Chapter 7: Secrets and Lies
Twilight's head was spinning. She had always thought of Cheerilee as the kind, caring pony who took joy in nurturing young minds and helping fillies learn and grow. To imagine her plotting an assassination—let alone that of Princess Celestia—was mind-boggling.
"Applebloom!" exclaimed Applejack. "She's still in Ponyville with Cheerilee!"
"Calm down," said Pinkie. "We don't know that she's with her"—
"She's in the same town," Applejack pointed out, "and that's reason enough to hurry back there as soon as possible! Let's move!"
And so they did. Much to Lord Reginald's chagrin, rather than allow him to walk, Applejack pulled him so quickly that he was dragged spinning, sliding and stumbling across the grass.
"What are we going to say when we reach the gate?" asked Spike from Twilight's back as they galloped onward, cutting across slight bends in the road for the sake of time.
"Let's just tell them we got kidnapped and escaped," suggested Twilight.
Soon, they saw the massive wall up ahead, and increased their pace. However, they began to slow down when they noticed a large group of pegasus soldiers marching across the plain in their direction. As the soldiers spotted them, they sped up to a gallop, and a few of them took to the air.
Lord Reginald let out a terrible squeal and bolted away, dragging Applejack with him. Surprised by his sudden strength, she scrabbled around with her legs for a few seconds before Rainbow Dash grabbed her tail and helped her pull the pig back. As for the others, they simply stood and stared at the approaching pegasus squadron. There might have been as many of fifty of them, and they all wore freshly polished, thick plate armor. In a jarringly short time, the pegasi had closed the distance.
They seized Lord Reginald, and he screamed "No! Don't let them, please! You don't know what they'll"—
"Silence!" snapped the largest most decorated soldier, and he slapped the pig with his hoof. As two pegasi carried the screaming pig away, flying him over the wall, out of sight and out of mind, the soldier who had struck Lord Reginald spoke to the ponies before him:
"What are you all doing here? How did you get across the wall?"
"We were kidnapped!" said Rainbow Dash. "The pigs captured us when we were on the road, and"—
"and they took us away on their boats!" continued Applejack. "Sailed us 'round the wall, and"—
"and then they locked us in the castle!" added Pinkie Pie. "But we escaped, and on our way out, we captured him, and"—
"and that's how we ended up here!" finished Rarity.
Their hearts beat furiously as the soldiers looked them over. "Well," said their commander, "that's a pretty impressive feat, escaping those pigs like that. You must be looking forward to going home after an ordeal like that." They all chimed in their agreement, so he escorted them through a door in the wall and out the other side.
"Should be a train coming in a few minutes or so," he told them. "Can I get you anything?"
They told him no, thank you, so he went and spoke with the other soldiers waiting inside the wall.
"I'm scared," admitted Fluttershy. Do you think those soldiers were the ones who"—
"Shh!" hissed Twilight in a sharp whisper. "Not a word until we're away from them." She glanced around nervously, but the soldiers were still conversing amongst themselves.
When the train arrived, the soldiers wished the six ponies good luck, and they were on their way. They stayed completely for most of the train ride, unsure whether anypony in the next cabin could hear them. As Twilight watched the countryside roll by, she wondered what was in store for them. They'd seen things they weren't supposed to, things they'd never have expected. How long was it before they'd be interrogated?
They disembarked in Hoofington, since the train didn't pass through Ponyville. They hurried off down the same road they'd come from, passing once more through the briars.
Twilight glanced around at her friends and asked "What do you all think about death?" She posed the question suddenly, surprising even herself. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.
"Death?" repeated Rarity. "You mean the skeleton in the black cloak?"
"Yeah," lied Twilight.
"He carries a sickle around, too," added Pinkie.
"I always heard he was a pegasus," said Applejack. "He flies 'round on silent, bony wings, findin' ponies at the end of their lives 'n takin' them away."
"Wouldn't he be an alicorn?" asked Fluttershy. "That way, he would be immortal."
