Chapter 13
The rapid changes of scenery were beginning to disorient the members of their party. Kelso felt as if she had been standing in a centrifuge that was far too small for its own good. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up’, Kelso said as she clutched her head, looking around at her surroundings.
They were in a large room. In contrast to the metal construction of their last visiting place at the so called ‘Everfree Plains Missile Base’, this room was entirely wooden. The room was an uneven circle, and along the walls were bookshelves, each of them lined with rows upon rows of books.
‘Where do you think we are now?’ Dizzy asked.
‘This place... seems familiar’, Sparky said as she examined the books on the bookshelves. ‘I think... if I’m remembering my grandmother’s stories correctly, that is... that we’re standing in the Ponyville Public Library, and we’ve got to be a couple years before the Fall of Canterlot’.
There was a knock at the door, and everyone in the room jumped in surprise.
‘I got it!’ called a voice from an adjacent room. The door flashed open and a white unicorn mare with a barred quaver for a cutie mark and an electric blue mane pushed her way through. Sparky’s jaw dropped, she knew who this mare was.
‘Grandma?’ Sparky asked in surprise.
It was her, Vinyl Scratch, in her prime and in the flesh, from everything down to the violet lensed goggles that she was hardly ever seen without. She stopped at the door, looking to her left and discovering a vase filled with fresh flowers. She reached out with her mouth and bit down on them, pulling them out of the vase before opening the door.
Standing outside was a grey coated pegasus mare, with a blonde mane and a thick woollen scarf wrapped around her neck. Most interestingly, this mare’s eyes were situated at odd angles, and she was carrying an Equestrian Postal Service saddlebag on her flanks.
‘Hi!’ Vinyl Scratch said with a mouth full of flowers. ‘Miss you!’
The pegasus mare rolled her eyes, and thanks to the position of them, Kelso and company couldn’t help but cringe as they did. ‘They’re very nice... now put them back where you got them’.
Vinyl sighed and used her telekinesis to float them back over into the vase while the mare dug through her mailbag looking for letters.
‘So... uh, doing anything this afternoon?’ Vinyl Scratch asked.
‘Yes, I’m covering for a long distance route’, the pegasus mare said simply. ‘I’m carrying a package to the Divide. So that means you will be watching Dinky for a few days’.
‘No problem!’ Vinyl said with a grin. ‘I’m good with kids’.
The pegasus mare couldn’t help but smirk. ‘Good luck, I told Dinky to come over here after school... you’ll see for yourself’, she said as she passed over several letters and then waved her goodbye. She took flight, and continued on towards the next stop on her route.
Dizzy couldn’t help but look up at the mention of the name. ‘Did she... did she just say Dinky?’ she asked.
‘I think she did’, Sparky said nodding her head as she watched Vinyl Scratch look through the letters, all of them seemingly junk mail or otherwise unimportant, and pushed her way back through the door.
‘Sparky... that mare that was just at the door’... Dizzy said. ‘I think that was my great grandmother!’
‘I thought your family were all nephites?’ Hopely asked, raising an eyebrow at the revelation.
‘We are, at least... my great-grandmother and my grandmother were the first... we must be around the time that they converted!’ Dizzy said as she sat down on the ground, deep in thought. ‘Why show this though?’
‘Maybe it has something to do with the place she was going...? The Divide?’ Sparky said, offering up a theory.
‘The Divide!?’ Dizzy said, her head snapping to attention. ‘Oh no... then’...
...
The scene changed without warning, and before they knew it, they were in the middle of a locked gaol cell. While not quite what they were expecting, it was certainly no less pleasant.
‘I find this current memory heavily ironic’, Hopely said. ‘As we’re all members of the police service here... or at least, are pretending to be’, she added, pointing to Sparky and Dizzy, who were of course still dressed as uniformed constables.
They heard a loud clattering of metal against metal, as two heavy steel doors were thrown open and then shut again. Someone was headed right for them.
‘No! Stop, you can’t do this! That package doesn’t belong to you!’ a mare’s voice cried out, as two filthy looking ponies wearing armour made from various pieces of scrap metal opened the gaol cell door and tossed her inside.
Dizzy’s great grandmother skidded across the floor and whimpered in pain as the cell door slammed shut. She got to her hooves and rushed over to the door and started banging on the bars hoping that someone would come and let her out.
After a few moments, she gave up and slumped down onto the ground and began to cry. Dizzy looked at the mare before her and frowned, she sat down on the ground next to her in a vain attempt at providing comfort. She reached out to touch her shoulder, only for her hoof to go right through as if her great grandmother wasn’t there.
‘Dizzy, I know this must be hard for you’, Kelso said with a frown. ‘But we’re going to need some context’...
Dizzy nodded her head and rose back to her hooves, suppressing a sniffle and turning back to her friends. ‘In the time before the Republic, the Divide was the original home of the nephite people, while still technically in Equestria, the Divide is unique because it was never managed by the Cloudsdale system, and as a result, the entire canyon was home to freak weather patterns that popped up out of nowhere, caused a lot mayhem, and then disappeared just as quickly as they appeared... our people used to live here, in a town called Ashville, before it was destroyed by terrible weather, and we were forced to make our way to our current home in New Maneaan’.
