Chapter 3
Our Mysterious Benefactors
Canterlot, lunchtime
Twilight Sparkle sat at a small table inside a small restaurant, eating a small (but delicious) daisy sandwich. Across from her sat the head of diplomacy or, as her friends called her, Fluttershy. The noon sun shined through the large window that made up 80% of the front wall of the restaurant, called Daisy's Diner. Outside, ponies went about their business and few noticed that their arch chancellor was having lunch inside.
Twilight held her sandwich with her magic as she listened to Fluttershy talk about her recent negotiations.
" It just frustrates me so much that the Griffons think we're the ones being greedy here. The gems in those fields are a major food source for the local dragons and all they can think about is making jewelry with them." She spoke in as angry a voice as she could muster and it still sounded hushed. Her expression of anger looked cute. "Sometime I really think nopony takes me seriously as a diplomat." The pegasus wilted. Twilight couldn't bear to see her friend looking like that. She reached across the table and put her hoof on Fluttershys shoulder.
"You are a great Diplomat, Fluttershy. If it weren't for you, who knows where we would be?" The mares smiled at each other. Their attention was torn to the door as a stallion toppled into restaurant, panting and frantic. He spotted the two and rushed over to their table.
"Arch c-chancellor." He gasped for breath. Twilight grabbed the pony and looked him in the eye. Her leadership taking over her demeanor.
"What is it? Spit it out."
"Phillydelphia. It's- it's exploded!"
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Phillydelphia, an hour earlier
Applejack sat against the carriage of the high guard. The cool feeling of the metal armoring felt good in the unnatural heat. She could only imagine, how the E. C. D. R. P. agent felt in that full body hazard suit. The faceless pony was waving that strange contraption in the air and pausing to look at it every few seconds. Applejack would never understand modern technology.
The guards patrolled around the perimeter of the carriage, keeping a look out for trouble. It had been half an hour and nothing interesting had happened. Applejack wondered if she had entered some sort of purgatory for shirking her responsibilities to go on a mission in the tiniest hope that she could feel like she was actually doing something useful. It was just her luck that she was doing even less now. She snorted angrily. Rainbow Dash knew full well why Applejack came and she just… bucked her in the face. What kind of friend was that? She could take care of herself in dangerous situations and it wasn't like Dash gave an actual hoot about the rules unless they served to further her goals.
Applejack sighed and closed her eyes. What's done was done and there was no use stewing about it. Rainbow surely only wanted to keep her safe. She leaned her head against the carriage and relaxed as much as she could in this heat. Her ears perked up at the sound of rapid beeping. The noise came from the machine the agent was using. The pony stared at the machine for a while before quickly turning their gaze to the sky. Applejack did the same but saw nothing. The pony walked over to the two guardsponies still hooked up to the carriage and began talking to them.
Applejack didn't get to overhear much before a loud bang silenced everypony. It had come from the middle of the city, where the fire was. There was silence for a moment as they all stared into the buildings and streets. Then their came three more bangs that sounded slightly different. Applejack knew those sounds, hoof cannon shots. Directly after the three shots came another round. Then another and another. Hoof cannons took at least twenty seconds to reload manually. There must have been a whole army down there.
The E.C.D.R.P. agent turned to the rest of them. Her look of panic somehow showed through her gasmask.
"We need to get out of here, now!" The soldiers snapped into action, getting on the carriage and packing up equipment. Applejack just stood there. She couldn't leave Rainbow down there. She had to go help her friend. "Hey you, bus is leavin'!" The agent called to Applejack but she did not heed it.
" Yer' probably gonna die if you go runnin in there." A voice on her shoulder spoke to her. She knew full well that she didn't have much of a chance for survival if she went in. But she didn't care. The only thing she cared about was her friends safety. Applejack began to rush for the city but her actions were anticipated by one of the soldiers. The stallion tackled her before she could run into a combat zone. She struggled to break free of his grasp but to no avail. The sound of gunfire was still pounding from the city like a full on war was happening. Another soldier came to help his comrade and the two forcefully dragged the struggling farmpony to the carriage.
"We need to get the buck out of here!" The agent yelled to them as they hurried to leave. By the time Applejack was at the door, they were already ascending to the clouds. "Stay low to the ground!" The agent screamed to the guardsponies at the front. They ignored her (and Applejack could tell it was a she now) and flew higher. Applejack stared out the windows as the ground passed in a blur. The agent kept up her yelling of orders to the guardsponies and they kept ignoring her. Applejack noticed they were beginning to become quieter. In fact, all the sound seemed to be draining from the air. Time seemed to slow for a few seconds.
The carriage flashed orange as a monstrous noise assaulted Applejacks ears from behind them. The windows of the carriage shattered and flew outside as the wind entered as if seeking shelter from whatever had made the noise.
They all leaned their heads out the newly smashed windows to see what had happened. Applejack felt as if her lungs were about to burst. Where Phillydelphia had been, there was now a massive wall of flame. Applejacks jaw became numb along with her limbs.
"Rainbow…"
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Rainbow Dash felt broken and beaten. Her muscles ached, her eyes burned, her lungs burned more, and her ears rang. She felt the softness of a mattress on her back as she began to regain consciousness. She had a strange thing attached to her muzzle, pushing air in and out of her lungs. She moved her hoofs to dethatch it but she found that they were strapped down. Now it was time to worry. She forced her eyes to open so she could survey her surroundings.
