The stench of hopelessness did not falter inside of the library.
Twilight could sense this in a multitude of ways--in the air, in her mind. Just by taking a brief look around could she see how plain it was. The unbridled misery that surrounded her and her friends, like a rainstorm had hung under each and every one of them. Boom. Thunderbolts and freezing, stabbing rain. Yet Twilight found herself outside of the clouds, the storm. She let the gloom make its way around her and whisk itself away with the wind.
Nothing. Nothing was going to bother her anymore. Not her past, not her friends’ pasts and mistakes. She knew, after all, that this was all going to be over soon. She knew what she had to do. There would be no more crying; only wet spots on the floor where their spirits once were. No more regrets and sorrow. No more withered bodies and emotions.
Soon, oh so soon, will Twilight teach them to hold their heads high. “Pride is what will destroy us all, in the end,” Twilight’s mother said, not too long ago. Twilight couldn’t remember what lead to this conversation, but she could hear her mother’s voice clearly. “But there are two kinds of pride: The vanity of boasting about your accomplishments and the things you own. The second being the act of standing up straight, a wide smile on your face, and admitting that you have learned from your experiences.”
She had never completely understood the sincerely of that quote until today.
A new day.
“I don’t understand,” Pinkie said. Twilight noticed that the more she explained, the more confused Pinkie actually became. “What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean?” After a few milliseconds of contemplation, Twilight changed her tone. “We’re going to find out who did this, that’s what.”
Rainbow Dash, for the umpteeth time in the last thirty minutes, rolled her eyes disbelievingly. For some reason, she held back a crude remark. She had taken to the sky, flying in mid-air over her friends, as if she was some kind of Lieutenant. Her mouth was turned into a large, upside down “U” that didn’t seem like it would be going away anytime soon. Whenever Rainbow Dash heard one of her friends speak, her beating wings would churn faster.
“Darling,” Rarity said cautiously, like she knew what she was about to say wasn’t going to help the situation. “The population of Ponyville is fairly high..” Twilight already knew where she was going with this. She bit the inside of her lip.
“Yeah. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to go door to door interrogating the townsfolk,” Applejack muttered. When another thought crossed her mind, she perked up her ears, wearily, and gave Twilight the slightest of glances. “How do we even know if the culprit even lives in town, anyways?”
Twilight did not let this great point falter her. “Good thought. However, it’s simple,” she said. “That being the case is just highly unlikely. Unless this is some kind of gigantic conspiracy involving more than one pony-”
“Which is entirely possible,” Rarity chirped.
“...Er, right.” Twilight replied. “There is no way somepony outside of the town is responsible for this. Whoever is responsible for this has such a deep, ghastly hatred for Ponyville, as well as the Element’s of Harmony.” Twilight felt like she was some kind of stuttering record. The thought that someone had such a severe distaste for her and her friends jarred her thinking, and she felt a large lump form in her throat.
She had already put into mind a few suspects. A certain Draconequus, Changeling Queen, boisterous showmare, and Crystal King came to mind. But trying to imagine either of them behind something like this just didn’t fit into place like Twilight had hoped it would. Deep in her mind, she knew that they weren’t the cause of this. There was just no possible way. She tried to turn to the dark corners of her head, where she knew the answer would lie. She knew it was there. Hiding, waiting, laughing malevolently while Twilight struggled to reach it. However, it just continued to keep dancing out of her grasp, every time she thought she had gotten a little closer.
Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves together, the noise making a horrible cracking sound that ground against Twilight’s ears. “Lightning Dust!” She grunted. Twilight sighed. “It has to be her! She’s been out to get me ever since that so-called “tornado accident!”
There was an awkward silence, before Fluttershy--the last pony anyone expected to speak what everypony was thinking--opened her mouth. “Rainbow Dash… I-I’m not too sure about that…”
“Are you kidding me? She hates me! Did you see that look in her eye when that lead flyer’s badge was taken for her? She lost her position with our help. There’s no reason why she wouldn’t try and do this!” Rainbow Dash hovered in midair, her mouth upturned in a proud grin. Obviously, her ingenious mind has solved the mystery. The other five didn’t see it as such.
