Secrets and Lies

by Metaphor

Chapter 6

“Carn sarn it Rainbow! Do ya really have to turn everything into a contest?” grumbled Applejack with a roll of her eyes.

“Uh hello, future Captain of the Wonderbolts here,” replied Rainbow as she fluttered along upside down beside her.

“That don’t mean nothin’.”

“Oh yeah? Afraid I’ll win again?”

“Against me? Hahah, nope! Against Pinkie though, oh you’re doomed.”

Rainbow snorted as she rolled herself over and landed in front of the farm mare.

“So you think I’m doomed huh? Care to bet on that?”

“Oh you’re on, how about this? If you win ah have to do next week’s apple bucking wearing one of Rarity’s dresses.”

Rainbow’s grin broadened, “Ah yeah, sounds good to me.”

“....buuuuut, if you lose you have to do next week’s weather jobs in the same getup.”

Rainbow faltered momentarily, her grin twitching slightly a faint hint of doubt crept into her mind. It vanished quickly though as she raised a hoof, spat on it and held it out towards Applejack. The farm pony followed suit, spitting on her own hoof and slamming it hard into Rainbow’s.

“I’m so gonna enjoy watching you bucking trees in that dress,” commented Rainbow, “That staring contest has my name written all over it.”

“Sure it does sugarcube, sure it does.”

The pair grinned at each other; the friendly competition that existed between the two never seemed to tire.

“Ah, there you are girls!” announced a voice suddenly.

They both looked round, Rarity trotting towards them with Fluttershy following close behind. She was smiling at them but both could see the frown that was plastered across her face.

“So sorry to interrupt your...uh...showboating...but have either of you seen Twilight today?” she asked politely.

“Can’t say ah have, Rainbow?” replied Applejack.

“Nope, but I’ve been napping all morning.”

Rarity groaned and sat herself down with a thud, “Oh really now, how in Equestria does she think I’m going to properly finish her new dress if she doesn’t come to her fitting appointments. I appreciate she has a lot of extra duties to attend to now but the diplomatic meeting she is attending is only two days away now and there’s still so much work left to do!”

“Did ya check the library?” asked Applejack with another roll of her eyes.

“Really now Applejack, do you really think I hadn’t already thought of that. I was just on my way to check there now but I thought I’d ask you girls first when I saw you.”

“She didn’t come to the bunny breakfast picnic I had planned today either,” added Fluttershy quietly.

“Hmm, not like Twilight to miss two appointments in one day,” commented Applejack, “That pony pretty much has her schedule painted on the inside of her eyelids.”

“And four spare copies in her saddlebag,” added Rainbow with a smirk, “I asked her to make me a training schedule for the Wonderbolts once, you do not want to know how many pages long that thing was.”

Rarity gave a small sigh and stood up, “Well thank you both, I suppose I should go and check the library now. Something probably just came up; we all know how intense she can get.”

“Ah’ll come with ya Rarity, curious to find out what Twilight has her head buried in this time,” commented Applejack as Rarity and Fluttershy started to head off.

“Guess I’ll come too” added Rainbow, “don’t have to be back on weather patrol for a few hours...uh! Maybe she has the new Daring Do book, that would be so awesome!”

Before long the four ponies were stood in front of Golden Oak Library. Everything looked normal, every detail about the building exterior looking no different to how it usually did. There was, however, one thing that was different, the smell. The familiar smell of baking drifted on the air, no doubt coming from the open kitchen window. Everypony looked at each other.

“Twilight is baking?” asked Applejack in a surprised tone, “Ah’m not sure if I should be shocked, scared or a combination of both...”

“Really now Applejack, perhaps she has just been so stressed out she decided to take a break and try something new,” replied Rarity.

“Doesn’t sound like Twilight to me, that pony never takes a break,” added Rainbow.

“Well we will just have to see won’t we?” finished Rarity as she approached the door and knocked.

There was a silence for a moment and then the door was flung open energetically as a pink pony bounced onto the doorstep.

“Ooh! Hi guys! What brings you here?” chirped Pinkie Pie in her usually sugar toned voice.

“Pinkie Pie?” replied the four together.

“What are you doing here?” asked Rainbow.

“Baking!” replied Pinkie with a face of glee, “Spike looked so lonely and bored when I got here and then I thought, how do I cheer myself up? Well the answer was obvious but Spike didn’t seem too impressed but then I totally found a recipe for gem cakes and he just couldn’t say yes fast enough. So me and him started and...”

"Woah woah woah!” interrupted Rainbow, “You and Spike? Where’s Twilight?”

“My thought exactly,” added Rarity.

“Oh I dunno, Spike said something about her going to Canterlot but he didn’t know anything else. Anyway, come on in, the cupcakes are nearly ready!”

Pinkie Pie bounced back inside, leaving the door open behind her as she did allowing the four ponies to slowly enter the library.

“Canterlot?” asked Fluttershy, “Why would she go to Canterlot alone without telling us?”

