Sweetie Belle kept to the path as she continued to trudge through the unnaturally murky orchard. Every few seconds, she would look up from the ground and strain her eyes in an effort to catch of glimpse of civilization (or at the very least the Apple family’s farmhouse), but so far, she’d seen nothing but barely visible tree trunks, though occasionally she thought she saw weird undulations in the fog’s consistency that almost seemed like shadowy figures moving through the orchard. However, Sweetie Belle was also fairly certain that if those amorphous visions were really humans, they’d be making some sort of noise, and Sweetie Belle couldn’t hear anything other than the steady beat of her hooves against the dirt road. This silence, however, was somehow even more unsettling than the everyday background noise she was used to hearing while visiting Sweet Apple Acres. I need to get out of here, she thought to herself as she increased her pace through the silvery haze.
However, despite her sporadic flirting with delusional paranoia, it seemed as though Sweetie Belle’s idea to follow the path was working out. The first fork in the road she came across didn’t discourage her; in fact it was obvious that one of the three pathways branched out into the other two, and as Sweetie Belle had been on one of those tributary paths, that meant that she had indeed chosen the correct direction. It seemed that, despite all her worries, she really was making an eventual rescue more likely by searching for help instead of staying put.
Those feelings of optimism dissipated when Sweetie Belle turned a corner and found herself not at a fork, but a crossroads. Worse, each road seemed to be approximately the same width, and had apparently seen the same amount of use. It seemed that not all of the paths through the orchard were shaped like the branches of a tree; the larger ones, apparently, were laid out more like a grid, which meant that getting lost was a real possibility. In fact, Sweetie Belle now realized that in the course of her investigation, she had completely forgotten which road she’d traveled to reach this point.
However, before she could settle on a choice between panic and despair, her train of thought was disrupted by the repeated peals of a bell off in the distance. At first, Sweetie Belle took this as evidence that her mind was playing tricks on her; she was almost certain that it was only one o’clock in the afternoon, and even if she had completely lost track of time, the bell was sounding far too many times for it to be noon. Why would they even bother ringing the clock tower bell in the first place? she thought to herself. Isn’t everypony supposed to be inside, where it’s nice and warm and safe from invading humans?
Sweetie Belle shook her head rapidly to try to clear her mind. Right now, she didn’t have time to dwell on such ideas; she needed to keep moving, not only to find help, but also to stave off the numbness in her legs that seemed to keep getting worse the longer she remained in the fog’s bitter chill. Besides, now she at least had a clue to orient herself in the orchard: if that noise had indeed been the clock tower bell, that meant that Ponyville was somewhere in front of her. As she had no reason to favor any of the other pathways, she elected to take the road in front of her.
September 2 – 12:59 PM
“They did what?!”
Applejack winced as she quickly clapped a hoof against the side of her head. She hadn’t really expected Rarity to react to the new situation with any sort of stoicism, but she could have done without the indignant shriek directly into her ear. “Look, Rarity, it’s just a strong possibility. Like Derpy said, there ain’t actually any proof that they did somethin’ wrong, so for all I know there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation that I just can’t think of at the moment. Besides, right now, knowin’ how they got out ain’t all that helpful.” Having thus momentarily quieted the raging unicorn, Applejack turned her attention back to Fluttershy. “I’m plannin’ on sendin’ out search parties as soon as possible. You okay with that?”
Fluttershy nodded. “Of course. The sooner we find the Crusaders, the better.”
“Alright, then,” Applejack replied. “Then I’d best be gettin’ out to the clock tower so I can explain what’s going on to the safety patrol.” With that, the farmpony turned and exited the library. Thus, when Twilight chose to deal with the new information by retreating to a separate room and going over her calculations once again, the only company Fluttershy had was Rarity, who had made her way to the library to check on Fluttershy’s still-untested fog suit. However, with her sister in mortal peril (again), the fashionista’s interest in glaringly ugly safety gear soon reached its nadir.
“This is most disturbing,” Rarity said as she paced nervously around the room with a somewhat bewildered expression on her face. “I feel as though my mind can’t decide whether to be worried or angry.”
Fluttershy seemed to find this statement confusing. “Angry? Why would you be angry? I can understand feeling a little disappointed....”
“Disappointment is how one responds to mere bad judgement. This, however, is clearly a case of moral failure.”
“Moral failure?” Fluttershy repeated.
Rarity let out an exasperated sigh. “If the Crusaders truly believe that there is nothing wrong with drugging a lady simply because she won’t give you something you want, then it would appear that some remediary moral instruction is needed,” Rarity replied stiffly.
Fluttershy sighed. “I suppose I can’t disagree, but right now, don’t you think you should be more concerned with your sister’s safety?”
Rarity looked aghast. “Fluttershy, of course I’m concerned!” she replied, placing a hoof over her chest. “Ensuring the Crusaders’ safety ought to be our first priority. I’m simply... stunned that their usual recklessness has been equaled by their thoughtlessness.”
