//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: The Edge of Madness // by SaltyJustice //------------------------------// The difference between a follower and a leader is that a leader knows that, no matter how rough things get, you pick yourself back up and get back to work. Ponies are counting on you. There will be time for tears later. So imagine my surprise when I opened the door to my cloud home to find a big pink pile of feathers squatting in the living room waiting for me. As I got closer to find out just what it was I was looking at, the feathers stood up and looked at me. I recognized the creature as a pink flamingo. Why was it in my house? The flamingo gave me a sideways look before walking over to me and standing in front me. We exchanged a look, and I'd say it was a good thing, except my skill at reading flamingo facial expressions is right up there with my ability to forecast next week's weather, that is, nonexistent. He could be gearing up to eat me for all I knew. For all I knew, flamingos ate ponies. Suddenly I wished I had paid attention in biology class, because what sorts of birds are going to eat you seems like something they should teach in school. Minty rounded the corner and the flamingo immediately lost interest in me, walking on its long, skinny legs over to Minty and flaring up his wings in front of her. Several of the feathers were misaligned, so it dropped its wings and used its beak to start reorganizing them. Minty just laughed. "I see you've met Mr. Labamba! I think he likes you," she said, holding up her hoof to introduce the flamingo. Labamba? "Labamba?" I asked. This was important. What kind of name is that? "Isn't he the coolest? Check this out," Minty said. She stepped into the living room and found a nice open spot, and stood still. She then flared one of her wings up and waited. I saw Squeaky come around the corner to watch the display, as Labamba the pink flamingo saw Minty's opening and stood next to her. He flared his wing up and they touched them together. They stood like this for a while. "I am so lost," I said to Squeaky. "I was hoping you could tell me. It's like they're soulmates," she said, staring at her sister and our new roommate. "Minty, just what are you doing?" I asked her. I didn't get an answer, she was really, really enjoying touching her wing to this flamingo's wing. A few seconds later, she folded her wing back up and Labamba walked over to me, holding up one of his webbed feet in front of me. "He wants to shake with you," Minty said. I held up my hoof and Labamba gave me a vigorous foot-shake before resuming cleaning his feathers. He then sat next to Minty as she stood, beaming with pride, and a huge grin plastered all over her face. While Gazzo's memories had touched me and left a mark, I could not feel guilt or sadness. The unbridled joy emanating from Minty and her new friend was too much, I couldn't help but feel good again. Such is life, I suppose. Perhaps it was the bizarre, sub-verbal connection between these two, perhaps it was the joy that Minty was feeling, rubbing off on me. Perhaps it was the lifetime's worth of birdbrain jokes I would get to make that was giving me this high. It was like she was walking into them and didn't care. "Found him at the bird sanctuary this morning," Squeaky said to nopony in particular, her gaze still locked on the big pink bird. "Isn't that where birds go to drink and eat seeds and stuff?" I asked. That's what the sanctuary in Canterlot was for. "It's not quite the same up here," Squeaky said, finally breaking her stare on the bird and turning to face me, "it's more like an animal shelter." "Huh?" I asked. I had never had a pet, or even considered one. "You know, where they find stray dogs and keep them until their owners claim them, or orphaned puppies. That kind of thing," Squeaky explained. "Except for, birds," I said. "Yeah, don't see a lot of dogs and cats up in the clouds," Squeaky said. It wasn't a joke, she was quite serious. Minty wasn't really paying attention to us. She and Labamba were now engaged in some sort of bizarre game of patty-cake. I suddenly realized that this was exactly the same kind of thing I had going with Twilight Sparkle, except I was now wondering who was the older, wiser one here. Labamba probably wouldn't ace a science test, but something told me he'd be smart enough not to try to drink from the shower nozzle. "So, what, you just saw him and brought him home with you?" I asked, trying to get Minty to respond. She was still busy. "Yeah, pretty much. They're best pals now," Squeaky said. "What if his old owner comes looking for him," I asked. I still wasn't completely sure how this worked, was it like an adoption agency? "Labamba's an orphan," Minty said. "How did you know that?" Squeaky asked. Minty shrugged. "The keeper said they found his egg in an abandoned nest. That makes him an orphan," Minty said. Squeaky looked