In the end, they all decided to ignore Rainbow’s hopeless and poorly thought out solution. When the mare in question realized this, she stuck out her lower lip and turned her gaze to the ceiling.
Twilight wondered to herself about Rainbow Dash, and what her real motives were. Did she really want to free the town from their sins, or did she just want to be the hero again? Twilight sure hoped not. Perhaps the mare just wanted her secret off her home, and that was all that mattered. Either way, Twilight was positive that her intentions were good. If they weren’t… well, that was just not the Rainbow she knew. If that was the case, then whoever had done this had succeeded. Twilight refused to let it come to that.
“Somepony hates us. Somepony wants us to suffer and pay, and for some reason, they tried to cover up their goal by involving the entire town.” Twilight sighed. Luckily for her, it was practically inaudible. She couldn’t show weakness--sadness. Her mere strength was the only thing she had, as well as her friends. Her brain was too strong to let her down now.
While the six of them talked, Twilight made her way back down the stairs. Getting to her library was her main objective now. Everything she needed to solve this fiasco was down there. Why she had not realized this earlier wasn’t exactly a mystery. Her friends followed absently, walking only so they could continue to hear Twilight’s voice. The voice of truth. The voice of answers and disclosure.
“Well, who?” Rarity asked. She bit the inside of her mouth. “Who did this, Twilight?”
Twilight truthfully didn’t expect the question. She didn’t answer for a moment. She was slightly busy. They had reached the book shelves quickly, and Twilight was scanning them intently. She knew it was in there, and because of it her horn was already aglow. She was lost in two different kinds of senses--her sight and her hearing.
Anyways, when Twilight didn’t answer immediately, Applejack grew inexplicably hostile. “Twi!” she hollered. “We’re waitin’!” Twilight resisted the urge to throw her a dirty glare, unsure of her initial motive. Twilight’s mind was becoming a little fuzzy, as her brain focused in on some of the key books on her shelves. It had to be around there somewhere. Meanwhile, she spoke absentmindedly.
“Whoever did this…” Twilight was speaking slowly, still focused on the books in front of her. “It’s strange. A magical spell like this takes an unhealthy amount of concentration and power. A fog spell, an irremovable paint spell--some kind of deep dark secret revealer spell. It’s very difficult for somepony to do this, as well as carry it out over the course of a day. Whoever did this is drawing a huge amount of magical energy.” Pinkie Pie maneuvered her position so that she was standing directly next to Twilight. The unicorn hadn’t noticed this until the pink mare had already spoken up.
“Do you think the Alicorn Amulet…?” Pinkie didn’t even bother finishing the sentence. Twilight was positive that she didn’t even know how to finish it anyways.
“Definately not. Remember last time a pony had it? Trixie went bonkers. It turns you evil, remember? Somepony who has that much power isn’t going to hide in the shadows.” Twilight’s eyes almost shone like her sin when she found what she was looking for: a large black tome. It was nothing but a dark rectangle. No title, no author. It reeked of ancientry and wisdom in a way that Twilight just couldn’t explain. She hid her inner excitement, even though she wanted to scream like a filly. It didn’t stop her from harboring a monstrous grin. “Somepony is hiding. Who ever did this… I cannot tell if they want to be caught or not. But they will soon. If somepony is hiding, and using that much magical energy, we should be able to trace it.”
For a split second, the room grew absolutely silent. The other five were listening on, frozen in place like a deer in front of a moving carriage. Maybe it was the shock of such an idea. Maybe it was the fear of actually finding the answers that they craved so badly. Fluttershy looked like she was ready to vomit, and sat down in a chair. The other three crowded around Pinkie and Twilight, who were skimming through the large tome already.
“S-so we’ll have t-to go… confront them? Face to face…?” Fluttershy asked, clutching her stomach for dear life. “But they’ve done all this magic… they might be d-dangerous.”
“True, but it’s the only way to make things right.” Twilight turned to the page where the instructions for a rather complicated looking spell were. She looked over to Applejack. “AJ, you know Winona, and her great sense of smell?”
For a moment, Applejack gave the slightest of grins. “Yep, why?”