“Well,” Fluttershy said as she stared absently out the window at the grey mass, “I suppose we’ll have to make sure they’re still around to learn their lesson.”
September 2 – 1:12 PM
One of the disadvantages of trying to address a crowd of ponies who had assembled in the middle of an abnormally-thick fog was that it was rather difficult to get a sense of how many ponies were in the audience. Unfortunately, even though Applejack certainly would have preferred to have everypony gather in the town hall, the clock tower was the one with the bell, and to minimize the chance of safety patrol members stumbling around town, she’d decided to make the clock tower the emergency meetup spot so everypony could simply follow the sound of the bell’s peals. Still, there was at least one advantage to addressing the group outdoors: the fog’s damp, bitter chill underscored the gravity of the situation far more effectively than an oratorical flourish ever could, which was a great boon, since Applejack hated it when she felt pressured to use highfalutin’ fancy talk.
“So that’s basically where we’re at right now,” she said as she ended her explanation of the situation. “Now, y’all are gonna get paired off and assigned to a different part of Ponyville and the surrounding area. Make sure you don’t rush things while you’re searchin’; even though we got limited time, we don’t wanna overlook these fillies. If anypony finds them, try to bring them back to town, unless they’re really badly injured, in which case one of you can head back while the other sticks with them. Keep searchin’ until you hear the clock tower bell again. You hear that, it means I need y’all to regroup here. Got it?”
After a few seconds of affirmative mumbling, Applejack set about organizing the search party. As the pairs of ponies went off to search their designated sections of the Ponyville area, the numbers slowly dwindled down until there were only three ponies left. One of these three ponies was Big Macintosh, and Applejack had saved him for the end because she already knew where she wanted him to search: Sweet Apple Acres (which, not coincidentally, was the only region that had yet to have a search party assigned). What made the matter somewhat more complicated were the other two ponies.
“I just can’t understand why those three would do something like this in the first place. I specifically told them that there were humans in the fog.”
“Well, isn’t it obvious? As sweet, uncorrupted foals, they naturally sensed that there was something majestic about these creatures that compelled them to try and meet one.”
“I’m just going to assume that by ‘uncorrupted,’ you mean ‘painfully idealistic.’ Besides, I’ll have you know that I made sure to outline the dangers posed to ponykind by those bipedal monstrosities.”
“Well, that just proves that they were able to see right through your baseless propaganda!”
It was rather difficult to figure out whether to assign Lyra or Bon-Bon to accompany Big Mac, mostly because of their “interest” in mythological creatures. In retrospect, Applejack probably should have given them an assignment first, so that she would have been left with more reasonable ponies at the end. It wasn’t that Applejack thought that whoever went off to Sweet Apple Acres would prevent Big Macintosh from making an effective search. On the contrary, it was the pony who would have to stay behind that worried her.
“Baseless propaganda?! Lyra, three fillies are lost in this stupid fog of theirs, probably freezing to death, and you think I’m the one who’s baseless?”
“That doesn’t mean anything. They must have been mistaken about how ponies react to cold temperatures.”
“Oh, give me a break. If they’re smart enough to control the weather without magic, they’re smart enough to know about hypothermia.”
“Maybe they just think our natural coats were a lot warmer. They wouldn’t know, since they don’t have any of their own, now would they? Bon-Bon, the humans need our empathy.”
“No, they need to have their kneecaps shattered to set an example.”
Simply put, the odds were fairly good that the odd pony out would go off in search of humans, whether to deliver bear hugs or bear traps. Up until now, of course, they’d been fairly reliable, mostly because each was keen to rein in the other’s more excessive tendencies, but leaving either of them to their own devices seemed quite risky. Sure, there was the option of having the remaining pony stick close to her so they could serve as an “assistant,” but Applejack was in no mood to foalsit a full-grown mare. No, that ain’t right, Applejack silently rebuked herself. These are adults here, and this is an emergency. Surely I can trust them to be responsible without supervision.
“I know! We should go out and find the humans.”
“To pummel them with rocks?”
“No, you bigoted weirdo; we ought to recruit them! They can use their science to find the foals. Plus, once they realize that we aren’t a threat to them, I bet they’ll be more than happy to science this fog away, and then we can finally have that picnic! I can’t wait for them to try my grandmother’s coleslaw recipe.”
“Have you completely lost your mind? If they even have pony-locating science, then they’re probably using it to look for potential hostages in the fog.... Sweet Celestia, that’s what happened to them! Those dastardly excuses for sasquatches foalnapped those fillies. That settles it: we need to find those jerks and beat them into submission.”
Upon hearing this latest exchange, Applejack groaned aloud and beckoned her brother to come closer while the two mares continued their bickering. “Listen, Big Mac, I don’t really wanna risk the chance that one of these two will go off and do somethin’ stupid if she’s left by her lonesome. Do ya think you can keep those two in line if I send both of them with you ta search the orchard?”
Macintosh didn’t answer right away. He spent a few seconds looking at Lyra and Bon-Bon warily before he let out a sigh and gave his answer: “Eeyup.”