Chapter 8: Flight Plan
Broken Accords Chapter 8: Flight Plan
“I don’t believe it. I just don’t,” Rainbow Dash said as she read the scroll for the umpteenth time. “Three months before the weather factory is back on line? That’s forever!” The six friends were gathered together in a meeting room at the Wonderbolts' office in Cloudsdale. From here they could see the black smoke and steam still leaking out the windows. The haze seemed the poison the pristine blue skies, though testing had shown the ugly fume to be mostly harmless. That hadn't stopped the papers in Canterlot warning everypony Toxic gasses from Cloudsdale Disaster may imperil Canterlot! As if pegasi had lost their wings along with the Weatherworks.
“No. That’s three months,” Twilight Sparkle said as she read another report. “And all things considered, that’s paying for expedited work. We’ll probably hear the cheering of glassblowers in Lithopolis from here,” she said, the roar of a demonstrating crowd demanding respect, justice, or simply roaring to roar booming outside. No rain without respect! Pegasi are ponies too! Let them eat hurricane! Her horn flashed, dulling the noise somewhat. Somepony must have seen the flash. No magic can silence us!
Applejack regarded pages and pages of 'fancy mathematics.' “It’s a bargain in the long run, Sugarcube. If the weather ain’t back to normal by spring, we’re gonna be lookin' at a mighty hard year,” Applejack said. Then she glanced out the window and scowled. “Ah'course, that’s assumin’ everypony pulls together. After hearin’ the nonsense comin’ out o’ Manehattan, I’m not sure that’s gonna happen. Protest marches? It’s like them idjits think the pegasi blew up the factory on purpose!”
“The rumor mill in Canterlot isn’t much better, darling,” Rarity said with a shake of her head. “Half the nobility and business are furious that taxes might be raised on them to cover the expense. I don’t mind paying my fair share for a good cause, but there’s always ponies that think a single bit more is a bit too much!”
Pinkie Pie sighed, frowning. “I don’t know what’s gotten into everypony. I mean, I can only do so many parties to cheer ponies up!” She suddenly smacked one hoof against the other. “That’s it! We should use the Elements to create one massive party wave that’ll wipe out all these gloomy Gus feelings!”
“We can’t. We gave the Elements back to the Tree of Harmony, remember?” Fluttershy reminded gently.
“Oh, yeah,” Pinkie Pie said with a little smile. “Gee. Life sure was easier back when we could just zap the baddies with a rainbow beam and call it a day.”
Twilight Sparkle sighed, turning away from the table to trot to the windows looking out at the Weatherworks. “With everything going on… I don’t know… Maybe we should consider canceling the Equestria Games.” Her friends immediately started shouting their protests, and she stomped, “I mean it. With everything going on, can we really afford to hold them?”
“That might be a little premature,” a mare said from the doorway. Twilight and her friends turned to see the beautiful Princess Cadance enter. Behind her entered Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
“Cadance!” Twilight immediately rushed to her and embraced her once foalsitter and sister in law.
“I believe that Equestria could use the games to rally against these old grudges which are raising once again,” Celestia said calmly as she stepped up next to Cadance.
“Besides. The preparations for the games is complete. Cancelling them wouldn’t do anything to help with restoring the Weatherworks,” Luna added as she flanked Cadance.
Twilight’s friends immediately bowed to Equestria’s royalty. Celestia bade them rise with a gesture of a hoof and a kindly smile. When they’d straightened, it was clear that the normally placid leader of the land appeared drawn. “What we have to reconsider now is if there is a dire threat to Equestria, or not.”
“Beggin my pardon, yer majesties, but there’s protests all over Equestria at the moment. How’s that not a dire threat?” Applejack asked.
“Equestria has endured centuries of these old arguments. Unicorn snobbery. Pegasi superiority. Earth pony insecurity,” Celestia said gravely, with a wave of her wing. “Every few generations, the old grudges become intense enough that ponies express their differences inappropriately. This is not the first time, dear Applejack, and I fear not the last. In fact, the founding of Ponyville began due to friction between the unicorns of Canterlot and the earth pony wanderers seeking a new town to settle.”
“It did?” Applejack asked with a frown. “But Granny Smith said ya’ll gave us Ponyville as our own.”
“And I did, Applejack, but have you ever wondered why earth ponies never settled Canterlot?” Celestia asked with a weariness in her gentle eyes. “Many unicorns approved of Canterlot’s placement on the side of a mountain to discourage earth pony settlers. After all, it’s hard to farm the side of a mountain.” She sighed and rubbed her face. “Little grudges. Old distrusts. Ancient prejudices.”
“History lesson aside, what about what happened in the Weatherworks?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “You can’t tell me that’s happened before.”
“Not on this scale, no,” Luna said with a shake of her head. “What seems clear is that some lightning in the vault may have been removed inappropriately by unknown parties. With the vault destroyed, it’s impossible to confirm it, or ascertain how many bolts were taken. Nor can we determine why. Class A lightning has few applications, none of them good.”
“It seems there are two possibilities,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “Either Sun Glare is right, and the disaster in the Weatherworks is Stormy’s fault… or Stormy is right and there’s some kind of larger conspiracy at work.” She lifted papers. “I trust everypony read their statements?”
"Yeah. All it was missing was an angry dragon. Then I think it would be a nice rival for Daring Do and the Troll's Tooth," Rainbow Dash said, regarding the blank looks of her friends. "It's the worst in the series," she added bluntly, then frowned. "Seriously? Are me and Twilight the only academics here?"
Twilight sighed and shook her head. "That aside, it does seem a little... involved. I'm not sure how credible she is."
“Stormy did have a photograph showing Sun Glare and Rosewing together,” Fluttershy said immediately, shrinking back when all the eyes turned to her. “Well, she did…” she added in a timid voice.