“The spell works kind of like a dog’s sense of smell would. Whenever magic is used, it creates an invisible link between the magical creature and the object they are touching with their magic. Sort of like how I am holding this book.” She motioned from her horn, to the levitated book in front of them. “I’ve created a link. You just can’t see it. When I do this spell, I’ll be able to see them, and if we just follow the links, we’ll find out exactly where the magic is coming from.”
Rainbow Dash snickered. “Well? What’re ya waiting for! I’m ready to kick some butt!” She threw a hoof in the air, then another, repeatedly--as if she was boxing.
“Are you sure we should do this right now?” Rarity asked. “I still don’t think we’ve solved any of our problems. Specifically, the ones that should be dealt with immediately.” Twilight bit her lip when Rarity motioned towards the pony right next to her--Applejack. The mare in question didn’t hear--and if she did, she obviously didn’t think they were talking about her.
Twilight had been thinking about her, and honestly she didn’t know what to do. Applejack admitted that she didn’t care about Fluttershy and what she had done, when it was obviously a lie. Twilight could tell that Applejack was fuming at Fluttershy. The two haven’t shared eye contact ever since the farm pony read Fluttershy’s secret a few hours ago. Unfortunately, Twilight couldn’t solve that right now. She couldn’t stop everything just to have another sit-down session that wouldn’t work. The last one sure didn’t. The counseling would have to be saved for another better time.
In the end, Twilight ignored Rarity entirely.
“So… this is it?” Pinkie asked. Despite the joyful comment, she bore a creepily large frown. “After this, we’ll know who did it? We’ll know who hates us so badly?” Twilight nodded. Pinkie turned to the floor.
“B-But what are we going to do when we meet the pony that’s responsible?” Rarity asked. The fashionista was starting to confuse Twilight. Didn’t she want the secret wiped off her boutique? Twilight would have imagined that Rarity would be eager to heal her now-broken relationship with her sister. There was probably an underlying reason that Twilight just didn’t know of. Maybe Rarity was just afraid that it wouldn’t work, and it would all be for nothing. In the back of her mind, Twilight wondered if perhaps Rarity slightly felt better after having her secret shared with the town.
“Then we talk to them and sort all of this out. Surely, they know what they’re doing is wrong.” Twilight was getting distracted, and tuned out the other voices so she could concentrate. She focused her mind and soul, her entire being on this one little image in her mind. The picture that she dreamed for, longed for, and wanted to project to the heavens. Twilight closed her eyes. She let it warm and enter her. She needed this. Ponyville needed this.
Acceptance.
Twilight opened her eyes when she was sure that the spell had been properly casted. It was strange, the feeling she had. She felt like her mind was in another reality, and her eyes tingled with discomfort. Her entire vision almost shifted into that of water. Everything that was standing perfectly still in the room--including her friends--would move in a manner that mimicked floating in an ocean with rocking waves. It was suddenly getting increasingly difficult to balance, and she wobbled. To her, the earth below her hooves were moving.
Pinkie Pie caught the off-balance unicorn effortlessly. “Whoa… you okay, Twilight?” Twilight gave a small nod.
Twilight would have preferred to regain her bearing before anything was done. Unfortunately, Rainbow Dash had a different idea. Using her wings to propel her, she flied from one end of the library to the other, and slammed into Pinkie Pie, eager to speak to Twilight now that the spell was clearly casted. Pinkie let out an “oomph!”. “It’s done? Do you see things now? Let’s go already!”
Rainbow stopped when a small “urk” was heard not even two steps away from her. Rainbow’s face turned so red, Applejack could have picked it off one of her trees. She promptly helped Pinkie back to her hooves. Twilight sighed. “Everything looks… weird. But I don’t see anything yet. Probably because whatever’s affecting outside isn’t specifically doing anything in the library… let’s go outside for a second…”
***
Twilight had done this spell once before. Unfortunately, it was on a very small scale. This time was much larger, and understandably more effective. Twilight didn’t know what to think, except that the only way from now on was up. She could feel it, the ending. She knew that the secrets would not be up for much longer as soon as she saw the colors. She needed to end this, and she lusted for it.
