Scootaloo didn’t get it.
...
Vinyl Scratch had spent the last hour searching for Scootaloo in Whitetail Wood, she wished that she had suggested somewhere for Scootaloo to go. Off in the distance, she saw the last pony that she wanted to see trotting along a pathway away from a place that was obstructed from Vinyl’s few.
She hit the deck as quickly as she could, trying to avoid being seen by Nightshadow. Unlike most ponies in Ponyville who had encountered him, Vinyl knew him for what he truly was, a Sibling Nightmare, and frankly, while they were all bad, Vinyl considered him to be the worst. He had tricked Twilight Sparkle into falling in love with him. Twilight had shared many of her first intimate experiences with him, and that was unforgiveable. Nightshadow however went the other direction, likely never realising that Vinyl was even in the woods at all. Vinyl had decided that she needed to figure out where he had been, and quietly moved to where he had originated from.
Vinyl recognised it, it was the cave that she, Trixie, Lyra, Bon Bon, Big Macintosh, Braeburn, Derpy, and Trooper Willoughby had been snowed into on their way to Manehattan... the cave where they had been trapped inside... by the Black Smoke.
It hit her hard like someone had tossed a brick. She’d finally put two and two together. The Siblings Nightmare and the black smoke were the same, and the black smoke was the same cloud that had blocked their path before Derpy Hooves had talked to it.
“I remember you, you helped me,” Derpy had said. “You helped Pinkie Pie, she was sick and you made her better.”
Damn it! Why had she not figured this out before? It was obvious! It was right in front of her nose! Other seemingly more important events had happened, and it had been all but pushed out of her mind. Vinyl was swearing at herself, how could she be so stupid?
She trotted inside the cave, continuing to swear at herself in anger, but was relieved to discover that Scootaloo was inside.
Scootaloo looked up and smiled brightly; she ran towards Vinyl and leapt into the air, hugging her de-facto sister as best she could. Vinyl hugged back, and put off berating herself. It wasn’t important right now, Scootaloo was.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t find me here!” Scootaloo said.
“I’m more shocked that you found this place! I spent the night here during the winter when me, Big Macintosh and all them went to Manehattan,” Vinyl said.
“Did you put the ashes down on the floor?” Scootaloo asked.
The ashes? Then Vinyl remembered, she turned and look to the ashen line that covered the floor, it was broken. It had been able to keep the black smoke out of these caves when Vinyl had been here last, but if it was broken...
Vinyl panicked. “Scootaloo? We need to get out of here, right now.”