“When did you see this picture, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy dropped her eyes to her hooves. “The day before yesterday, when she came to me for help. She told me she was in trouble, and needed my help. I saw it then,” she murmured, then glanced up at their shocked expressions. “I promised….”
“Oh, darling,” Rarity sighed. “You should have told us.”
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy apologized, “but I promised Stormy, and I thought that if she had a little time she could find something to help her. You have to admit, there weren’t many ponies listening to her at the time. And she did have that photograph of the six of them together.”
Celestia gave Fluttershy a reaffirming smile. “And I believe you, but without that picture, there’s little we can do to hold Sun Glare. He’s been put on paid leave pending a review, but we can’t simply lock him up just on our suspicions,” Celestia pointed out.
“You can’t?” Rainbow Dash asked. “But you’re Princesses. Can’t you just command it or something?”
Twilight Sparkle shook her head, explaining, “Princesses don’t have absolute power, Rainbow. Many ponies think we do, but we are bound by laws just as everypony is. Ponies have rights too. Without evidence of a crime, the Princesses can’t pass summary judgments. And anypony that contests a charge has a right to a hearing, and following that, a trial,” Twilight said, and then flushed as she saw her teacher beaming down at her. “I might have researched a few of those details after the whole Philomena incident,” she added, sheepishly. Celestia gave a fond, reflective smile.
“The Accords allowing us to rule grant those powers and protections. Otherwise we’d be able to become tyrants,” Cadance said. Almost as if pulled by gravity, far too many eyes turned to Luna, who dropped her gaze to her hooves. Cadance continued on, powering through the awkwardness, “The Accords are binding in the Crystal Empire too. I agreed to them after we defeated Sombra.”
“I guess it would be a little much for everypony to just hand over an empire to an alicorn they barely knew, even though she banished their previous tyrant,” Rarity mused.
“Yeah. I try my best not to say ‘blargh, crystals’ too often,” Cadance said with a smile.
“There’s more than enough evidence to punish Stormy Skies for years. Trespass. Assault. Destruction of state property. Misty Morning too,” Twilight said with a frown, then shook her head hard. “I just can’t put all of this on two ponies though. It just… feels wrong.”
Twilight regarded all the scrolls and reports. “If we go off Stormy being right, and there is a larger conspiracy at work… what do we do? How do we fight enemies that are hiding? How do we determine who’s involved? We don’t have any evidence of where the lightning is going or what it’s intended for.”
“Well, why would anypony steal lightning in the first place?” Applejack asked. “Think practical. I reckon there’s easier ways ta level barns.”
“Class A is really dangerous, and touchy. You could use it to do some severe damage to a small town like Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash said as she regarded her friends.
“That’s not the kind of party I think Ponyville needs right now,” Pinkie pointed out.
“It can also be used to supercharge magic, but that’s highly experimental and radical research,” Twilight pointed out. “It’s not something a unicorn can do casually.”
“Figured that out when you turned town hall into cheese?” Applejack asked with a grin.
“That was once! Just once! And I was able to change it back before it started to smell,” Twilight retorted, pouting. “You mess up tinkering with the laws of the universe once and nopony lets you forget it.” Everypony stared at her. “Twice.” The stares remained and she protested, “Look, making mistakes is how we advance our understanding!”
“Uh-huh. Just keepin' y’all honest,” Applejack said with a wink, then rubbed her chin. “I can’t think o' any agricultural uses fer lightnin’. Pinkie?”
“Well, I don’t think you could use it for baking!” she said immediately. “Not unless you needed to cook a bazillion muffins like, ZAPP! Muffipockolypse! Oooh… maybe that’s it! Somepony is trying to bury Equestria in mass produced mountains of muffins!”
Twilight and her friends shared a look. “We can explore that theory later, darling,” Rarity said in tones that suggested it’d be never rather than later. “I suppose they might simply be selling it. Maybe to somepony in Equestria. Perhaps to someone outside it. Griffins perhaps? Or dragons?”
“Maybe. I don’t know what they’d use it for though,” Rainbow said, shaking her head. “Dragons don’t need much help causing damage.”
“Unfortunately, all we can offer now is speculation,” Luna said firmly, cutting through their musing. “There are only two known applications for Class A lightning, as a weapon in and of itself, and as a component for the forging of a much stronger weapon. A lightning lance.” At the multiple baffled expressions, Celestia and Luna walked them through the basics.
When they finished, everypony looked like they could use a smoke. “Pegasi used to make them things? Intentionally?” Applejack marveled.
“Earth ponies used to grow hemlock. Intentionally,” Rainbow Dash countered.
“Ponies, please,” Celestia said firmly, and both friends dropped their eyes. “Nopony’s even tried to make a Lightning Lance since…” Celestia trailed off as she stared at her sister.
“Since I betrayed you and became Nightmare Moon,” Luna finished grimly, raising her head, her face stoically composed. “You banished me before they could kill me.”
"That's why you banished her right away, isn't it?" Twilight asked, in tones of drawing comprehension, looking at her mentor.
Celestia closed her eyes. "Nightmare Moon was proof of all they feared about our rule. I knew there were elements who would not wait long to exploit the breach of the Accords." Luna trotted next to her and put a wing across her sister's shoulders. Celestia gave her a grateful smile. "Let it never be said being a Princess was easy."
"No, I doubt I'm going to be thinking that anytime soon," Twilight muttered, glaring back at her own wings before refocusing. “You think these conspirators are going to try and use the Thunderforge?” Twilight asked, pointing towards the Weatherworks with a wing tip. Luna gave a small shrug. “I don’t know, Princess. It seems silly for them to smuggle Class A lightning out of Cloudsdale and then back into Cloudsdale,” Twilight pointed out, still skeptical.
“And the Thunderforge was disabled anyway, right? The gem that makes the whole thing work’s been yanked out. Probably being used as a doorstop in this very building,” Rainbow Dash said glancing around as if it’d be sitting on a shelf in the conference room.