The moment Twilight wandered outside, everything was changed. The sky was colored in three very different types of hues and strange lines. It floated and tore across the sky like a demonic rainbow, and Twilight could barely see anything of the decadent night sky. Every house had letters, and two straight lines pointed to each and every one of everyponies secrets. They surrounded the letters, engulfing them in magic. One line was a dark blue that imitated the color of blueberries and violets. The second one was a bright pink, like that of a heart.
There was a huge sunflower-colored dome over all of Ponyville, shrouding Twilight and her friends in an indirect falsification of the sun. It chilled her, and hated her. She hated it back.
Yellow, pink and blue. Unicorns, with magic of this color. Twilight knew now that Rarity was correct. It was more than one pony who did this. In fact, there were three. Three unicorns. It just had to be. The lines all ran off east, towards the edge of town. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat.
“Well? Do ya see anything?” Applejack asked. Evidently, none of Twilight’s friends could see what Twilight was envisioning, and all the colors. They looked upon nothing but an eerily foggy night, complete with despair and embarrassment. Twilight hesitated to answer.
“I… yes…” Why Twilight was skeptical was beyond her. “The magic… all of it… it’s coming from the east side of town, near the edge it seems.”
As the words left Twilight’s lips, it felt like she was giving a silent order into insanity. She felt like she was leading a troop to war, even though this was definately not the case. But how was she supposed to know? She couldn’t read the future, but she could sure worry about it. It brought herself to ask the question “Which is more worrisome? The past or the future?”.
Twilight didn’t say another word. Applejack’s face hardened into that of pure determination and dedication, like she wanted to right the wrongs that have been brought upon her that fateful day, get back at those who wrote the message, rather than who let the secret play out in the first place.
Fluttershy’s face was frozen in fear, a frightened face for a frightened soul. She looked dead set on walking away, leaving, letting her sin broadcast to the rest of Equestria. She was shaking uncontrollably, but somehow, she stood strong.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. One looked eager for vengeance, the other looked eager for resolution. The game had been the same--but they just went about it different ways. Twilight looked upon them with a frown, and then ultimately a sigh.
She knew what she had to do. “Come on. Let’s go end this, once and for all.” Twilight, not taking another look at her friends, followed the blue and pink lines in the sky. She heard the hoofsteps behind her. This was why Princess Celestia chose her, for her magical ability and her leadership prowess. She kept her face stoic and centered, ready to face what just could be one of her biggest enemies yet. But… nothing would make her happier than to do just that--to fix this.
They strode in absolute silence. The crickets chirped and jumped around as if they were doing the dance of death. The dying grass under their hooves crunched and bent, creating a noise that Twilight Sparkle quickly got annoyed with. Pinkie Pie would fade in and out of reality and hum a small tune every now and then. After ten minutes, she stopped entirely. Twilight could hear her sigh unhappily.
As the group began to reach the outskirts of town, the path widened out. The buildings that occupied Ponyville soon where that of the past. The area opened up to soft patches of grass and a dirt road. The air began to nip at them, like a puppy dog. The colors never seemed to falter, shining just as brightly. The bright pink, the exuberant yellow, the foreignly eerie blue.
Not too far in the outskirts of town, the lines came to a stop at a dinky little log cabin.
The windows were shot, and shards of glass made them look like monsters with missing sharp teeth. The grass surrounding was uncut, and came up to the group’s knees. The roof was covered with holes and missing shingles. There was nothing left from the chimney save for a few bricks scattered here and there. The wood on the cabin itself was dead and rotted, eaten away by various insects over the years. It looked like a horrid place to stay.
“This is the place?” Rarity asked. She stuck out her bottom lip. “Looks like your average fixer-upper, if you ask me…” The fashionista looked almost disturbed at the thought of having to go inside.
“Pffft!” Rainbow hovered in the air, a sick sneer on her face. “Good. At least we don’t have to worry about property damage.”
“Rainbow, quit it.” Twilight had been becoming increasingly annoyed with Rainbow’s threats, and she had just about had enough. The last thing she needed going in there, while trying to have a civil discussion, was Rainbow Dash flying in and trying to throw unnecessary punches. “Yes, this is the place,” she said. Twilight’s horn dimmed, and the effect of the spell washed away. Twilight was almost ecstatic when her vision returned to normal.