like she was about to scold Minty for using bad logic again, but her expression eased up and she relented. "Yeah okay, let's go with that," Squeaky said. I really couldn't tell his facial expressions, if flamingos even use facial expressions, but Labamba seemed to be very happy. Alternately, he could be a sociopath planning to kill us all, so I was still going to sleep with my sword next to me and my door locked. I also had to go shopping and buy a door since our house hadn't come with any, this bird was really adding a lot to my to-do list, right after "figure out what's wrong with Minty's brain" and before "study up on flamingo body language". I briefly considered sending a letter to Twilight asking her to give me a condensed study before passing on the idea - no doubt I'd come back to Canterlot to find her up to her eyeballs in flamingo books. For some reason I was imagining the books as being bright pink, even though that made no sense at all. I shook my head to clear out the crazy that had decided to take root, and focused on my task. I had come home in order to locate directions on how to get to the flight school. It then occurred to me that we probably didn't have a city directory anywhere. "Hey Squeaky, have you ever heard of the Hummingbird Flight College?" I asked her. "Huh? That sounds familiar. Is that -" Squeaky started to say before Minty snapped out of her bird trance. "Whoa, you're going to Hummingbird! That's so awesome Cadence! I wish I could go," Minty said, trailing off. Her eyes looked at nothing in particular, perhaps she was lost in some daydream. "They don't do particle physics degrees at Hummingbird, Minty," Squeaky said. "Yeah I know, but wouldn't it be so cool to learn how to fly like the Wonderbolts?" Minty asked. "What do they have to do with this?" I asked. "Duh! Hummingbird was founded by Erdrick Van der Belt, former captain and first member of the Wonderbolts! How could not know that?" Minty asked, looking squarely at me. As she did, Labamba stood beside her and tried to mimic her concern. He looked the same as ever, clearly he did not have a mean face. "Because I don't care," I said. I really didn't, though that name seemed very familiar... "Minty's kind of a big fan, Cadence," Squeaky said, trying to help. "That doesn't change anything, do you know where it is? I have to go check it out," I said. Before Minty could say anything, Squeaky cut in, "Sure I know where it is, I'll show you!" she said. "Hey, no fair!" Minty protested. "It's not like there'll be any celebrities there. The school doesn't open until next week, I'm just going to check something really quick," I said. Minty was not reassured. "If I see somepony famous, I'll get an autograph for you. How about that?" I asked. "Fine," Minty said. I had a feeling this wasn't quite over, as Minty sat down in a huff. Labamba tried to comfort her, presumably he was a Wonderbolts fan as well. Squeaky actually had no idea where the flight college was, nor did I, but she did know where to look. I followed her up a few thousand feet above the city and we looked at the entire spread of it across all the clouds, looking for a set of runways and aerial acrobatics equipment. I was able to recognize it once I saw it, the roof had a peculiar curve to it that I had seen through Gazzo's eyes, and we went down to make sure. The building was much as I remembered it, with a large open runway field next to it and a variety of hoops and poles that must have been used in some sort of training exercise. It was a fairly large campus, all connected together through squat hallways. I could see a flat, one-story building where all the classrooms were, another that looked like indoor gymnasiums, and a four-story tower which must have been the dormitories. There was more sprawl which I could only guess at. We landed on the side closest to the classrooms. "Squeaky, I know this is going to sound weird, but I need you to do me a favor," I said to her as I cast my gaze over the building. "Yeah, what?" she asked. It was very quiet out, nopony was on the grounds or in the surrounding residences, at least not that I could see. "Please don't ever come here, and make sure Minty doesn't either. Not until I say it's okay," I said. She nodded. "Is this one of your Princess things?" she asked. "It is," I said. "All right, not like I'm dying to take more flight lessons or anything," she said, trying to brush it off. "Are you going to stick around? Did you find what you were looking for?" "Not yet. This could take a while," I said. I was still wearing my overcoat, with my sword tucked underneath. I think Squeaky understood. She didn't take off, she stood next to me and looked at the building as well. "Is it really dangerous?" she asked. "Very," I said. She still didn't want to leave. "Look, can't I help you or something? Is there nothing that I can do?" she asked. There was fear in her eyes. "Even if there was, I