"Well," said Spike, "he's already a walking skeleton, so I think you're just supposed to assume he's immortal."
"Oh, right."
Her friends went on debating the finer points of Death the mythic character, Death the skeletal pony, Death who was not real death and did not begin to resemble it. Twilight experienced a dull, aching loneliness. If was what the word "death" meant to them, how could they understand how she felt? I should've just kept my mouth shut, she thought bitterly.
…
Back in Ponyville, Scootaloo was tenuously skirting the edge of the Everfree Forest, following the border between civilization and wildness, as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom watched her from the nearby meadow. She cantered over to them, sat down, and sighed.
"I still think we should go in there," she said sulkily.
"But Scootaloo!" said Applebloom, "remember what happened last time we went in there?"
"I know, I know… but what if Rainbow Dash and everyone went in there and they need our help?"
"We have no way of knowing if they went there or not," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "They could just as easily have gone anywhere else in Equestria."
Just then, they heard Mrs. Cake calling their names. They turned around and saw her standing near Fluttershy's cottage.
"Just what were you doing near the Everfree Forest?" she asked them as they approached her.
"I was wondering if Rainbow Dash and the others went in there," explained Scootaloo, "because they've gone on adventures there before, and"—
"and it's a very dangerous place," interrupted Mrs. Cake. "No place for ponies your age. Come along, now; it's almost dinner time."
As she led them to Sugarcube Corner, Sweetie Belle asked "Mrs. Cake? Pinkie Pie didn't… you know, say anything that might've given you any clues about where she was going, did she?"
Mrs. Cake tensed slightly. "All she said," she replied softly, "was that it was a secret, and that they didn't want to be followed, and that when she gets back, she'll be happy to tell me where she went. Now, come along."
…
That night after dinner, she invited the three fillies to sleep in Pinkie's room. Once they were set up, and once she had wished them good night, Applebloom got up, walked over to the window, and looked out across the sleeping town.
"Applebloom?" whispered Sweetie Belle, unsure why she was whispering.
"Yeah?"
"You should probably try to go to sleep. That way, tomorrow will come faster."
"What're you talkin' about?" asked Applebloom. "Tomorrow'll come at the same time no matter what, and that time is tomorrow."
"I guess so… but, you know, you won't be doing yourself a favor if you spend all night looking out that window."
"I won't," said Applebloom. Just as she started to turn away, though, a dark shape on the road caught her eye.
"Wait!" she whispered sharply. "I saw someone."
The other two immediately sprang up and dashed to the window. A pony-shaped figure was moving steadily down the street, fading in and out of visibility.
"Who is that?"
"I can't tell… it's too dark."
"I wonder if it's…"
Their excitement doubled as they realized that whoever-it-was was heading towards Sugarcube Corner.
The air was sucked out of the room by a knock at the door. They listened, completely still and completely silent, as Mr. Cake got up, walked downstairs and answered the door.
Then, they heard a muffled "Surprise!" in a voice that they would've recognized anywhere.
The three of them nearly tripped over one another as they scrambled out the door and down the stairs, and sure enough, there was Pinkie, her eyes bright, her hair curly and bouncy, albeit riddled with twigs.
She and Mr. Cake must have just embraced, for as Applebloom and the others ran towards her, he removed his hoof from her shoulder.
"Pinkie Pie!" they all cried, clustering around her. Her mane and coat were matted in places by dried mud, and she seemed tired but as joyful as ever.
"Hey, cutie mark crusaders!" she said brightly. "What's up?"
"What's up with you?" asked Scootaloo. "What's been going on?"
Her hair wavered for a moment, but maintained its shape. "Well, I'm sure you heard about what happened at the Gala, right?"
"Right…"
"Well, my friends and I did some detective work…
"…and you know who did it?"
She laughed softly. "I didn't say that. Look, don't any of you worry, alright? We all made it back safe and sound, and that's what matters. Twilight and Spike and Rarity and everyone are all back, too, so"—
"Really?" interrupted Scootaloo. "And Rainbow Dash, too?"