“Uhm… W-What’s the plan…?” Fluttershy asked. She was hiding at the back of the group with Pinkie Pie. Of course, that meant Applejack was near the front. The farmer was staring at the log cabin intently, like a predator.
“Why not just go in and talk to them?” Pinkie said. She gave a knowingly glace to Twilight.
“That’s what I was thinking.” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash specifically when she spoke. “We don’t know who we’re up against. I saw three beams of magic, so three unicorns…” Twilight trailed off a bit when a thought came into her mind. What if they weren’t even unicorns? As much as she wanted to scour her brain for other creatures with abilities like unicorns, she just didn’t have the time for it.
“Well, there’s six of us and three of them,” Rainbow groaned. She crossed her forelegs childishly. “Even if we don’t knock them silly, we’ll still have ‘em outnumbered. Hah!” Rainbow puffed out her chest, as if she had just come up with an ultimate strategy. Twilight had already thought of this, but decided to humor the pegasus and not say anything at all.
“Well, we need to do somethin’,” Applejack added. “Sittin’ here ain’t gonna do any good.”
“But...but…” Fluttershy started. The more everypony spoke, the more the mare shrunk closer and closer to the ground, timidly. At this point, she was lying on her belly.
“Girls. If we want answers, if we want acceptance for what we’ve done, we need to do it right. Whoever did this… they had their reasons. Just like how we had reasons for our secrets. The act doesn’t define the pony, it’s the intention that shines. We need to go in there-” Twilight threw her hoof over in the direction of the cabin not even fifty feet away, “-and act like adults and settle this.”
“Twilight’s right,” Pinkie exclaimed. She took a step forward. “In order to forgive ourselves, we need to forgive whoever it was that did this. Getting angry and hostile won’t solve anything. It’ll only make us feel worse in the end when nothing changes.” Pinkie, for once in her life, gave a genuine smile. One that showed no trace of the old Pinkie that she used to hide behind. The smile was truly hers.
“So what do you say, girls?” Twilight asked. “Let’s go and end this.”
With that, Twilight turned tail. She strutted up to the cabin door in a matter of a few seconds. Almost immediately, all five of her friends were at the door, by her side--through thick and thin. This was what friendship was and meant to her. It meant having your friends and those close to you at those times of suffering and depression. It meant having somepony to have your back in cases of strife. It meant having somepony who cared enough about you to look right past your faults and your past.
This was what Twilight believed when she knocked on the door.
It would have been a really touching moment, had somepony answered the door. Twilight cocked her head, and knocked one more time. Surely, whoever did this couldn’t be serious. Knock, knock.
Another minute passed by. Rainbow Dash was practically doing a dance in anticipation. The lights were on, and there was movement coming from inside. Even still, Pinkie begged to ask, “Do you think anypony’s home?”
Then the door opened. The door was fractured way more that Twilight had thought. It creaked and bent, and almost fell apart in the mares hooves when she pulled open the door. Three sets of eyes stared back at Twilight and her friend. Three ponies. Three unicorns.
Their horns were aglow. One was a mare with a white body and a pink mane. Her horn glowed coral. Her mane was long and curly, and she had a cutie mark consisting of three stars. This mare merely scoffed at the sight of them, and wandered back into the cabin of which she came. The other two stared the six of them down.
One mare was grinning, the mare with the horn that glowed yellow. Her body was that of soap, a light green. Perhaps even a turqoise. Twilight found it hard to decipher considering that the lighting was downright terrible. Her mane was a similar color--maybe a little lighter of a color--with a white streak going down the middle. Her cutie mark was a lyre.
The last mare was the one holding the door open. Her face was contorted into a disgusted grimace. Her mane was two colors: royal blue and white, and her body was the color of the everloving sky. Her cutie mark portrayed some kind of hourglass. For some reason, she stood tall and proud, like she knew exactly what she was doing. Her eyes bored into Twilight’s like a jackhammer.
Twilight had no time to react before Hourglass gave the six of them a quick, toothy grin. As if her attitude had just done a 180. “About time you all show up. We’ve been waiting all day.”