“I would reckon something important came up and she didn’t have time,” replied Applejack, “That said I would have thought she’d have told Spike.”

“Speaking of that dragon, where is my little Spikey-Wikey?” cooed Rarity as she looked around the room.

“Hi guys!” came a reply as Spike jogged into the room followed closely by Pinkie Pie, “Pinkie tells me you wanna know about Twilight.”

“If you wouldn’t mind my darling little Spike,” replied Rarity with a flash of her usual smile, “We hear she’s gone to Canterlot, is that right?”

Spike swooned for a moment but quickly recovered and gave a small cough, “Yup, she left this morning. She got a message from the Princess but it didn’t say anything about what was going on. It’s over there on the side cabinet if you want to read it.”

Rarity flicked her head round, noticing the rolled up scroll sat by a stack of books. She quickly lifted it up with her magic and unrolled it so that everypony could read it. After a moment she let it drop to the table top.

“What in Equestria do you think that is all about?” she asked to nopony in particular

“Sounds like something is going down,” commented Applejack, “Question is what?”

“And why wouldn’t the Princess send for all of us?” put in Rainbow, “I mean, yeah Twilight’s a princess now but come on. We may not have the Elements of Harmony anymore but that doesn’t make us useless right?”

Rarity and Applejack nodded in agreement.

“M-Maybe it’s a private matter?” said Fluttershy quietly, “Like maybe the Princess is ill and doesn’t want to be seen by too many ponies, I know I don’t like lots of ponies crowding round when I’m ill.”

“Or maybe she’s been sent on a super-secret mission!” grinned Rainbow as she rubbed her hooves together.

“Ah don’t think that’s…”

Applejack was interrupted as a dull rumble filled the air. It sounded like it had come from a long way off and yet everypony still felt the slight vibrations that ran through the library and disturbed the birds nested above.

“What in Equestria was…”

This time Rarity was interrupted as another rumble filled the air, louder in volume and much more pronounced in the level of vibrations it caused. Fluttershy meeped and quickly hid under a nearby table the others looking around nervously at the room around them. Rainbow seemingly wasn’t fazed though as she took off and made for the door. She blasted through, turning straight upwards as she spun around looking for the cause of the vibrations. What she saw was something that made her body numb.

It screamed through the air silently, a large mass of swirling purple magic, arcing high above the clouds before starting its descent…towards them. Rainbow barely had time to scream a warning as the large mass tore towards Ponyville. It struck the ground a few streets away from the library, the air compressing as the mass imploded. There was no sound at first and then an ear splitting howl ripped through the quiet streets. All over town window’s shattered at the sound, birds and animals scattered in panic and ponies were sent hurtling to the ground.

Rainbow could do little as she hung in the air, paralysed by the sudden event that had hit the town. A moment later she was screaming across town towards the impact point. She flew over it quickly, looping back around and coming to a screeching halt at the edge of a large crater that was once part of the street. Rainbow could have sworn there had been a house here but now there was nothing but smouldering pieces of wood and brick. Two nearby building lay half ruined, the other half nowhere to be seen.

All around her ponies were screaming or stood paralysed as they picked themselves up off the floor. One pony in particular was staring at the crater in absolute horror, a mint coloured unicorn that Rainbow recognised.

“Lyra? Hey Lyra you alright?” she asked quickly as she tried to shake the pony from her shock.

For a moment Lyra didn’t respond but eventually a single name drifted from her lips, “Bon Bon…”

Rainbow felt a chill run down her spine as she looked back towards the crater. Her gaze flashed one way and the next, the Pegasus getting her bearing quickly before looking back at the crater.

“No…” she murmured quietly.

“BON BON!” cried Lyra the unicorn scrambling to her feet and rushing to the edge of the crater.

Rainbow could do little but watch…this had been the house that Lyra and Bon Bon had been sharing. Everypony in town knew they had a thing for each other but it was only recently that they actually started dating. Rainbow felt like her heart had been ripped out as she watched the unicorn frantically race around the crater, stopping every few steps to frantically search before moving on.

“Rainbow!” came a call from behind her causing her to look around.

Her friends were charging towards her, each of their faces sharing the same shocked look of disbelief that she felt. Fluttershy was in tears, Pinkie’s mane and tail lay flat and lifeless, Rarity’s eyes seemed to have been drained of life and Applejack’s teeth were clenched in a mix of anger and sorrow.

“Wha…what happened?” asked Rarity quietly.

Rainbow was at a loss for words, she found herself looking back at Lyra as the unicorn lay bawling her eyes out into Lily Valley’s chest.

“Some…some sort of magic…” murmured Rainbow finally.

“Where? Where’d it come from?!” demanded Applejack as she grabbed Rainbow and pulled her to face her.

“C…Canterlot…” replied Rainbow.

Each of them looked in the same direction, the direction of Canterlot.

Comments

[Battle154]

Well! About time for some updates!

Glad to see it's now continuing.

[Coco101q]

Awesome that was awesome keep going I'm loving this well if it's not if it's not complete love it.