wouldn't want you to. The best you can do is make sure everypony stays away from here," I said. I started walking towards the room that Gazzo must have used as an entry point, I could recognize the building from a distance. Squeaky didn't follow me, I heard the sound of her wings beating as she flew off, back home. All on my own again. I found the window that Gazzo had used to break in, the glass had been swept up but the window itself had not been fixed. Instead, somepony had covered it in white paper marked "Danger". I took a brief look around to make sure I was really alone, I couldn't see anypony around or above me who might act as a witness. I paused, I took a deep breath, and then flew into the building, cracking the paper and sailing into the classroom Gazzo had before. It was daylight out, and the room was much better illuminated. Minty had been right, this place was definitely a specialist school. Even though this looked like a foal's classroom, with tiny desks and small door, I could see just who their heroes were expected to be. The walls had double-large posters of various athletes on them, many of whom I didn't recognize. The only ones I did were very old, sports heroes who were heroes for reasons other than sports. Neville Garvup, the first mule to break the sound barrier using his patented rocket-glider, had a poster that detailed his achievements. He must be dead by now, I reasoned, he had been a great inventor in one of my memories but the style of his clothing and mane were very old. The poster itself was much more recently made, they had probably used an older portrait as a reference. Curiously, the door to this room was still not locked properly, though now that it was light I could see why. The top door didn't even have a locking mechanism on it, a gentle push was all I needed to open it and hop over. It made me wonder why they even locked the bottom half. I leaped over the bottom door, landing as quietly as I could, listening intently for any sound to come. The hall was silent. I did not want to have to explain why I was in here to any passing custodian, if there were even any around. I wondered if they had to come in and clean the place, even if nopony was inside mucking it up, though that wondering could wait until later. The basement was a few rooms off to my left. The entrance was covered in yellow "CAUTION" tape, as the door had been knocked off from the inside. The door itself was propped up next to the wall, I could see two large hoofmarks where the impact had registered against it. The lock had been totally destroyed. It had been locked when Gazzo tried to escape, but not when he was going in. I tried peering down into the basement through the tape, but I couldn't see anything. The light from overhead wasn't enough to cast down into the basement, and I couldn't see the outline of the furnace from this angle, if it was even there. For all appearances, this was a black void that stretched out in front of me. I hadn't brought along the flashlights, though I could try casting a light spell. The problem there was it'd blow my cover, if anypony were to catch me. Then again, if some passing janitor found me in the basement, I'd be in a spot of trouble either way, so would it really matter if they saw I was Princess Cadence? Would that maybe help? "No, nothing out of the ordinary. Just stomping around your basement on royal business." As I ruminated on this question, I heard a very faint clip-clopping of a pony or two somewhere down the hallway. It was coming from around a corner, my ears perked up as I realized it was coming towards me, in the locked, closed building I wasn't supposed to be in. My eyes looked for someplace to hide, the first and most obvious being the basement, and that also being the one I didn't want to make use of. The walking became louder and I could make out what sounded like talking, possibly more than one interloper. I darted back towards the classroom I had came in through, moving as quietly and quickly as I could. Fortunately I had worn my running horseshoes today instead of the usual metal ones, my practical choice meant I made not a peep as I leaped back over the partially-locked door and closed it behind me. I left the top half open just a crack and peered through the narrow slit in hopes of identifying when the danger had passed. Whoever it was was still talking, though the voices were too muffled to make out what they were saying. After a few moments, I saw a flash of two little fillies, one with a distinct rainbow colored tail. The dormitories were closed when the school was out of session, so I had thought, so what were these two doing here? More importantly, now I had the chance to finally deal with whatever had caused them to flee from me earlier, at least for Rainbow Dash. If the other filly was her friend, Ms. Smith, then this was far too perfect. I didn't know the layout of the buildings too