“Perhaps, but there’s no record of where Commander Easy Glider put it, nor even of the Thunderforge being disabled,” Celestia said with a note of irritation in her voice. Everypony looked at her and she sighed, “I apologize. For any ruler, lack of knowledge is… frustrating. I know the Accords play a vital role in the operation and freedom of Equestria, but there are times I wish I could tear the things up and toss them in the fire.”
“Beggin’ yer pardon, Princess, but I wouldn’t go sayin’ things like that loudly if I were you,” Applejack said flatly.
“Applejack!” Rarity gasped.
“No Rares. Honesty, remember?” she said as she pointed a hoof at the four alicorns. “Hate to admit it, but y’all scare me some. Not a lot, mind, but ya do. When I think of what you did,” she said as she moved that hoof over to Luna, “and what y’all could do,” she said as she gestured over to the other three, “I gotta admit I’m glad there’s somethin’ keepin’ ya from doing somethin’ right evil ta the rest of us. Fer our own good, o’course.”
A tense silence filled the room as the words were spoken. Applejack regarded the others, presenting with the chance to disagree. None did. Twilight stared at her friends. “Do you… are you afraid of what I might do?”
Nopony answered immediately. Then Fluttershy said, “You turned me into a feral vampony bat by accident, Twilight. I mean, I got better but…” She trailed away, staring at her hooves. Rarity tossed her mane and didn’t say a word, trying to look coolly disinterested, but more than once her eyes turned back to Twilight with a wary glance.
“No offense,” Rainbow said with a sickly smile, “but we worry more about what you might mess up magically. The thought of you going Nightmare Twilight… well…” Her smile melted away. “Not cool.”
Pinkie darted to her purple friend, taking her forehooves and sqeezing them. “It isn’t that we don’t like you or want you to be our friend, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie gushed. “We super duper do! And we know that you’re a good pony who wouldn’t do bad things! But…” she balked, her blue eyes going watery as her grin quivered, “Please don’t be upset and think we don’t want you as a friend, Twilight!”
Twilight sighed, shaking her head. She took a moment and then looked at the other three alicorns, seeing the sympathy for what she felt in their eyes too. A knowing that as good friends they had been once, there were some barriers between them now. Had Celestia gone through this? Luna? Would Cadance? Would she? Twilight gave Pinkie a weak, wavering smile that fooled nopony. “I know, Pinkie. And I’ll always try and be more careful in the future,” she said with a nod to Fluttershy. “I always was afraid of what this…” she gestured to her wings and body, “would do to us. I hoped that nothing would change, but change always happens, doesn’t it?” She gave them all the same sad smile.
Her friends also seemed to fidget and worry, sharing looks. Twilight sighed, closing her eyes and bowing her head. Suddenly they were upon Twilight, hugging her. “Maybe it does, Sugarcube,” Applejack said, “but that don’t mean it can’t change for the better, right?”
“For such an egghead, you can be a real dummy sometimes. I never leave my friends hanging!” Rainbow Dash said as she squeezed her. “We’ll never leave you hanging.”
“If you could forgive me for my horrid use of that magic book, how could I hold what you might do against you?” Rarity chimed in. “That’s simply unfair, darling.”
The rest of her friends echoed their agreement. Twilight looked over at her lone teacher and her sister and received a wistful, happy smile from both. The rift mended, even if the fault lines remained. “Thank you… all of you…” Twilight murmured with a sniff.
After a minute or so, in which the observing Princesses gave Luna a slightly more discrete hug with their wings, the friends regrouped. “Okay. So, focus time. What are we going to do about… whatever the hay is going on!?” Rainbow Dash asked with a passionate thump of her hoof on the table and then blinked and asked a slightly hapless tone. “Uh, do we know what’s going on?” Her eyes traveled from one to the next. “Do we have a clue about what might be going on?”
“It’s as we said, either Stormy has happened upon some conspiracy against the crown involving illegal lightning, or she’s a seriously disturbed mare who’s caused a long of destruction and possibly even a death. And she’s drug Misty along for the ride," Twilight laid out. "Or something even more bizarre."
"Discord," Applejack stated bluntly, drawing every look. "Wut? He's always up to no good."
Fluttershy coughed, flushing a little as she tapped her hooves together. “Stormy was telling the truth about the photograph. I think we should give her a chance,” Fluttershy said as she fidgeted. “I don’t think she’s a bad pony.”
Rainbow snorted. “Maybe, but I had Professor Epididymis too and I can’t see any way he fits into a lightning stealing scam. The guy’s lucky he remembers what year it is. He always called me Rainbow Flash,” Rainbow Dash said, then looked at the furiously blushing Twilight. “What?”
“It’s Epimetheus, Rainbow. Professor Epimetheus. The epididymis is… uh… forget about it,” Twilight said as she shook her head. “We’re getting off track. We could... We might... maybe..." She looked back at her friends. "I mean, I know we're busy getting ready for the Equestria Games next week but we should be able to do something!"
The others shared various looks. Fluttershy stepped forward and took Twilight's hoof between hers. "Twilight, I know you want to do something yourself. The fact is that there isn’t much we can do. I mean, you could try to oversee the investigation in Cloudsdale, but the Wonderbolts are on it. We could try and dig into Rosewing’s life more, but the Royal Guard has already gotten us almost every scrap of paper." She gestured to the table and its scrolls and books. "Apart from an eighteen months between leaving Cloudsdale and coming to Ponyville six months ago, we know what she was doing, more or less."
"We could..." Twilight started but stared at the research. The fact was there were no leads they could follow on the research. Rosewing had no family nor close friends. The Wonderbolts had dug into Cloudsdale records, and the Royal Guard the little bit of paper from Ponyville.
