Fourth Lesson- More Questions, More Answers
"Princess Cadence, there you are!" Glory called out. "We've been looking everywhere for you and the boys!"
The three fillies came galloping up the street, towards the alleyway that the alicorn and the four colts were totting down. Glory galloped up to Fireball, embracing the colt tightly, while Medley trotted up to the Princess.
"Glad we were finally able to catch up with ya, your highness." Medley bowed to Cadence. "On your way to the parent's of the missing fillies house, I take it?"
"That is correct, my dear Medley." The alicorn smiled at her. "We did have a bit of trouble finding this place. I am pleased you caught up with us before we arrived at our destination."
At that, Tornado and Lightning trot up to the fillies, looking around curiously.
"Hey, are the others girls here with you?" Lightning asked. "We were really hoping to see them again!"
"Oh... I'm sorry guys, they went to investigate the Stickleway." Posey apologized. "Twilight thinks they may find some clues down there."
"Oh... that's okay." Thunderbolt's ears drooped, trying to hide his a disappointment. "I'm sure we'll catch up with them later."
The eight ponies soon arrived at a small apartment, and the princess knocked on the door with her hoof. A yellow earth stallion with a blue mane and race car cutie mark opened the door, and looked out at the princess through bloodshot eyes.
"Yes?" He asked wearily. "May I... help you?"
"Greetings, noble stallion. I am Princess Cadence of Misty Mountain." She inclined her head towards the stallion. "I have come to inquire about the disappearance of your two daughters."
"Oh, yes! The Margrave's messengers told us you'd be coming." He replied, his ears perking up. He opened the door, and bowed to his guests. " My name is Racer. Please, won't you come in?"
The eight ponies trotted into the modest apartment, Where a pink mare with a blue mane and gingerbread man cutie mark stood, bowing to the Princess as she trotted in.
"Your highness, this is my wife, Molasses." He gestured towards his fellow earth pony. "She is pleased that you are here, as well!"
"Your highness." The mare told her humbly. "Please, have a seat, make yourself at home!"
The eight ponies sat down, and Molasses quickly went into the kitchen to make some tea. As Racer sat himself down, Fireball turned to speak to him.
"So tell me, good sir." The Pegasus asked in his usual, to-the-point manner. "What can you tell us about your daughters' disappearance?"
"I-I just can't believe they vanished!" The distraught father whinnied, shaking his mane. "Hopping Pocket and Jingle Pocket went out looking for their missing pet rabbit, Happy. He had gotten out of his cage, when their mother was cleaning it."
"Did they manage to find the bunny?" Medley inquired, curious.
"Yes, they found him in the merchant's district- that bunny has a rather unique coloration, so he was easy to find" Racer explained. "They chased that rabbit all over town, but eventually he hopped down into the Stickleway."
"And your daughters followed them?" Glory asked, as Molasses’s wife came back in, and poured the hot tea.
"The guards said they saw the two follow the rabbit inside, but by the time they got over to the entrance to the black market, only the rabbit came out." After pouring each of them a warm cup, Molasses sat down on the couch next to her husband, putting her head down. "We haven't seen or heard from them since!"
"They are such sweet little fillies!" Racer moaned, pointing a hoof over towards a picture of a blue filly and a pink filly. "Who know what horrible things those could happen among that low life riffraff!"
"Oh dear, you poor ponies!" Posey whimpered, gently fluttering her wings. "Don't you worry, I'm sure everything will be all right!"
"Thank you, noble flutter pony!" The mother wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "Do you really think you can bring our little girls home?"
"We'll certainly try, m'mam, you can count on that." Tornado adjusted his glasses. "But tell me, did the guards say anything else they might have seen? Anything at all?"
"Well... not the guards." The father replied. "But a few of the merchants said they saw a goblin come in and out of the Stickleway entrance about the same time."
"Why am I not surprised?" Princess Cadence replied, rolling her eyes. “Come on, everypony! Let’s get back to the castle, and plan our next move!”
After saying their goodbyes to the grieving couple, Cadence led her entourage back towards Rainbow Crystal Castle.
“Well, at least we made a start!” Glory noted. "But I certainly hope Twilight and the other two are making some headway in the black market district!"
...
As the three trotted through the merchant's district, Twilight, Applejack and Firefly trotted away from the colorful bazaar stalls and decorated wagons. Firefly led them over to a brick wall, covering a gap between to buildings.
"You sure this is the way?" AJ asked, puzzled. "No offense, but this just seems like a dead end."
"Appearances can be deceiving- as one of Twilight's books would say." Firefly replied, a big grin on her face. Touching a particular brick in the wall, Twilight heard the sounds of several gears turning, as the red wall in front of them slowly swung open. The three fillies trotted into the open alleyway, and the pink unicorn couldn't believe what she saw.
It was several cloistered together shops and tents all cloistered in the alleyway; with blarks, grundles, and even a few shady-looking gnomes selling all sorts of potions and items to many different figures covered in shadowy cloaks, silently moving from stall to stall, picking up things Twilight knew were illegal in Ponyland. And several goblins leaned against the walls, glaring at the three fillies as they fingered their blades.
"Be careful down here, Twilight!" Firefly warned the pink unicorn, as she flapped slightly overhead. "This place can be pretty rough, if you don't watch yourself!"
"You already warned me several times about that!" Twilight snorted, glaring up at her Pegasus friend. "What, you think I can't take care of myself?"
"No offense there, Twi." AJ snickered. "But here in the Stickleway, a little library pony like you would probably be chewed up, and spat out!"
"Hmph! I'm not that helpless!" The pink unicorn muttered to herself.
It was then, that the three ponies trotted their way up to a shady looking tavern, with a faded sign that read The Whispering Whirligig.