"Yup, Rainbow Dash, too."
"Where are they?" asked Applebloom.
"Well," replied Pinkie Pie, "I can't speak for everyone, but I think Applejack is looking for you," and she poked Applebloom gently on the nose.
"Really? Guess I'd better go find her, then, huh?" Applebloom couldn't wait to see her sister again, and the same went for Sweetie Belle. The three crusaders bid Pinkie Pie goodnight and thanked Mr. and Mrs. Cake for their hospitality, and with that, they were off.
"What you said about… investigating what happened at the Gala," said Mrs. Cake once the fillies had disappeared into the night. "Was that true?"
"Yeah," said Pinkie Pie. "It's a really long story, too."
"And you don't… you don't know who sent that zebra, do you?"
Pinkie Pie bit her lip. "Well… we… have some suspects, but we aren't really positive yet."
"I… see," said Mrs. Cake. "By the way, I hope you don't mind that we were letting Applebloom and her friends stay in your room…"
"No, not at all!"
"Well, that's a relief. You see, they spent the last two nights at Cheerilee's house, and we didn't want to put too much of a burden on her…"
"Oh, really?" she asked, trying not to sound too interested. "That was nice of her. Where is she? Rarity and Applejack will probably want to, you know, thank her…"
"Well, I'd assume she's at home… come to think of it, though, I'm not really sure which house she lives in. Maybe Rarity and Applejack can thank her tomorrow morning at the schoolhouse, before the fillies arrive."
"Alright," replied Pinkie Pie, and she began walking towards the stairs. "Well, it's great to be home safe and see you both, and I'd love to tell you all about my investigations in the morning, but as you can probably imagine, I've had a long journey, and I really need to get some sleep. Night!"
After she had reached her room and closed the door behind her, she collapsed on her bed. As she did, she stopped forcing herself to smile, and her hair released its volume like a great puff of air, falling straight in her face. Her Pinkie sense was acting up worse than ever.
…
Rarity was caught unawares when Sweetie Belle accosted her as she was walking through the front door of her house. "Rarity," she cried, "where were you?"
"Sweetie Belle, I"—
"Couldn't you at least have told me where you were going?"
"I'm sorry," said Rarity quickly, "but it was too dangerous a place for somepony your age, and I was worried you'd insist on coming along."
Sweetie Belle was still frowning. "So… can you tell me where you went now that you're back?"
Rarity hesitated at first, but remembered that her sister, like every other pony in Ponyville, had heard about the attempt to assassinate Princess Celestia and the zebra's suicide.
"Well… I suppose I could," she said, and she told Sweetie Belle about the coin, sneaking into Sustria, capturing Lord Reginald, and returning to Equestria. She left out the part about Hogdenville being destroyed by ponies, and the part about Cheerilee being the one responsible for sending the assassin.
"Wow," said Sweetie Belle when she had finished. "That's amazing! I wish I could go on an adventure like that."
"Maybe when you're a bit older," suggested Rarity—though she secretly hoped her little sister would never have to go through anything like what she and her friends had, or see the things they'd seen.
…
Over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was trying to placate Applebloom. "I left you here for yer own good," she insisted. "Sustria's no place for a filly. You know what they do with critters that ain't pigs down there?"
"No. What?" Applebloom asked grumpily.
"They enslave 'em." Applejack wasn't quite sure if the goat they'd seen was a slave or not, but her lot in life had certainly not been a pleasant one.
"I wouldn't let 'em capture me," said Applebloom stubbornly. "I'd fight 'em off, like this!" She made kicking motions through the air.
Applejack frowned. "Yeah, I'm sure you would. Anyways, did Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Big Mac take proper care o' you while I was gone?"
"Yup. I hung out with the other Cutie Mark Crusaders, mostly, and we stayed at either Sugarcube Corner or Ms. Cheerilee's house."
Applejack's heart skipped a beat, but she wasn't about to let Applebloom see her distress. Instead, she sent the protesting filly to bed before retiring to her room herself. Applejack hoped Cheerilee wouldn't be too hard to find the next morning, because she was intent on having a word with that pony.