“And there’s the fact that the Equestria Games are in a few days. Fluttershy and I are scheduled to compete, and all four Princesses are supposed to be there along with all kinds of boring, snobbing, high-society, muckety mucks,” Rainbow Dash said, then smiled sheepishly as she turned to a coolly disapproving unicorn. “No offense," she added.
"None taken, darling," Rarity replied grandly, with a flush.
“And we can’t cancel the games. They’re exactly what Equestria needs right now, with so much old animosity and division being stirred up,” Cadance pointed out. “Celestia already promoted them as a unifying symbol.”
“Indeed,” Celestia said as she gazed out the window, her stare troubled. “I feel that something is amiss in Equestria. That there is some enemy out there causing dissention and exploiting old fears and grudges. But this enemy isn’t like others we’ve faced. It’s elusive. Subtle.”
“That means you’ve rejected Sun Glare’s argument, sister?” Princess Luna asked.
“I’m skeptical. The lightning experts didn’t have a chance to examine all the bolts. Were they really fakes, or defunct bolts like Sun Glare suggested?” She rubbed her temples with her wingtips. “I’m tempted just to keep them all in a cell till after the games at least. Find some plausible excuse…” That got a startled look from more than just Applejack.
“We could ask Discord,” Fluttershy suggested lightly, getting almost two dozen looks ranging from glares to shock to wariness. “I mean… he can be surprisingly… um… useful. Sometimes,” she said, voice growing fainter with each word.
Twilight and Cadance shared a long, thoughtful glance. “Well, maybe. He owes us for that whole Blue Flu debacle.” In a trice, they cast the summoning spell and Discord appeared in a cloud of sparkles. He wore a tweed jacket, holding a glass of wine in one hand while a levitating record player playing classical music floated besides him. He examined a stack of stapled papers with a studious glare through wire-frame glasses.
“What, I just betray her like that? For him? Where’s the motivation? Where’s the art? What hack wrote…” he flipped to the front and narrowed his eyes. “Not even Larson. Wait till I talk to my agent.” He glanced over at the assembled ponies and at once his eyes bulged and in a flash the accoutrements and outfit disappeared. Then he glanced at the levitating phonograph and waved a hand at it, banishing the device in a puff of lavender smoke. “Ladies! Not that it isn’t a joy to see you, but I’m afraid you really should RSVP ahead of time!”
“I’m sorry, Discord,” Fluttershy said as she tapped her hooves together. “It’s just, there’s some trouble going on and we need your help.”
"Think nothing of it, Fluttershy,” Discord said dismissively, then smirked smugly at Twilight. “So! What is it little miss sparkly butt can’t figure something out on her own and needs my capable, crucial help?” He urged with a grin and an unctuous tone, “Do go on.”
Twilight summoned up all her patience and explained the explosion in the Weatherworks, and Discord’s smile rapidly faded. More than once he pulled out the pad of paper as if checking it for notes. Twilight Sparkle narrowed her eyes and demanded sharply, “Hey? What’s that?”
He snapped it closed, rolled it up, and ingested it with the noise of a buzzsaw. “Sorry. Shouldn’t be bandying that about.” He coughed a plume of paper dust at the scowling alicorn. “Excuse me. Now. You’re telling me that things are amiss in Equestria involving destruction, mistrust, and chaos?” He grinned eagerly, tapping his fingers together before glancing at Fluttershy’s troubled frown. “All horrible things that I have nothing to do with whatsoever, I assure you,” he added hastily, a halo popping in place above his head.
“Yes. Worse than usual,” Celestia said evenly. “Have you sensed anything?”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, there is a rather foul odor of chaos in the air at the moment.” A loud blast of breaking wind sounded, along with a noxious smell as almost two dozen eyes popped wide with shock. Green clouds swirled around their hooves as the ponies coughed.
“Ew!” Pinkie Pie protested, reaching out of sight behind her and pulling on a gas mask. “Discord!”
“Hey now, he who smelt it, dealt it, Pinkie Pie,” Discord said defensively, putting a hand on his chest before rising up and continuing, “But as I was saying: yes, there is quite the reek of naughtiness afoot. A rather wet and scheming scent reminiscent of locker rooms, root cellars, and infrequently cleaned toilets.” The coughing of the ponies made him smirk as the green clouds floated about with little pooting noises.
Rainbow Dash fanned her wings, blowing the clouds away. Applejack narrowed her eyes at the amused draconequus. “And I bet you’re just giddy as a pig in slop, ain’tcha?” Applejack accused.
“Me?” Discord blinked innocently, then teleported next to her, putting an arm around her neck. “Honestly, Applejack, there’s more than one flavor of Discord. I’m much more interested in spontaneous bafflement that challenges preconceptions and blind trust, challenging bonds and oaths… like friendship,” he said with a smirk.
“And this stuff is different?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Would I conspire with ponies to steal and destroy?” Discord asked in return.
Twilight opened her mouth to snap at him, then paused as the thought clashed with how Discord usually operated. “Well, no,” Twilight admitted. “That’s really not your style. Turn it all into peppermint, maybe. With chocolate rain.” Pinkie snapped off the mask, grinning eagerly.
“Thank you. Whatever is going on here is big, but sneaky. You’re dealing with something that doesn’t want to be caught. And most importantly, someones who are reacting to your every move. I hate to say it, but you ponies are dreadfully predictable. It’s one of the reasons why you’re so fun to play with,” he said with a grin at Celestia.
“Then what do you suggest?” Celestia asked evenly.
“My my my. You’re asking me for my suggestion? You must be desperate,” he mocked. He surveyed the assorted glares till his eyes met Fluttershy’s worried gaze and stiffened, then slumped. “Oh alright.” The room flashed and drew them all together and he wrapped his elastic arms around them. “My suggestion, dear ponies,” he said in a stage whisper, “is let somepony else do it.”