Looking strait above her, she saw a flat, white ceiling through a white haze. She turned her head to the right and saw that she was in what looked to be a hospital bed, she was hooked up to a machine by way of a see-through pipe leading from the thing on her face. Across from her was another pony in another bed. She couldn't see his face but the fur color told her it was Soarin'. Although her vision was blurred, he seemed to be in worse shape than she was. Beyond him was a window, or she at least thought it was a window on account of the strange shadows walking past.
She tested the strength of the straps that held her hooves down. They were obviously meant to keep her from getting up no matter how she struggled. This did not stop her from trying to escape them, obviously. A sound made her stop her struggling. It sounded like gargled speech, as if she were underwater. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw two creatures. One small and the other very large. They sat next to her bed and looked at her. One spoke to her softly and she strained to hear words. She moved her lips and sloppily used them in speech.
"What?" It spoke again. This time Dash could make out what it said.
"Welcome back Rainbow Dash."
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Canterlot Council room
Twilight Sparkle sat at her podium in the council room with the other twenty nine chancellors. They were all listening intently to the story of the survivors from the expedition to Phillydelphia.
" And then, BOOM! the windows shattered and we saw a huge ball of fire were Phillydelphia was." Some of the chancellors gasped while others stared in disbelief. This was an unequivocal disaster. An entire city blown to high heaven and more questions than there were this morning. Had the rioters done it? Was it an accident? Why were the rioters rioting about anyway? Now they may never know.
Twilight was not worried about these things, however. Her worries were for Rainbow Dash. Dash had seen some heavy abuse but an explosion of the scale these ponies were talking about? It was doubtful. Twilight shook her thoughts from her mind. She needed to lead and not grieve.
"So what do we do?" One of the earth pony chancellors spoke up. There was a stir that was immediately silenced by Ditzy Doo.
"We may not know much about this catastrophe yet, but one thing I know is that no explosion of that size can be caused by accident. This was most likely an act of war."
"By whom?" Twilight asked.
"Probably by Vermin Supreme! That crazy pony has been out for a role in government for years and he is just the culprit for such measures!" Pinkie Pie seethed at the thought of her arch rival.
"Arch Chancellor Pie, Vermin Supreme died of a drug overdose years ago." Doo said, dismissing the ridiculous theory.
"He's playing the long game!" The psychotic government official announced. Several ponies in the room face-hoofed. A handsome stallion rose from his seat and spoke before any more incompetent leaders could start rambling.
" I'd like to know what my agent found in the ways of contagions at the site." Twilight frowned, everypony knew the E.C.D.R.P. only sent a pony so the taxpayers would have to give them money. Despite this, everypony looked to the agent for her conclusion and soon realized that she was nowhere to be seen. They searched the room for her but she simply wasn't there. The stallion seethed. "When I find that mare, she is going to be fired so hard that she will literally catch aflame!"
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Heart Beat quickly made her way through the back alleys of Canterlot. Her hooves made no noise as she moved from cover to cover. She had discarded her hazard suit, glad to be rid of it. It was laughable, the pitiful amount of effort it took to be hired by the E.C.D.R.P. , they didn't even do background checks. She was getting close to the location. Just a few more turns and she would be there.
A sound caused her to turn and scan the area behind her. She slid into the shadows and cautiously continued on.
A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she spotted the door with the green cloth nailed to it. The entrance to the base. She approached with an eye on every corner and shadow. She made one last quick sweep of the area before entering.
The room was dark and bare and she found her way around by sheer memory. Heart Beat had dwelled and worked here for four years. A pony entered the room bearing a lantern and held it up to her face. They exchanged not a word as the cloaked pony felt her fur and looked into her eyes. Heart Beat knew the routine. look up, right, down, left, breathe deeply, use a little levitation magic/ spin your wings in circles. They had to make sure you were you when you got there.
After everything was checked out, she walked onward into a doorway. A hallway with slightly better lighting greeted her and she ignored every room on the side as she approached the room at the end. A strong stallion stood guard next to the door. Heart beat looked into his eyes.
"I seek audience with the prophet." The guard merely looked at her without saying anything. "I have important information." Wordlessly, he opened the door and beckoned her through.
The room was filled with cloth and candles and it all had a feeling of, well, prophecy. A mare with a dark purple and red cloak sat at a table with her head down. Heart Beat approached with her head bowed in respect.
"Prophet Heartstrings, I come bearing grave news. The creatures you foretold would arrive are here and they have laid waste to an entire city." The mare in the cloak raised her head slowly and spoke mystically.
"They arrived a long time ago, child. They have been here, waiting for the right time to strike." Her golden eyes glinted in the candlelight. "But so have we."
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In the pit that once was called Phillydelphia, nothing stirred. The buildings and pavement had been incinerated or blasted over the hills surrounding the city. what earth was spared the sheer force of the blast and remained in place was black and singed. In the very center of the decimated area, a small fire burned. That fire began to grow and become brighter. It split into four and sprouted like a burning plant before meeting and forming a large orb. The flame continued to morph and contort until a shape was made. The shape resembled a pony but larger and sleeker. Wings sprouted from the form and a horn began to grow from the head.
The creature looked over the crater with dethatched interest. "My, my. This is what happens when you let the poor little ponies govern themselves. No matter. I will make up for my absence shortly and with much enthusiasm."