//------------------------------// // Part 4 // Story: Whitewashed // by ScottTrek //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle was slightly perturbed when Midnight knocked on her window. Not that she minded him visiting, but her bedroom was on Carousel Boutique’s second floor. Sweetie Belle opened the window, but put a hoof out to stop him entering. “What was wrong with the door?” “Hmmm? What do you mean?” “You’re trying to get in through my bedroom window...” Midnight looked around like he’d only just realised where he was. “Oh... so I am. Sorry. Er... can you let me in anyway? I’m not sure how to get down.” Sweetie Belle studied his face for a second before sighing and letting him through. “You know, I can’t even remember how I got here!” Midnight laughed, pulling a saddle bag through the window with him. Sweetie sighed again but grinned. This wasn’t the oddest thing he’d done recently: a few nights prior, she’d awoken to find him passed out in her bedroom with no memory of how he’d managed to get in. Rarity had politely suggested to Dusk that he up Midnight’s medication dosage. “So, do you remember why you’re here, even if you can’t remember how?” Sweetie Belle asked. Midnight unfolded a large parchment sheet from his saddle bag, but held it so Sweetie couldn’t see. “Do you have any charcoal?” he asked, putting the first sheet back and inspecting a second. “I ran out at home and all of the shops I thought might have some are closed.” “Yeah, I think Rarity has some for marking fabric,” Sweetie Belle mused thoughtfully. She moved around to see a complex diagram on the parchment. “What’s it for?” “It’s a lot easier to illustrate than using ink. Guess I could use pencils, but old habits die hard.” Sweetie Belle retrieved a stick of charcoal from Rarity’s drawing desk and then hopped up on her bed. She watched in silence while Midnight spread out the canvas on the fool and proceeded to draw a series of snowflake like diagrams. “What’re you working on?” Sweetie Belle asked, leaning over. “It’s kinda secret,” Midnight mumbled. “But you’ll be the first one to know when I’ve finished.” “Oooooh.” “Well, maybe after Twilight.” “Oh.” *********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Twilight awoke with a jolt as the door to her house clunked open. She had fallen asleep while browsing through yet another giant tome of great antiquity, dragged from the back-o-beyond of Canterlot’s royal library. So old was the text that the language within was almost totally indecipherable; even with her great love of books, decoding this monstrosity was severely trying Twilight’s patience. The now permanently dishevelled pony turned around from her desk to see Sweetie Belle and Midnight entering. Midnight looked up and saw her, immediately falling silent. “Hello there!” Twilight smiled, stifling a yawn. “What do I owe the pleasure of your visit tonight?” She was extremely glad to have some excuse to continue looking for something, anything, to help with the current disaster. There were a few moments of awkward silence, save for Midnight’s slight squeaking sound he made when he was too nervous to talk. Twilight looked at Sweetie Belle, but she shrugged and mouthed “I have no idea.” “So, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight said, breaking the monotony, “I heard that your friend Babs Seed was near those new riots in Manehattan. I do hope she wasn’t too close.” “Close enough,” Sweetie Belle said, wandering up to Twilights desk. “That entire branch of the Apple family’s moving out to Appleloosa now. Smaller population: less danger, or something.” Twilight looked back at her desk and sighed. “Smart move. I wish I could tell you that they were over-reacting, but—” There was a slight rustle behind them. Midnight had laid out some of his parchment pages on the floor and indicated silently for Twilight to take a look. Twilight carefully inspected each of the diagrams. Sweetie Belle couldn’t make head nor tail of them herself, but Twilight’s expression was worrying. With every diagram, the alicorn’s expression grew more…disturbed? ...worried? ...frightened? “So, what is all this?” Sweetie Belle asked, unable to stand the tension in the room. “Cloud seeding,” Twilight declared. “Know what that is?” Sweetie belle shook her head. Twilight indicated the outer branches of each of the crystal variations. “These crystals have a hydrophilic outer structure,” “That means they attract water,” Midnight added. “Put these in the atmosphere and they attract moisture until they became heavy enough to fall as rain. Pegasi use them occasionally,” Twilight continued. “Right,” Sweetie Belle said, still confused. “And, this is making you look worried because...” “Because...” Twilight said, giving Midnight a long hard look, “each of the nuclei of these crystals, in one form or another, is a chemical anaesthetic or tranquiliser.” “What?!” Sweetie Belle yelped. She rounded angrily on Midnight. “Do you have any idea how creepy that is, Midnight?” Flustered, Midnight backed away. “I know... but it’s not like we’d be drugging them all the time. I designed them so that they’d only attract water after being magically activated. It’s an anti-rioting measure—ponies flared up more than once in Manehattan, it could happen again... I can’t sit by and do not—ahhh...uhhhh…” Midnight had started gasping for air; tears welled in his eyes as the emotional outburst overtook him. Sweetie Belle felt a pang of guilty for shouting at him. Maybe putting tranquilisers in the atmosphere was creepy, but his heart was in the right place. And this clearly meant a lot to him. “Oh no,” Sweetie Belle said, hugging Midnight. “It’s okay.” “I just don’t want anypony else to get hurt,” Midnight muttered. “It was just an idea that popped into my head after I heard about your friend in Manehattan.” “What it is...” Twilight said in a stern voice, the two turned to see that she had folded up the diagrams, now holding them above a candle. “What these represent are creepy, vaguely tyrannical ideas, and almost definitely a breach of pony-rights. And you know the worst part?” For a long moment Twilight looked between the children and the parchment before letting out a forlorn, defeated sight and placing the parchment on her desk. “Right here, right now, it seems like a fairly reasonable precaution. Those with enough magic to subdue rioting on this scale can’t be everywhere at once, and our resources are at breaking point. I’ll bring it up with the Princesses this coming afternoon.” “I don’t normally think up plans with population control strategies,” Midnight said quietly. Twilight shook her head sadly. “Desperate times...”