“That’s your suggestion?” Twilight asked in annoyed tones.
“Indeed it is. Somepony unknown. Somepony unpredictable,” Discord said with a smile.
Pinkie sighed and pulled out a strip of pink cloth, tying it about her head in a bandana, then applyed black grease paint stripes below her eyes. “Well, it’ll be a tough battle, but I’m in it to win it,” Pinkie Pie said with a grim expression.
“Sorry Pinkie, but I think Discord means somepony else,” Twilight said evenly.
“What?” Pinkie gasped, then pulled off the bandana and used it to wipe her face clean. She glared at Discord. “I am too unpredictable! Is this-” she reached behind her.
“Glasses and mustache,” Discord said, boredly as Pinkie Pie pulled out a pair and jammed them on her face. Her eyes widened, then blazed as they narrowed to slits and she reached again. “Rubber chicken.” Discord said, just as she whipped out Boneless as well and swung it at him. He yawned. “Whoopie cushion,” he said before sitting down with yet another pooting noise. “No offense, but you’re far too predictably unpredictable. It’s a common problem for pranksters of our caliber,” Discord said with a show of humility, pressing his claw to his chest and paw to his brow.
“Can we please get back to dire conspiracies of lightning smuggling?” Rarity asked. “Some of us do have outfits to finish for the Equestria games.”
Celestia hadn't taken her eyes off the dracoequus. “You mean Stormy Skies and Misty Morning."
“Do I?” Discord blinked. “Well, I suppose I do. You send them to find the proof, and when they flush your enemies out in the open, then you can use your rainbows of doom to deal with them.” The stack of paper appeared in his claw again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to rehearse my lines. Adieu,” he said and then flashed away.
“I still want to know what he was reading,” Twilight growled.
“Who knows? It probably wasn’t that important,” Rainbow Dash said.
Fluttershy fidgeted a moment, then spoke up, “I think his suggestion was the right one. I think we should let Stormy Skies and Misty Morning try to find out what’s going on.”
“They might be criminals, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash countered. “Actually, they are criminals. We’d be crazy to just let them go.”
“Maybe, but if Stormy’s been tellin’ the truth the whole time and we haven’t believed her, I can’t say I blame her fer goin’ mustang on us,” Applejack counter countered. “I would too, if it was the right thing ta do.”
“You’re both right,” Celestia said, cutting off the argument instantly. “Call them both in. I know what we must do.”
This is it. The moment where my life ended forever. Stormy and Misty trudged into the meeting hall. Well, that probably wasn't precisely true. Even Nightmare Moon hadn't been... she tried to keep her mind off that. Still, being forced to sit in a giant metal birdcage hadn't helped her feelings since her arrest. Misty and she had given statements, and Sun Glare had been removed from the cage ages ago. Sure, it had been after Stormy bucked him halfway across the cage, but still not the best sign of her future.
Now all four Princesses now stood in judgment of them, with Twilight’s friends watching from one side while Dark Star, Sun Glare, Spitfire, and Razorback watched from the other. From the rather smug look on Sun Glare's face, Stomy felt her world crumbling. I’m going to be banished forever and ever for crimes against Equnity. I’ll be remembered shamefully for the rest of my life. Parents will use me as a cautionary tale about young ponies playing with lightning.
“Stormy Skies. Misty Morning. Please step forward.” The pair did, swallowing. “You are charged with trespass and assaults on the guard of the realm. Do you contest these charges?”
“Wait, you don’t understand. We did it to-” Stormy began.
“We have read your statements and repeat the question. Do you contest these charges?” Celestia asked gravely.
Stormy was about to shout yes, when she paused. Trespass and assault? Those were serious charges, sure, but what about the destruction at the Weatherworks? Or Rosewing’s death? She looked over at Misty, and the mare shook her head. “No, your majesty, we did not.” Stormy suddenly felt like the entire world was shrinking slowly upon her. Had she make another mistake?
“And on the charge of willfully destroying property of the realm?” Celestia asked immediately. “Do you contest this charge?”
“Yes!” Stormy said at once, in unison with Misty.
“Very well,” Celestia intoned solemnly. “Then by the powers vested in me by the people of Equestria, for the charges of Trespass and Assault, I sentence you to compelled service to the realm.”
This was it! It was all ov- wait. What? She stared around haplessly for a few seconds, and she wasn't alone, before Twilight supplied an answer. "Community service, Stormy."
The silence strained like winter ice, shattered by Sun Glare’s incredulous, “What?!”
Celestia continued, “This service, beginning immediately and continuing until its conclusion, will be to assist the Royal Guard in the investigation of the illegal removal and transportation of Class A lightning. You are to be accompanied at all times by Guard Razorback until concluded. As you are contesting the following charge, a tracer spell shall be cast upon you so that you may be retrieved for a hearing after the conclusion of the Equestria Games. Understood?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” both said in unison.
Celestia looked to Twilight, and the purple alicorn stepped before them and levitated as her horn and eyes glowed a brilliant purple. A band of light appeared around their hooves like a shackle, then faded away, leaving behind a purple ring like a stylized tattoo. “And you can find me if you need us?”
“We can do more than that,” Twilight said. Her horn flared and the band around Stormy’s hoof glowed again, and suddenly the pegasus found herself flying at Twilight. Twilight’s eyes widened in shock and then Stormy smashed her hoof firmly against Twilight’s face. The Princess collapsed in a heap.
“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I totally didn’t mean to do that!” Stormy gushed as she checked over the dazed mare. “Are you okay, Princess?” Stormy asked meekly as Twilight's friends stared in shock.
“Assaulting royalty,” Dark Star said dryly. “My, I think you’re well on your way to being Equestria’s most notorious criminal ever.”
“I didn’t mean to do it!” Stormy wailed as she lifted Twilight’s head in her hooves. “Tell me you’re okay, Princess! Say something!” she begged, bawling in desperation. “I just wanted my old job back!”