"Well, this is the place." Firefly sighed, as the three ponies trotted through the doorway. "Just stick close to me, and try to keep your mouths shut!"
The blue paint peeling and several boards missing from the walls, the establishment looked as if it had seen better days. A shifty looking goblin was playing the piano in the corner, and a wispy cloud of smoke seemed to hang over the entire place.
"Wow, I don't see many ponies in here!" AJ whispered to Firefly, as the three sat down at a table, and picked up the menus.
"There are few ponies who lower themselves to venture down into this slime." Firefly replied. "But there are those few bad ponies who care only for profit... or those brave few who simply come down here for the excitement."
It was at that point, that the waitress- a pink mare with a blonde mane and flutter wings- trotted out, a note pad and pen in her mouth.
"Hello there, ladies, welcome to the Whirligig!" The mare whinnied, setting the notepad down to take thier orders. "What can I get for all o' ya?"
Firefly turned to give her order, and her eyes suddenly went wide.
"H-Hollywood? Is that you?" Firefly asked in shock, looking up at the yellow mare. "What the heck are you still doing down here?"
"Firefly! It's been ages!" The yellow mare greeted her, a smile on her face. "Yep, this is the only place a flutter pony like me, can get a job in Fort Rainbow Dash!"
“Holly, I still can’t believe you left Flutter Valley ta get away from your own herd’s hate, only to end up workin’ in a dive like this!” Firefly snorted. “I tell ya girls, sometimes life just ain’t fair!”
"Care to introduce us to your friend here, Firefly?" AJ mused, looking the mare with the gold star cutie mark over. "You seem to know the most interesting ponies."
"Oh! Girls, this is Hollywood, the head waitress here at the Whispering Whirligig." Firefly pointed to her two friends. "Hollywood, these are my friends, Twilight Shine and Applejack."
"Salutations." Twilight greeted her.
"Hiya." Applejack whinnied.
"Nice to meet ya both." Hollywood whinnied. "It good to see Firefly running with a better crowd than when she used to work here."
"She worked down here!?!?" Both girls sputtered out in disbelief, staring over at their Pegasus friend.
"Sure did! We both got hired as waitresses at the same time!" Hollywood replied with a giggle. "You wouldn't believe some of the crazy stuff this wild filly has done!"
"Holly! That's not why I came down here!" Firefly hissed, a red blush spreading across her face. "We wanna find about the disappearing foals."
"You came down here for that?" Holly's voice changed to a low whisper. "Ohhh boy, you sure like to get yourself into some sticky situations, Firefly!"
"Why? Ya know anything?" AJ asked, leaning in close and whispering.
"Only rumors. There are stories going about that some kind of slavery ring is kidnapping mares and foals, to sell them to evil creatures like the witches from the volcano, and the Dark Lord Tirek," The flutter pony leaned in closer, her voice ever quieter. "There's also stories that a cult of Ponygans are sacrificing the poor ponies, in a blood-sacrifice ritual, to try and resurrect their alicorn goddesses."
"How horrible! Those poor foals are either sacrifices, or slaves!" Twilight whispered in shock. "Either way, we need to do something about this!"
Suddenly, an arrogant but handsome looking colt with a blue coat and mane came trotting into the cafe, flanked by two bodyguards stallions and sitting over on the far side of the tavern. Everyone else in the taven moved, as if to give the new arrival plenty of space.
"Whoa!" Applejack whinnied, staring at the colt with the horseshoe cutie mark. "Who in the hay is that?"
"Ohhh, that's Lucky. He's one of the newest of the up and coming ponies here in the Stickleway. Runs a gang of thugs that do the muscle work for the other goons."
"Think he might know something about the missing ponies?" Firefly asked, looking the scowling colt over.
"He most likely does, he's connected to almost every shady deal and underhanded thing down here." Hollywood sighed. "But good luck getting anything out of the big creep, rumor has it he only has a soft spot for unicorn fillies, and he really doesn't trust anybody else!"
As Firefly and AJ continued to talk with Holly, the other three failed to notice Twilight staring at the earth pony mobster carefully, her eyes narrowing, the unicorn's horn began to glow.
“I wish…I wish…I wish!”
After several minutes, Firefly decided it was time to go.
"Well Holly, it's been fun, but we'd better get back to Princess Cadence. C'mon Twilight. let's-" She looked back across the table. "Hey, where's Twilight?"
"She's gone!" Applejack snapped our of her daydreaming, and looked around. "She musta gotten bored, and galloped back up ta the surface!"
"Can't say I blame her, we'd best be getting back ta the Princess, too." He waved at her flutter pony friend. "See ya later, Holly! I'll stop back again sometime, I promise!"
"Bye, Firefly!" The waitress called back, as the two galloped out the door. "Even if you are living a cleaner life, don't be a stranger down here!"
After the two fillies had left, a lone figure trotted up to Lucky's table. His eyes were pulled away from his menu, when a sultry voice spoke;
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
Looking up, he saw a pair of lovely green eyes, attached to a curvy violet body, with a pink and white striped mane kept up in a ponytail. She wore the blackest shade of eyeliner, and a black leather choker around her neck. Lowering his sunglasses, the smug colt looked the fine filly before him over.
"This seat is open, my dear." He replied smoothly. "But might be a little dangerous to sit with me."
"Oh, that's all right. I like to live dangerously." She replied, turning to walk away. "But... if your not interested in my company..."
He watched her flank sway back and forth as she trotted. and jumped up to pull out a chair for her. "Not at all, my fine filly. And what might your name be?"
"You can call me Wish Shine." The sultry unicorn replied, smiling. "And I think we're going to get along just fine."