//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: Whitewashed // by ScottTrek //------------------------------// Ponyville looked pretty torn up but--all things considered--it could have been a lot worse. Between Discord, the parasprites and few spectacular spells-gone-wrong from Twilight, the town had had the hell kicked out of it more times than anyone cared to count. But now it was deathly quiet. As the group of children walked slowly down the main road there was not a single sound to be heard. “Where the hay is everyone?” Applebloom asked while looking through a shop window. “Probably asleep,” Scootaloo answered. “Or inside licking their wounds. I hope Rainbow Dash is all right. There were more ponies going crazy even for her to handle.” “How do you know she wasn’t part of that riot?” snorted Midnight, examining some lightning burns on a building’s side. “Hmmm, about one point two Megawatts,” he muttered to himself. Ever since he had returned from his scouting trip he had been incredibly irritable. The normally timid colt had actually left Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon magically glued to a tree. “Hey!” Scootaloo yelled; outraged at any mention that her beloved Rainbow Dash might be less than perfect. “Dashie is the Element of Loyalty! She would have stuck with Twilight and the others even if it meant fighting every single pony in town!” Midnight began growling but was cut short by a familiar voice from above. “Ha! You know me far too well kid.” Rainbow Dash fluttered down from the sky with her normal roguish grin. Scootaloo cheered and was immediately hugging Rainbow with a winding force. Sweetie Belle could see that Rainbow Dash was looking like the town; pretty beat up. Her tail had been cut off and her midriff was wrapped in a blood-spotted bandage. “Did you actually have to fight the entire town? Cause there’s no-one around,” Sweetie Belle asked nervously. She was hoping that the older Pegasus would be able to disentangle herself from Scootaloo soon. Midnight had become, frankly, terrifying. His growling had intensified and taken on a more animalistic quality. Pulling herself free, Rainbow Dash strode up to Midnight and glanced down curiously at the psychotic looking colt. “Well I didn’t have to fight Midnight’s brother. Lucky, since he was desperate for somebody to find you and give you this.” Dash pulled out a small plastic bottle from a fold in her bandages and passed it to Midnight. Immediately his eyes widened. He grabbed the bottle, unscrewed it and downed a dubious amount of pills. There were a few moments where nobody moved. Midnight grimaced intensely before finally popping his head back and smiling nervously. “Ahh sorry about that growling, but two days without my medication…” “Sorry to ask a silly question but what do you have?” Rainbow Dash asked cocking her head. Midnight lowered his head and started stuttering. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes at Rainbow’s lack of tact and swept in to save him. “Not important right now! Rainbow Dash, where is everyone?” Rainbow turned and indicated Twilight’s tree house, the building’s top branches peeping over the other houses. “Anypony who didn’t lose their wits is at Twilight’s house. Everypony else was put under a blanket sleeping spell; I spent 3 hours shuttling sleeping ponies around. We should get a move on, you all have some very concerned siblings waiting.” ************************************************************************************************************************************************************ “Can you please let me down now?” Bon-Bon asked Twilight over the whir of machinery. “My back is really aching from this position.” Twilight looked up at Bon-Bon who was clamped upright into a vertical poison on a metal slab, various electrodes and sensors attached to her body. “Yeah....all right,” Twilight conceded. “Lyra, you want to come down too?” “Nah I’m fine,” replied Lyra from the adjacent sensor slab. “My spine’s more used to this position anyway.” Behind them Rainbow Dash opened the door to let the kids in. Almost instantly Twilight had trussed up Scootaloo and was clamping her into the vacated slab before the filly could even get a ‘hello’ out. “YAHHHH... err...good to see you too, Twilight?” Scootaloo asked in confusion. “What exactly is--” but Twilight had already bustled off and was working on a large control panel. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt,” Bon-Bon reassured as she stretched her back. “Twilight did the same thing to us when we arrived.” Meanwhile Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were hugging their much-relieved sisters. Sweetie Belle extricated herself as a voice she didn’t recognise said “Midnight! Good to see yah bro! What’s this I hear about a little heroics?” Midnight was bro-hoofing an older Earth pony, presumably his brother. They did look alike; both had short tufty manes and tails but where Midnight’s coat and hair was as black as coal, his brother’s was slate grey. “Ahh you must be Sweetie Belle and Rarity. My names Dusk.” Dusk turned and extended a hoof for the two to shake. But as he turned he went from profile to face on view and--despite all of Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s practice at poise and demeanour--neither could mask the shock at his appearance. The entire left side of his body was covered in a burn scar that stretched from his face all the way down to his flank. He held his hoof out for a whole 5 seconds before he and Midnight collapsed into fit of laughter. “Bahahaha...oh...oh sorry.” Dusk gasped. Composing himself, he continued, “I’ll save you asking the questions. I’m an archaeologist; the day I got my cutie mark I was exploring some ruins that unfortunately happened to have a trap system which doused me in acid. It doesn’t hurt and I don’t really care anymore. Also I have the same mental condition as Midnight but far less severe.” “Well.” Rarity said, regaining her composure. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Dusk.” “Now can you confirm what I’ve been hearing about by little brother and your sister?” Midnight suddenly squeaked and ran off, diving under the table where Twilight was working. “Whoops,” Dusk groaned. “Shouldn’t have put him on the spot like that.” “Not to be rude,” Rainbow Dash said entering the conversation, hovering overhead. “But what exactly is wrong with him? And....erm...you?” Dusk looked slightly scared and started stuttering. He turned and walked into a corner where he remained for a few seconds before returning to the perplexed ponies. “Sorry. It’s sort of like schizophrenia with some elements of autism. Sometimes I just can’t think straight or forget how to read, stuff like that. As you can see we both suffer from anxiety attacks around other ponies; especially girls.” Dusk knelt down to be on Sweetie Belles level and whispered “Try and stick with him, yeah? I know he’s scary sometimes but when you became his friend it was the first time he talked to a girl his age in 4 months.” A yell of frustration cut across the room as Twilight hurled a book against the wall. “NOTHING! Horse-apples!” Twilight, with a face like a darkened storm, walked over to the other ponies. Everypony congregated round the storming alicorn, putting down the various books they had been scouring through. “Well,” Twilight announced, “I have put together every test I can think of but as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with anypony who has been tested. Whatever caused the cutie marks to vanish isn’t biological. If there is magic at work, it’s of a kind that I can’t detect or alter. Has anyone found anything in the library?” All eyes turned to Pinkie. “What?” she said, looking around. “Well this is usually when you point out the exact book we need for the situation.” “OHHH right!” Pinkie said. “Yeah... no. I did try walking into several bookcases but none of the books that fell on me were in anyway helpful.” Twilight let out a long sigh. “Okay okay…ahhh.” Suddenly Twilight lurched sideways, and was only saved from falling by Midnight, who popped out from under the table to prop Twilight up. Fluttershy--who had been quiet up until now--pulled Twilight up and asked “Hey Twilight, when was the last time you slept?” “Or ate for that matter?” Midnight grumbled. “I can hear your stomach from here.” He went to go back under the table but was grabbed by Sweetie Belle. Twilight was laid down on a sofa while Rainbow Dash cleared her throat, to take control of the meeting. “Okay then. Well since we can’t put everypony’s cutie marks back we’re just gonna' have to live with it for now. Twilight, can we just make the rest of the town normal?” “Uhh yeah. Can somepony get me some pancakes?” “I’ll make some!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. With all the grown-up talk she was feeling slightly left out. “Can somepony else make me pancakes?” *********************************************************************************************************************************************************** It was late at night now. Thankfully Celestia and Luna hadn’t freaked out so the day-night cycle was carrying on as normal. Sweetie Belle’s and Midnight’s houses had been wrecked during the riot so both were bunking in Twilight’s house. Sweetie Belle awoke to find Midnight groaning and tossing in his sleeping bag. “Don’t….don’t….don’t,” he repeated over and over. Sweetie Belle jumped as he rolled over to reveal both eyes wide open and pure white. Sweetie Belle leapt over and shook him, terrified at his appearance. “Midnight? Are you okay? MIDNIGHT!” Midnight eyes rolled forward and his pupils came back into view. For a few moments he sat breathing heavily before exclaiming. “OH CELESTIA! Diamond Tiara is still glued to that tree!”