“Such a hardened criminal,” Luna sighed, shaking her head gravely.
Cadance giggled, “Twilight’ll be fine. She’s handled worse shots than that.” Fluttershy began hunting about for a first aid kit.
“I think we’re done here,” Celestia said with a sigh, shaking her head. “Twilight, when you’re recovered, perhaps you can join us? Dark, please escort Sun Glare back to his office. I know the Weatherworks director has many questions for him regarding his career.” The three alicorns left, then the stunned Sun Glare with the unicorn captain.
As he left, Stormy paused as she saw the look in the gaunt pegasus’s face. Anger, sure, but there was a worried fear in his eyes too.
“Hey, Stormy?” Rainbow Dash said closely, “Could you stop squishing Twilight Sparkle’s face?”
Stormy became aware that her hooves were squeezing Twilight’s face between them and she jerked her hooves away as if burned. Twilight shook her face hard, “I’m sorry! I totally didn’t mean to hit you in the face, Princess.”
“It’s okay, Stormy,” Twilight said, sniffing and working her muzzle around. “I probably shouldn’t have tried to summon you so hard when you were so close.” She then gave them both a firm, teacherly smile. “You understand the two of you aren’t quite off the hook just yet, right?”
“Right,” Stormy said, trying to relax just a bit. “You’re giving us a chance to clear our names though. Honestly, it’s more than I thought I’d be given.”
“Can’t say I agree one hundred percent with Princess Celestia, but ya’ll don’t seem like liars, so I guess this is the best fer everypony,” Applejack said as she looked from Stormy to Misty. “And if you two get into more trouble, I reckon it’ll be that much more rope ta string ya up with.”
Yikes. Stormy hadn’t thought of that! As she pondered just how much deeper she could get into trouble, Misty replied to Applejack, “Oh no. I’m quite a liar. To be honest, I’m terribly dishonest. And that’s the truth.”
The orange earth pony blinked and her face ran through several slightly constipated looks before she retorted, “Are you making fun o' me?”
“Oh no. I’m being perfectly sincere. I am quite a liar,” Misty said, her face a model of seriousness. Applejack made a few more highly amusing expressions of pained thinking before stalking away.
“Well, ma chères, it looks like we’re gonna be enjoying each other's company a bit longer, non?” Razorback said as the scruffy earth pony approached.
“Cousin Piggy Pie!” Pinkie squealed, launching herself at the armored earth pony and flooring him. “I haven’t seen you in forever!”
“Non, Pinkamina! It’s Razorback. Razorback,” he tried to summon as much machismo as he could to the name, but it was a little hard to do with a Pinkie Pie atop you.
“Oh, you’ll always be cousin Piggy Wiggy to Pinkie Winkie!” she said giving him a hug. “Remember?”
“Certainement,” he said with a lazy grin under his battered armor. “Mais you was a petite pouliche last time I saw you. Now you all grown up.”
“Didn’t she just say she was your cousin?” Misty asked with a knitted brow.
“Not as bad as ma sœur, non?” he said with a laugh. Stormy didn’t know what he was saying exactly, and she suspected she didn’t want to know. Bayou earth ponies were a little more than she was used to. Apples were hard enough to understand.
“Cousin Piggy always taught me the funniest words. Like pickle barrel and kumquat,” she said with a giggle. “It was hide in the pickle barrel and play with the kumquat, right?”
“Somethin' like dat,” he chuckled.
“Where do you think you’ll go next?” Fluttershy asked as she smiled gently at the pair.
Stormy pondered that herself. “Well, I doubt we’ll be able to stake out Sun Glare. I suspect other ponies will be doing that anyway, investigating the explosion. So I think that I’ll go looking for that cave in the photograph. Professor Epimetheus said that we went to Lithopolis during a summer trip. I guess we can try and find out why we were all there together three years ago.”
“Finding a cave in Lithopolis is like trying to find a cake in a bakery,” Pinkie Pie said, but then brightened. “Hey! Maud might be there! She knows all about rocks. She might know all about caves too! You should totally check her out!”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Razorback said as he lifted himself to his hooves.
“I can get you part of the way there, if you like,” Twilight said with a smile. “I’ve been practicing my long range teleportation spells.”
“Are you sure about that?” Rainbow Dash asked warily. “Last time you got us all the way to the Crystal Empire, Twilight."
“Yup!” she said proudly. “A new record.”
“We were trying to reach Appleloosa,” Rainbow pointed out, making the Princess blink.
“Well… I wasn’t looking forward to the heat and thought the cool Crystal Empire air would be nicer!” she said defensively. “I promise. Lithopolis. No sweat.”
Stormy stared at the earnestly smiling alicorn and gulped. “Sure. That’d be great. First, I need to see somepony though.” Stormy had been given a second chance. She might not be off the hook, but for the first time in a long time, she felt optimistic. Of course, if they didn’t find anything, that third charge was more than enough to send her away for a long time.
Sun Glare stormed into his apartment. Everything was neatly placed, in line, and organized from smallest to largest. It was a bachelor’s pad, functional and serious as the stallion himself. The only signs of personality were a number of small figurines of pegasi in flight, made of pure light. He’d spent hours explaining himself to those damned princesses and Twilight Sparkle’s friends. The Princesses he could understand, but Twilight Sparkle’s friends had as much place interrogating him as a stone directing weather. Why couldn’t they stay in their place, out of the way, and be grateful? That was what stung the worst: the ingratitude.