well, but I could guess they were heading towards the dorm rooms in the tower. As for what they had been doing in the halls was anypony's guess. I waited until they had passed before opening the door and sticking my head out. The now-distant hoof-falls of their walking echoed back to me as I padded along silently behind them. Sure enough, they waked straight to the entrance to the dorms tower and went in. I stood at the entrance to the tower and allowed them some time to climb the stairs, knowing they would be able to hear me opening the door and would surely try to bolt again. As I sat idly, I noticed there were an awful lot of safety posters clustered here around the stairwell entrance, though that made a sort of sense. Most Pegasus-made buildings didn't bother with stairwells, they simply had dropshafts to fly up and down in. Only buildings expecting non-flyer visitors had them, so all safety posters concerning non-fliers would logically be most likely to be read here. "One in ten-thousand cloud-shoes is defective. Los Pegasus has over 50,000 visitors a year. Don't become a statistic, wear your emergency parachute." said one poster, with a stern picture of a guardspony staring back at me, sans helmet. I wondered if that meant that five visitors every year found themselves suddenly plunging through the cloud layer and falling to the ground, with only their emergency chute to save them. Wouldn't your other three shoes just mean you'd sort of dip into the clouds and not fall through them? I had provided the fillies enough time, I pushed the curiously unlocked door open and started ascending the steps myself. There were four floors total, and I couldn't be quite sure which one the fillies had entered, so I checked the first floor slowly by walking through the connection hallway and checking the doors. They were all locked. While I was checking the second floor, I heard noise coming through the floatstone floor above me, probably in the middle of the third floor hallway. I doubled back out and ascended again, peering around the corner into the hall. One of the doors was half-open. I crept up closer to the door and stood just outside it, listening. The fillies were in mid-conversation, totally oblivious to my presence. "Can we open a window? It's really stuffy in here," one said. "Yeah sure," the other said. I heard the sound of the window lock clicking, and the glass sliding open. "Oh, hello mister sparrow. You're up awfully late today," the first one said. Her voice was very soft and gentle. Also, she was talking to a bird, evidently, or herself, and I wasn't sure which was worse. Maybe it wasn't just Minty. I heard a gentle chirp come from inside the room. "Oh sure, if you're hungry. Here you go," the voice said. I heard what sounded like a carrot snapping and a bit of grinding, then some chirping. "I still don't know how you do that," the second voice said. The room went quiet again. I chanced a peek around the corner. Both fillies were facing away from me. It was definitely Rainbow and Fluttershy, since the lanky yellow filly had more than enough hair to match what I had seen in the hospital earlier, and for Rainbow? It's hard to miss a mane like that. She probably wouldn't even need a name tag or ID card. The sparrow on the windowsill let out a chirrup and Fluttershy turned to look at me. Her eyes went wide and, in less than a second, she had somehow ducked under the bed and hid there, her pink tail all that was sticking out after her. It was visibly shaking. The sparrow started to hop around and chirp more and more, as Rainbow turned around to see what the commotion was. She saw me, or rather my head, and a look of pure terror came over her face. It shook off in under a second, she quickly took an aggressive pose and snarled at me. "Who are you!? What are you!? Leave us alone!" she yelled at me. The trembling of the pink tail intensified. I stepped around the corner in full view of the filly, as she stood her ground. I could see her legs quaking very slightly, she was trying to suppress it and look fierce, but I could tell she was as scared as her friend. I just didn't understand why. I couldn't feel anything at all coming from these two. Normally, when I'm within a short distance of one who had felt the touch, I can sense something. When I was younger, I just thought it was nervousness, but now I knew what it was. I could tell when somepony near me was afflicted, and I could also tell that these two weren't. They must have gotten swept up along with the other patients for a different reason. "My name is - " I started to say, before it occurred to me that Rainbow had already seen my horn. She knew who I was, I think, though she may have been two young to know it. I decided to try that thing that Celestia does, where her regal presence calms and reassures all those within sight of it, and her gentle voice soothes even the most troubled mind. I cancelled the invisibility spell and struck a simple pose, wings flared, and said, with my softest and most soothing voice, "I am Princess Amoria, first of the triumvirate and protector of all Equestria," I hadn't rehearsed that at all, it was right off the top of my head. Rainbow's eyes took on a blank look. Evidently it wasn't working, whatever it was that Celestia did. Maybe it was because she was taller. "Erm, you can call me Cadence. Or Miamore," I said, "I prefer the second one, actually." Rainbow still had a blank look on her face. "What?" she said. "You don't know what a princess is?" I asked, now very depressed. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails quite like not being recognized, especially not when you're explicitly trying to use your fame to your advantage. I bet the Wonderbolts don't have to put up with this. "Who?" she asked. She wasn't angry, or scared, she was just plain confused now. "I'm, uh, I'm..." I stammered. I didn't even know how to explain this. I saw a head stick out from under the bed behind Rainbow. "How do you have a horn? I've never seen a pony with a horn before," Fluttershy said. I felt my hoof drift towards my face as the mild headache set in. "You two, you've never even seen a Unicorn?" I asked. Rainbow shook her head. "Do you pop balloons with it? What does it do?" Rainbow asked me. "I can use it to cast magic, see, watch," I said. I closed the door behind me with my telekinesis, and Fluttershy's mouth fell open. Rainbow was less impressed. "Big deal, I can close doors too," she said. Suddenly I realized we were getting off topic. "What are you doing here? Isn't the school closed between semesters?" I asked, studiously avoiding taking on the tone of a scolding parent. Fluttershy pulled herself out from under the bed and made a motion at the sparrow. He chirped and resumed eating the crunched up carrot bits on the windowsill. She was avoiding talking to me, and making it fairly obvious that's what she was doing. "None of your business," Rainbow said, taking an aggressive pose again. "Actually, it is," I said. Time to bluff. "What would the dean think if I told him you were in here?" Fear, real fear, took Rainbow's face. She couldn't hide it this time, I had found something she was really afraid of at last. "Please don't, please," she said, making a face like she was about to cry. Fortunately, I was well versed in dealing with fillies, having adequate practice with them in the past. "Hey hey, it's okay," I said, walking close and laying down in front of her. "It's okay, it's okay. Tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help," I said, soothingly. Rainbow sat down in front of me, I could tell she wanted me to reassure her but she wasn't quite ready to trust me yet. She was so young, yet was already starting to harden up, which worried me all the more. She sniffed. "We don't wanna go back," she said. Fluttershy winced slightly, still watching the sparrow. Another sparrow landed on the sill, so she picked up the carrot and crushed it a bit for the next one to eat. "Go back where?" I asked. Rainbow moved in closer, I could see tears building up in her eyes. This was going to get bad, fast. Rainbow shoved her little head onto my coat and started crying, softly. I think Fluttershy was too, but she was making sure I couldn't see her do it. The sparrows noticed and stopped eating the carrot bits, chirping at her as they hopped around on the windowsill. I comforted Rainbow for a while, just letting her cry it out while patting her on her mane, cooing, "There, there." This had been a long time in coming, I think, since I was more or less a complete stranger to them, and already had them bawling all over me. After a few minutes of sobbing, Rainbow could cry no more, and withdrew from my embrace. "Now, can you tell me where you don't want to go back to? I promise I won't let them take you back," I said. I was winging it now, all I could tell was something was wrong. Hopefully, leading them with questions would cause them to open up. Rainbow looked like she was about to cry again. Her throat was too choked up to speak, so she sniffed and pointed at Fluttershy. I gave her an inquisitive look, and she gingerly walked to Fluttershy and lifted up one of her wings. Beneath the wing, hidden from view when folded, was a distinct scar. It had healed, and the coat had grown back over it, but I could tell it had been big and very painful when it was inflicted. Worse, it had been deliberately put under the wing to be less visible. After I had seen the scar, Fluttershy closed her wing again and turned away, hopping onto the bed and throwing the green silk cover over herself. Rainbow had finally worked the courage up to speak, again. "They used to hit her because she wouldn't tell on them," she said. "Who's they?" I asked. "They ran the orphanage back in Cloudsdale," Rainbow said. And at last, the pieces finally fit together.