…
Twilight and Spike were looking through the library to make sure everything was still in order, which of course it was. Owloysius had greeted them with cheerful hoots on their way in, and now he watched them silently, perched on one of the highest shelves.
"Do you think it'd be worth it to just try and find Cheerilee now?"
"Well, I thought about that… but it's so late at night that she probably wouldn't let us in, and I don't want it to look like we're breaking into her house for no good reason. I'd rather wait until tomorrow when we can all confront her together."
"Yeah," Spike yawned, "that does make sense."
Twilight gazed through the window, out at the world she'd now seen a completely new side of. "I've been feeling awful lately."
"Why is that?"
A single word formed on the tip of her tongue, bitter and stale, weighing a thousand pounds. She swallowed it. If she didn't think about the word, maybe she could stop thinking about the thing itself. "I don't know. I've just been feeling sad and scared in a way that's hard to pin down. It's not what happened at the gala, or what we saw in Sustria, it's… something else, I'm not sure what."
Spike bit his lip. "If you don't know what you're upset about, I don't know what to say. I mean, I'm scared, too, but that's because I'm worried someone might track us down now that we've seen things we weren't supposed to. That and I'm scared to find out what other secrets those ponies who destroyed that town were hiding. Still, I know you can protect me if anything bad happens, and I'll look out for you too, y'know?"
Twilight smiled. "Yes, I know."
"I mean it, I'm here anytime if you want to talk."
"Well, I think I feel a little better already."
"Well, great, because I am exhausted."
"Then you'd better get some rest. Good night, Spike."
"Night, Twilight." With that, he was out like a light, collapsing onto his bed. Twilight smiled and tucked him in.
…
Some time later, however, something caused her to snap awake in her own bed—though she wasn't quite sure what. It was as though she'd heard a frightening sound in her sleep, but woken up without being able to identify what it meant, and therefore what made it frightening. As she scanned the darkness of her room, she saw a flicker of movement in the extra-dark spot just below her window, and her heart started pounding.
Her immediate reaction was to narrow her eyes so that it looked like they were closed, while secretly watching the spot through tiny openings between her eyelids. She wasn't sure if whoever was there had seen her wake up, but she wasn't about to take any chances. As she focused on the dark spot, she was positive she saw the shape of a pony hiding there, holding perfectly still. When the figure didn't move, Twilight gathered up all of her courage, concentrated her magic, and, in one extremely quick, fluid motion, she sprang to her hooves and shot a blinding beam of light into the corner.
It was Cheerilee. Twilight felt her blood turn cold.
"Ahh! Please… it's too bright…"
Twilight didn't dim the light, and kept it pointed straight at Cheerilee's face. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"You have to listen to me, Twilight… there are—well, there are ponies in Ponyville who listen in, alright? They're not always there, but you can't be too careful."
"What are you talking about?"
"Look, I'm sorry to sneak in like this, but I wanted to be absolutely sure I wasn't seen, and that meant no opening the front door, no lights, and… please, can you stop shining that at me?"
Hesitantly, Twilight did so, figuring she had plenty of spells available if the schoolteacher tried to escape or attack.
"Thank you. As I was saying, life here in Ponyville—and Equestria in general, for that matter—it's not what it seems. You must have noticed that, right?"
"I still have no idea what you're getting at," said Twilight.
"So… you didn't notice anything odd on your way back from Sustria?"
"Wait—how did you know that's where we were?"
"I overheard Rarity talking about it to Sweetie Belle on the way here. Anyway, you might not have heard yet, but there's been talk around here of a new pony town being 'founded' in the south, as Celestia mentioned during her speech at the Gala. I want you to think back, and try to remember if you saw that town on your way here."
Twilight felt a jolt as she remembered Hogdenville, and Cheerilee saw it in her eyes.
"You did see it, then?"
"Well… I saw… wait, how does this involve you? What do you know about that?"
"I've heard you're very good at magic, Twilight… much better than any other unicorn in Ponyville."