Sun Glare trotted over to the refrigerator, already compiling the list in his head. Some day there’d be a reckoning. Some day soon. He pulled out a carafe of milk, pouring himself a cup, and downing it in one go. It was as hard a drink as he ever allowed himself. He pulled out some apples and a paring knife and proceeded to neatly peel them to try and focus himself. A nice cinnamon apple pie would help him regain some focus; cooking was one of his few passions. He didn’t care so much for eating the results. It was the making that mattered. Taking base materials and turning them into something more. It was why he’d excelled at the weather factory, turning magic and water into all kinds of weather. In another life, maybe he might have been a chef... but cooking was an earth pony career.
“Is everything okay?” a stallion asked, and Sun Glare whirled, spotting the Wonderbolt standing casually in his living room.
“Yes. Everything’s fine! Thank you for watching me!” He growled. “At least the birdcage was more honest!” he said with a sweep of his wing.
The Wonderbolt stepped closer, and Sun Glare glowered at him. “What are you doing in here at all? You have no right to be in…” Sun Glare’s eyes wandered to the tiny strips of hide visible around the eyes and mouth. The brown hide. For the first time today, he felt a little frisson of fear. “You! What are you doing here?”
The brown stallion in the Wonderbolt suit wore a simple, matching backpack. “Needed to touch base. You were in custody a long time.”
“But the lightning-” he began.
“Is taken care of. She’s on it,” he said evenly as he pulled off the backpack. “We just have to take care of one little thing.”
“You needn’t worry. I didn’t tell them anything,” he said with a casual smile.
“I know. I listened in,” he said with a casual smile. “You have no idea how glad I am that you didn’t. I had a distraction ready in case I had to extract you, but that would have removed all doubt on Stormy. Worse, I might have gotten caught.” A small smile formed in the corner of his lip. “Can you imagine all the awkward questions that would raise?” He chuckled, but Sun Glare was little comforted. In fact, he was annoyed.
“If everything is taken care of, then what are you doing here?” Sun Glare asked. “You’re risking everything!”
“Actually, we’re doing the opposite", he said as he drew something out of the backpack. Something round and white, with a pointy bit, two holes and… there was a flash of purple and Sun Glare froze in place. A few seconds later the glow diminished. “You need to kill yourself,” the brown stallion said calmly.
Sun Glare’s eyes remained locked on the white orb like object in his hooves, the twin voids seeming to devour his resistance as the point still glowed a faint purple. “Okay,” he said faintly as his lips and eyebrows twitched as a part of his mind screamed in terror.
“I already searched the place. Do you have anything hidden away? A little stash of incriminating evidence?” the brown stallion asked as he put the object back in the pack.
“Yes,” he said as he stood and walked like a drunk across the room to the little figurines. Clumsy hooves pushed them off the shelf, sending them bouncing across the ground. His hooves pushed on the wall, and a hidden panel popped free. Within was a shallow space and a neat attaché case. The brown stallion took it in his hooves and flipped it open, looking at the pictures and notes within.
“Sun Glare. You were all set to sell us out!” the Wonderbolt chuckled as he flipped through the contents brightly. “I bet if they’d squeezed you a little harder you would have sung like a canary.”
“I thought about it,” Sun Glare admitted casually as the rest of his mind thrashed, fighting to regain control. “I would have if they’d jailed me.”
“Well, so glad you were so loyal to our cause,” the Wonderbolt said, with a warm smile. “Is there anything else? Anything we should know? Anypony else you’ve confided in?”
“No, nopony else. This is everything. My lawyer knows about this space,” he said in a slurred voice.
“You can put your suicide note inside that space for your lawyer to find. Write how the suspension has stolen your will to live. That you can’t stand the indignity of being doubted and accused. Make it convincing. Then kill yourself. Knives, I think. You still do your own cooking, right?” The brown stallion asked. Sun Glare gave a jerky nod. “Good. Those will do nicely. Last question. Stormy. Has she remembered anything?”
“No,” Sun Glare slurred.
“Thank goodness for small favors,” he said as he packed the satchel away. “I really should have been more specific last time. I really thought the static collectors would have done it. Still, we’ve got to take care of her sooner or later.” He stomped his hoof. “That reminds me. Wait an hour or two. Make sure you take some aspirin first, strip, get in the shower, turn on warm water, and cut deep vertically along the back of your fore hooves. Tell nopony I was here. Don't speak to another pony at all if you can help it. Understood?”
Sun Glare gave a little nod.
“Thank you, assistant director. Have to say we couldn’t have done this without you,” the brown stallion said as he trotted out the door with the backpack now bulging. In the hall, he saluted the Royal Guard. “Keep up the good work.” And with that he closed the door behind him, giving one last little smile to Sun Glare.
Sun Glare sat there, not moving, simply twitching as his brain struggled for some way to shake the enchantment firmly gripping his mind. He walked over and calmly finished peeling his apple, rolled the crust, prepared the filling, and set it in the oven. Then he cleaned up. After all, he needed everything tidy. No need to leave everything all dirty… after all, he was going to make quite mess in just a little bit. But first he slid over a piece of paper and started to write.
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Oh, hey, focus shift!
I'm rather curious about how the epididymis (which I had to look up) joke came to be written. :)
"Celestia already promoted them as a unifying symbol."
…Oh. Wait. Oh dear. Yes, a unifying symbol… that has a lot of different ponies in one relatively small place…
"You could use it to do some severe damage to a small town like Ponyville"
Or something the size of a small town…
Re Discord and his scripts: :D
"From the rather smug look on Sun Glare's face"
Oh, that's going to be a fun space to watch in a few moments…
"The silence strained like winter ice, shattered by Sun Glare’s incredulous, “What?!”"
Yep! :D
Oh dear. Mind control too. This plot just gets thicker and thicker.
"Newest chapter from a failwriter."
I don't think that it's very nice to call someone a failwriter, even if you did forget to identify them, whoever they are. :)
The target of the plot has been mentioned 5 times this chapter.
While I loved the season finale allusion, you ruined it by shoving the "Twilight's Kingdom" thing in our face.
5179512 fixed. Sorry.
