//------------------------------// // Past Five - Mission Implausible // Story: Heart and Mind // by Quick Fix //------------------------------// November 3rd Winter had come to Ponyville, early but light for now as a thin layer of snow covered the ground. Most ponies were taking advantage of the time to finish any major work they still had before the harsher weather set in. In one house though, such work was already done and it's occupant was simply enjoying some warmth. That was none other than Apple Bloom, nestled down by the fire with a book she'd borrowed from Pinkie Pie a few days before. It felt good to have a day to herself, no woodwork jobs or deliveries, no meetings with the new Cutie Mark Crusaders, just her and a book. "This writer really needs to try putting more of his thoughts down, push the length of the chapters up a bit," She said to herself, glancing at the name on the cover and making a mental note to send them a letter sometime. "For that matter, why would Pinkie have a story like this in the first place? It reads like a bad history document." She put the book down and simply watched the fire for a while, thoughts drifting back to Pinkie Pie. She was glad that they hadn't seen each other in the last few days, needing the time to get her thoughts straight again. It had taken a lot of soul searching, trying to compare her feelings to Lyra and Bon Bon's advice and that one night when she'd had a bottle of cider and tried to imagine what Pinkie looked like in a...No, that night didn't count. At least now she had a clear idea of her feelings. The question now was how willing she was to put them out in the open. Her train of thought slowed at the sound of somepony outside, then promptly derailed off a bridge as they started knocking on the door rapidly. Apple Bloom sighed to herself and got up, heading to the door and opening up. To her surprise, none other than Pinkie Pie was the one hammering on the door. Not noticing the door was already open. Apple Bloom pulled her head back to avoid being accidently punched in the face. With her muzzle still intact, she looked forward again at the sight on the doorstep. Pinkie was only just getting her rapid knocking under control, looking rather frantic and her frizz most definitely freaked. "Pinkie? What's going o-" "Cake!" Pinkie screamed, before taking off at a run. Apple Bloom stayed rooted in spot for several seconds, trying to comprehend what had just happened in front of her. A few moments later Pinkie darted back up to the doorstep, looking like she couldn't believe Apple Bloom was still standing there. Her hoof gripped round Apple Bloom's and took off at a run again. "O-okay, what about cake?" Apple Bloom managed to ask, even as she was being dragged down the pathway and into town. "More than cake! Fate of all the cake in Equestria!!" Pinkie shouted back at her with a rather frantic look in her eye, enough to show that she this was serious business even if it was just about cake. Apple Bloom decided that it would probably be better to get answers after they'd stopped running, all she could do for now was try to keep up. Eventually they reached Sugarcube Corner and Pinkie set Apple Bloom down in the corner booth, dashing off again before coming back with a newspaper and a muffin. Apple Bloom had no idea what this was about, except the muffin, that was probably an apology for the rushed trip. She looked up as Pinkie Pie saw down next to her and took a few breaths to calm herself before flicking through the newspaper. "Okay. So, what exactly is this about and where does cake come into it?" "Cake?" Pinkie blinked a few times before her face lit up in recognition. "Oh, right! Sorry, I was panicking back there and kinda lost focus...Apple Bloom, I want to find a missing pony and get your help for it." "A..Wha?" Apple Bloom could only stare in confusion at her crush, yes she was saying crush, her mind had too much running through it to correct itself right now. There were some remarkable leaps in logic between 'Shouting about the fate of cake' and 'Recruitment for search and rescue', they probably made sense in Pinkie's mind but Apple Bloom was going to need a little, no, all the context before she understood a link. Pinkie seemed to have realised the same thing as she settled her mane back into place. "So, here's the scoop, or page, as it were." Pinkie said, placing the newspaper down in front of Apple Bloom and letting her read it. The top half of the page was what drew her attention, a missing pony alert for a farmer out to the far northwest. Her ears folded against her head as she kept reading, disheartened by the report. "Another missing pony...How many is that? Why aren't the guard doing something to stop this?" "At least thirty over the last year. Whoever's doing it is clever though, enough of them have been false alarms to-" "Wait...You think these are related? Your Pinkie sense can't be THAT finely tuned." Apple Bloom sat back and took a bite from the muffin, trying to figure that one out. The look in Pinkie's eye though, showed she was glad the question had been asked. "I know so, I thought the same as anypony before until I saw one of the missing ponies was Wheat Germ, one of the farmers I buy supplies from for Sugarcube. I looked a little closer and found a connection, every pony that didn't turn up safely has some connection to food growth and production." Apple Bloom sat up as Pinkie's look grew even more focused as she passed over a number of similar reports. Each one had been edited down, presumably by Pinkie herself, showing each pony's name, photo, occupation and status. She leaned in and glanced through the list. Orange Patch, Orchard worker [MISSING SINCE 26/5] Tempest, Weather Pony [FOUND 16/5] Fruit Loop, Farmer [MISSING SINCE 3/2] High Taste, Chef [MISSING SINCE 11/4] Coco Pommel, Dressmaker [FOUND 7/7] Fresh, Produce quality control [MISSING SINCE 21/6] The list went on like this and the further she read, the more Apple Bloom realised two things. Firstly, the thirty Pinkie Pie had mentioned only applied to the still missing, there had to be at least double that number that had been found. Second, the connection was definitely there, the only ones still missing worked with food in some way. "Okay...So all of these are organized or premeditated?" "Right," Pinkie answered, looking even more serious than before. "This last part's only a hunch, but whoever's doing this is targeting the elements of harmony at the same time." "Wh...How did you come to that conclusion?" "Because of the names," Pinkie stared at Apple Bloom for a moment, as if trying to figure out if she had caught up yet, before pointing to two of the missing. "This mare imports from Applejack, this one was the first farmer I bought my supplies from, I've shown you the second." Apple Bloom's mind was racing. Pinkie was sounding like she'd stumbled onto some kind of conspiracy, that or a pony serial killer. She still couldn't figure out why she was being involved now instead of, say, the town guard, the defence force or even the princesses. The questions just kept piling up in her mind until she just leant forward onto the table and said the first thing that came to mind. "Why me?" She asked, managing to catch Pinkie out enough to pull her gaze away from all the reports and look back at her in surprise. "Bloomie?" "I just, think that there at least dozens of ponies more qualified than I am for this. Any of the guard posted in town would know what to look for, or what about Twilight? I'm sure she'd relish the chance to go dish out some friendship to whoever's responsible." Pinkie looked away in thought, a flash of doubt visible before she rested her chin on her hoof. Apple Bloom looked away herself, worried she'd said something wrong. Her focus came to the muffin she still had a hoof wrapped around, a good a distraction as anything from this flood of information. What Pinkie had said, it sounded crazy at a first pass, but she knew that coincidences didn't happen often in Equestria and this was way too big to count as one. Her thoughts were interrupted by something climbing on her free hoof. She jumped slightly and focused again, realising that the something was actually Pinkie's hoof resting on hers. Normally this would have made Apple Bloom's feelings flare up so hard she'd probably be blushing all over, the look on Pinkie's face was so off from what she'd anticipated that it overrode everything else. She looked like she was...Pleading? "Because...I know what you can do, I trust you with this more than anypony else." Pinkie answered eventually, throwing Apple Bloom off even more. She expected some long rambling explanation that ultimately singled her out, not a reason as simple as that. At the same time though, those words made her heart soar, she'd been hoping for a chance to be around Pinkie for longer but hadn't worked up the nerve to try it herself. This was going to be for Celestia knows how long, how could she turn down the chance? "Well, you seem to have enough of an idea to make that conclusion...Okay, I'm in." Apple Bloom replied, looking back up at Pinkie and catching sight of what looked like a quick smirk before Pinkie grinned again. "Great, I already have a plan set up." Pinkie pulled a map of Equestria out from under the table and laid it out. Apple Bloom leaned in and looked it over, taking in the dozens of markings on the map, likely for where each missing pony had gone from. "So, I'm guessing the newest report is what we're going to be working from." "No, even as fast as I am, that was out in Appleloosa and we wouldn't get there before the investigation teams got their hooves on it. We're going to be heading for Canterlot." "Okay...You're gonna need to explain that one to me." "I have a friend working at the Canterlot Institute of Development at the moment and she told me they get the reports quickly to try and use some super technical tracking thingy to try and find the missing ponies. We're going to ask them for the next lead and find out what's going on ourselves." "Isn't that, you know, illegal?" Apple Bloom almost immediately regretted asking as Pinkie gave her an extra serious look, bordering on cold. "This is about the safety, security and lives of ponies, sometimes you need to work faster than the legal channels." Pinkie answered in a hissed whisper. Apple Bloom hesitated before realising just why she'd be taking this so seriously. Friends were everything to a pony like Pinkie Pie, it made sense that she would be friends with those that gave her the supplies for her baking, now they were being taken from her without explanation and she wasn't about to take that lying down. "Okay, sorry. Just tell me what we have to do." "Just be ready, I'll come get you when we move in a few days," Pinkie finally broke back into a grin as she put the map away. "For now, have a superriffic snow day and don't forget your muffin." Apple Bloom smiled and got up, picking up the muffin and making her way out. This was quite an undertaking she'd signed up for and she made a mental note to clear up her work orders and let the crusaders know before she left...Though knowing Pinkie, she'd made a start on those already. There was just one little detail still bothering her as she made her way back into the snowy town. Pinkie had sounded like she was willing to bend the law a bit to find the truth and it was unlikely she'd let Apple Bloom back out in this state of mind. Just what had she put herself up for, and how rough was this going to get?