Twilight was suddenly very uncomfortable. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Has the princess ever said anything unusual about your magic?"
"Cheerilee, you realize this all sounds ridiculous, right? What are you getting at? Just spit it out!"
Even though they were alone, Cheerilee glanced around nervously. Then, she looked once again at Twilight, and the way her eyes glistened in the darkness was terrifying.
"The evidence is everywhere, Twilight," she said in a barely audible whisper. "I can't make it any clearer for you than you can for yourself, if you look in the right places. I will say this, however: not one pony in the entire royal court can be trusted."
Without warning, she then turned around and climbed out the window, onto the roof. "I have go now," she said. "There's no telling when they might start watching, or where they'll be looking." Twilight heard the faint sounds of her climbing down to the ground, followed by silence.
…
Patrick snapped awake, the first few streaks of sunlight staring into his face. He stood up, instinctively scanning the neighboring stalls for his parents for a few seconds before he remembered they'd been taken away the previous week. He lay back down in the straw, pretending to be asleep even though none of the other warm bodies in the neighboring stalls had stirred yet.
He knew the master would arrive within the hour, heralding the beginning of a new day's work. Silence filled the road outside, and a cold fog seemed to have settled in sometime during the night, amongst the cramped buildings, the dense yet dormant life.
An unfamiliar sound grabbed his attention, prompting him to peek out of the stables on his hind legs. It was a sharp, rushing noise—in the air, he realized, so he looked up. Within seconds he'd spotted them: two somethings in the air, too large for birds, heading towards the city. It was hard to tell from this distance, but they looked a bit like goats, only more colorful and with wings. They disappeared from view for a minute or two, and then returned the way they had come, heading back towards the hills.
Patrick leaned sharply to the side, trying to keep his eyes the mysterious visitors, but lost his balance and fell. As he impatiently struggled back up, a new sound met his ears: stampeding hoofsteps. He quaked as he spotted hundreds of somethings rushing from the hills, emerging from the crevices of the land. As they spread out across the land, some came on hoof and others flew. It occurred to Patrick that these were ponies.
He dropped down out of sight, backing towards the corner as the sound of the stampede grew closer. As the ponies reached the building, the sounds of screaming pigs erupted in a ripple that spread across Snoutdale. Soon, crashes and clangs followed. Patrick jumped as something large slammed against one of the walls of his stall, causing it to warp and splinter until it gave way and a huge, bleeding pig collapsed onto the floor. Patrick glanced around for the pig's attacker, but no one else entered the stall, so he swallowed his hesitation and climbed over the dazed pig.
Outside, he was able to see the chaos in full swing: squadrons of armed pigs rushed forth from the barracks to meet the pony menace. Meanwhile, most of the civilians fled, jostling one another as they scrambled away from the faster, more agile ponies who stomped on them from the air and stuck them with spears from the ground. High above the city, the two pegasi Patrick had seen originally flew in great circles, joined gradually by others. The word tornado flashed through his mind and he bolted.
It wasn't until several minutes later that he dared to look back, panting and ducking in the tall grass. Fires were being born all across the rooftops of Snoutdale, bodies were scattered randomly, and bits of debris were being pulled upward by the tornado growing in and above the city. The ponies' numbers hadn't visibly dropped, and armored pegasi were chasing down stragglers who thought to escape with their lives. Do they only want pigs? Patrick wondered, or am I safe?
He didn't wait to find out. As brilliant blazes erupted and the tornado jerked squealing pigs from the road, Patrick turned to continue his flight, off into the wilderness, away from the roaring death.
…
Later, when the royal pegasus brigade had finished raising the city, the Wonderbolts gradually allowed the tornado to disperse. As Soarin' descended into what remained of Snoutdale, he surveyed the carnage below with cold impassivity. He saw the broken bodies, the smoldering remains of homes, the last few pigs being corralled into pens that would be their graves. As his hooves touched down on the dry, caked mud, Soarin's cutie mark, a skull, shone in the brilliant sunlight.