Alright, so Lightning Lance the princesses at the Equestria Games while their magic is bound to break the Accords and...I have no idea if it goes farther than that.
There's got to be more to the conspiracy though if Brown had access to mind control, as that's been stated to be the territory of the Black Book of Canterlot. I was thinking this was a group of nationalistic Pegasi, but if Unicorns are involved then it could be all the races coming together to throw off the yoke of their god-like overlords with the power of harmony, friendship, dark magic, narcotics, and the raw fury of the sky!
/wild speculation
Brown is a nasty piece of work, Stormy needs to watch out.
5185054 wrong scale. A lightning lance is like a nuke. Class A lightning is like an Oklahoma city fertilizer bomb. You can make it, but it's not easy.
5186602
That seems like the right destructive scale, but my understanding is that fertilizer bombs aren't all that unstable. I mean, you can just drive around with them in your van without much of a problem. I think of the Class A bolts as closer to a bunch of partially or unstabilized nitroglycerine.
It's nice that Stormy and Misty at least have some wiggle-room to unravel things, rather than being perpetual fugitives. Also, the timing for all this makes me wonder if the story will tie into the season 4 finale at all. Don't know how it would, but it's hard to tell.
The prospect of Maud being included makes me a very happy camper.
Wow! Interesting showing how being an Alicorn can change things between Twilight and her friends.
It certainly seems odd with how concerned they are about Stormy and her memories. Seeing as they are ending the lives of so many, you'd think that they would have tied up her as a loose end long ago. Which brings up the question of why Stormy has a messed up memory and why haven't they killed her if their that concerned about her regaining it?
They're going to zap the Equestria Games, aren't they?
The great unifying symbol that keeps all hell from breaking loose. Yep. Subtle as a... Well, a lightningbolt.
Maybe next time. Because honestly that sounds awesome.
5328089 Have seen some of my other work? :3
5329744 I have. Horizons. Good stuff there!
Not sure what it has to do with what I posted, but maybe I'm missing something obvious.
5330129 I never write anything small and simple.
Sometimes, I really wish I could.
5339731 Indeed, the pinnacle of earth pony weapon engineering were the five meals of doom. While details of this are thankfully forgotten, the results have been preserved. Essentially, five secret, benign, and relatively tasteless chemicals would be snuck into food. In one rare case, the poisons were added to water used to irrigate the trees in a unicorn lord's private arbor, and taken in by the tree, to be concentrated in the fruit. When all five ingredients were ingested, the subject would fall into an unrousable stupor, then coma, then death. To compound the threat, the chemicals could linger in the body for several days after ingestion, allowing an earth pony master poisoner to spread out each application and reduce the chance of detection. They usually targeted delicacies that would be eaten by the lord alone, to minimize the chance of an accidental poisoning of earth pony kitchen staff.
I love your project horizon Fic so I think il enjoy this to. Time to read!
5050087
Eh, look at Discord's "Plunderseeds". Spikey vines that can neutralize BOTH celestial alicorns, turn the clouds themselves against the pegasi and match unicorn magic spell-for-spell.
Plants can be pretty powerful in Equestria without being poisonous.
5944549
Heck, given how solidly it accomplishes every single goal the earth ponies could have in a breaking-the-accords scenario I'm willing to bet both unicorns and pegasi strongly suspected that all Discord did was re-appropriate the seeds and remove any failsafes the earth ponies originally put in them.
Maybe it's just me, but the dialogue from the mane six felt really off. Applejack frequently pointing out that she's honesty (I don't remember her ever touting her element like that), Rainbow Dash apologizing for speaking her mind, everyone pointing out Twilight's mistakes... they just don't DO that, you know? They trust her. The flutterbat spell was supposed to be a peaceful solution and everyone accepted the potential unexpected risks and consequences of using untested magic like that before the spell was cast. At even a hint of her getting upset half of them would be hugging her and assuring her they DO trust her and support her in everything. Every one of them sees the others through rose-colored glasses... well with exception to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. The former is too sensible not to acknowledge peoples strengths and weaknesses but still focuses only on their strengths, merely remaining wary of their weaknesses (with the occasional eyeroll). Rainbow Dash only sees as many flaws in her friends as she needs to in order to assure herself that she's the best, most awesome pony that ever lived. Rarity had some issues with Applejack early on but after resolving that in "Look Before You Sleep" Rarity, more often than not, turns to Applejack at times where she needs advice. It's probably the only lesson in the show that any character ever actually learned. The mane six all, otherwise, believe only the best about each other.
...but I dunno, that's just my opinion. It really, really didn't feel right for them all to gang up on Twilight like they did. It doesn't matter if Twilight's done some scary things in the past... what weren't accidents were mistakes in judgment and she always does her best to make things right, learning and getting better all the while. Maybe she could stand to get a little more criticism from time to time but they would not be the source of that... they support and believe in her no matter what. The whole scene made me a bit uneasy.
Discord was pretty much on-point, though, with exception to maybe calling Pinkie a prankster of a comparable caliber to himself. He's been screwing with the cosmic order of things on a grand scale far longer and, as he says in the chapter, the purpose of his pranks are to serve as "challenges preconceptions and blind trust, challenging bonds and oaths… like friendship".
Pinkie's pranks are supposed to strengthen friendship. One is a mean prankster, the other is a nice one. I mean, they both love sweet things, they both love being "random", but they are NOT similar pranksters at all.
...err, but I like the chapter otherwise. Good info and I loved the ending. Very nice twist
Going to be finished soon?
6264096 Trying to get Project Horizon done.
so this is what you were working on. I regret not reading it sooner. or discovering it sooner.
6419235 It needs some more words...
6428239 I trust ya mate, ain't done wrong by me for 3 years...
still its got an amazing mystery to it, and I enjoyit every bit as much as i did with Jake the Army Guy's story