Dizzy’s great grandmother rose to her hooves and began to wipe the tears from her lopsided eyes, as she wiped them clean, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Kelso and company turned to discover that the gaol cell was occupied by someone else as well. To their surprise, this other person was wearing nephite riot barding, a suit of which was almost exactly identical to the one that Dizzy usually wore.
This other person was an earth pony stallion, and that was about all that they could tell. They could not see this pony’s face, as it was covered with thick white bandages, as was the rest of his body not covered by the riot barding; he seemed to not be paying attention, as his face was practically buried in a book. Dizzy’s great grandmother slowly moved closer and began to inspect him.
‘CPS CO19?’ Dizzy’s great grandmother asked, quietly to herself.
‘That’s ‘Canterlot Police Service’’, the earth pony said without even bothering to look up from his book.
Everyone in the room jumped as he spoke, Dizzy’s great grandmother looked as if she was going to hit the ceiling.
‘Calm yourself’, the earth pony said simply, looking up from the book. ‘You are among a friend’.
Dizzy’s Great Grandmother took a deep breath, and sat down on the ground. ‘I’m... sorry, you just startled me is all...’
‘I tend to have that effect on ponies’, the earth pony said as he looked back down at his book.
‘I’m Derpy Hooves; I’m a package courier with Pony Express’.
‘I’m Graham Cracker; I suppose you could call me the mayor of Ashville, I was expecting a courier... just not you, though; I suppose he wouldn’t have walked through the passageway’, Graham Cracker said as he closed his book and looked up at her.
‘Graham Cracker?’ Dizzy repeated, she certainly knew that name.
‘I was carrying a package to Ashville, Retslaf took it’, Derpy said with a frown. ‘I’m going to admit... I’m not entirely sure at what’s going on here...’
‘Who’s Retslaf?’ Sparky whispered to Dizzy as they watched the conversation unfold.
‘Couldn’t tell you... I’m fairly good at history, but I don’t know everything, Spark’, Dizzy said with a shrug.
‘Isn’t it simple? Hopeton and Ashville are at war with each other’, Graham said, like it was obvious.
Kelso took a guess that Hopeton was the place that they were currently in, and the filthy looking ponies were some of its’ inhabitants. This ‘Retslaf’, must have been their leader.
‘The inhabitants of Hopeton hate us because we’re better off than they are. We’re sheltered from the Divide’s rogue weather patterns, they are not. So they wish to destroy us and take our town for their own... We tried to be reasonable, tried to reach a peaceful solution... it did not happen, now, we fight. It’s the way of life’, Graham Cracker said with a shrug.
‘I see...’ Derpy said, regretting that she had asked. ‘What were you reading?’
‘The book of Nephi’, Graham Cracker said simply.
‘So... uh... you’re a moron huh?’ Derpy asked, catching herself a little too late and clapping her hooves over her mouth. Dizzy cringed at the use of the word. ‘Moron’, was generally considered to be one of the less offensive derogatory terms for nephites. There were far worse, some that were too profane to even think about.
‘Well... considering my current situation, I’d say yes, I am a moron’, Graham Cracker said with a chuckle. ‘I do not take offence; many of us have even started using the name ‘moron’ as a badge of honour’.
‘Still... I don’t want to imply that you’re stupid... I know what it’s like to be called things that I’m not’, Derpy said with a frown.
‘You are kind’, Graham said simply. ‘Come, stand with me, it’s almost meal time’.
As if on cue, a particularly filthy looking unicorn mare levitating two trays of food and a pistol appeared into view. She unlocked the door and walked inside, setting the food down on the floor and pushed it towards them.
‘Heavenly father’, Graham said, bowing his head. ‘I thank thee for the food that thou provides for us. I thank thee that our captors are not so brutish to have denied us our basic needs...’
The unicorn mare looked particularly annoyed, and glanced around the corner. That was when Graham Cracker made his move; he leapt out and tackled the unicorn to the ground, promptly snapping her neck, causing her pistol to fall to the ground.
‘And I ask thy forgiveness for what I have done’, Graham said, finishing his prayer, and picking up the fallen guard’s pistol and spare ammunition. Kelso and Company’s mouths dropped wide open in shock. Graham looked back around to look at Derpy and waved her on, ‘Come Derpy, we’re leaving’.
Derpy followed, and watched as Graham attached the pistol and the extra ammo to a harness on his flanks that Derpy had not really payed much attention to before, a small metal arm extended out in front of him as he trotted out of the cell. ‘Schäferhund Storm Harness’, Graham explained.
Derpy watched in awe, she was frightened, to say the least, but she slowly followed him out, taking care to step around the dead unicorn and out of the cell door.
‘Stay behind me, you’ll be fine’, Graham said as he casually strolled away from the holding cells. They rounded a corner, and into the field of view of two other earth pony guards, Graham fired the pistol, two shots, enough to bring down the two guards without incident.
Graham looked back to the frightened Derpy Hooves. ‘I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other’, he said simply, and continued to trot out towards the back entrance to the holding facility.
Kelso and Company watched as the two ponies made their escape, and the world changed once again in the blink of an eye.