Garganta
He oiled and checked his weapon. It was massive, to say the least. Encumbering, impractical, with expensive and heavy ammo, an arm breaking recoil and an incredibly effective way to produce large amount of noise. Still, he loved it. He checked his boots again, then strapped the laces to the safeties at the sides of each shoe. He checked every single pocket of the pitch black synthetic pants he was wearing: they felt both comfortable and protecting. The researcher managed to squeeze in every single fabric and material that could be useful: Nylon, highly enhanced Nomex, Kevlar, and a secret mixture of Vectran and Innegra S. Knee and elbows pad were made out of HPPE, and even though they were comfortable and flexible as hell, he still remembered fondly the times when they just made them out of good ol’ hardened vinyl. His vest was the most complicated piece of the equipment: it took at least half an hour to go through all the pockets, nooks and crevices. He also had to check the plaque that covered his entire torso, below the resistant fabric: a solid yet soft piece of hardened polymers that contained a semi-trasparent fluid that looked like torbid water, an amazing feat of chemical engineering, a greatly enhanced non-newtonian compound that became solid as titanium when struck by a blow. Special black gloves, designed to insulate the body heat and prevent frostbites and burns, covered completely his hands. He sighed, and stretched a bit, encased in swirl of fabric, materials and stuff that comprised what could be called a ‘modern-day armor’, before grabbing the helmet and putting it on. It was a solid black piece that completely covered every possible side of his head and rendered completely impossible to see his face: on the outside it looked just like a jet black piece of something, but he could see through it crystal clear, there was a filter that could purge air of contaminants for 27 hours straight before needing a recharge, and projected at the side of the mixture of glass and plastic that divided his face from the outside world, there was a simple yet effective HUD, that told him where his comrades where, how far, the temperature, the supposed time of the day, and provided him with a minimalistic compass. He cracked the joints of his neck, adjusting to the new weight that pressed on his cranium; it didn’t feel to bad, it was actually kind of comforting. It was specifically design to avoid obscuring peripheral vision and the condensation typical of gas masks. He lifted his primary weapon, a Gépard M-1, an anti-materiel rifle: a monstrous leviathan, capable of going through a tank, like wet paper, from 2500 m. The 1 meter long barrel, blackened for military uses, swayed from left to right, while he secured the sniper rifle to his back. He grabbed his side-arm, a Beretta M9, and put it in his holster, on the external part of the thigh. He sat down, bored out of his mind.
“You’re bringing THAT?” He heard a familiar voice from behind him. He turned around to see an hulking black figure, sporting the same armor he was wearing. Clutched between astoundingly thick arms, there was a rather futuristic looking FN SCAR H. Even if he couldn’t see his face, the man could imagine the smug look he had. “That look like something coming straight out from the Cold War. I guess you guidos gotta compensate for every war you lost.” He ‘poked’ him with a finger the size of a sausage.
“Leave him be, Frank.” The smaller, more curved figure of a woman, clad in the same armor, appeared from behind the giant. She carried a frightening big Benelli M4.
“Mpfh.” The hulking man grunted and moved forward, sitting on the opposite side of the plane.
The woman sat down beside the smaller man, touched his shoulder with her left hand and said gently:
“You can’t let him pick on you like this, Lo.”
The smaller man kept looking at the floor, and uttered slowly:
“I don’t care what he thinks, Anya. I’m not here to make friends with him. I’m here to do my job, end of the story.”
“Yes, but-”
Footsteps on a hard, metallic floor distracted her. The woman and the giant turned around to see a familiar, yet not welcome sight: a tall man, with a black jacket and a fedora hat, with a backpack and a 44. Magnum on a holster on his thigh. They both couldn’t look at his face for too long: he wasn’t ugly by any mean, but they couldn’t stand to observe that perpetual smirk and those strange, penetrating eyes that seemed to know about them more than they knew about themselves. He stopped between the seats, and started talking. That voice, was the most unsettling thing of all: it seemed like someone captured the lowest note on an ukulele and synthetized words and phrases from it:
“Frank, m’boy, I don’t approve of you bullying poor Lo, here. Remember, we’re a team, alright? Sex, religion, nationality, it doesn’t mean jackshit when you got a strange thing from outer space gutting you to death... Actually, maybe it does? Well, isn’t it kinda of ironic that you can get a restraining order even in a ruthless, above the law shadowy organization? Anyway, what was I talking about? Ah, yes, Frank. Since you’re so eager to go around bothering people, you’re the scout.”
With a groan the giant got up and protested in a whiny, high-pitched voice, a humorous sight for a man of his tonnage:
“Oh come on, Doc!”
“No buts, young man!” He waved a finger at him.
“I di-I didn’t say ‘but’” The giant seemed confused
The strange man snorted and answered sarcastically “Sure you didn’t.”
We’re almost in Paris, prepare for landing. The voice of the pilot reverberated in the vehicle.
The doctor sat down, strapped the seatbelts and yelled, trying to cover the incredible noise of accelerating plane engines:
“1165 HERE WE COME”
Two men were discussing over a small pizza in a small hall sitting in front of each other near a small table. One man was wearing a long lab coat, and carried a perpetual smirk. The other wore a simple white shirt and constantly stroked his fiery red beard. The bearded man snatched a slice of pizza under the nose of the coated man and said, while taking a crude bite:
“Clef, they are not going to like this.”
He shrugged and went after a slice himself“Pfff, what they’re gonna do, stick me in 682’s cage? Have seen already. Beside, it’s not like I’m taking them to a staring contest with 173.”
He took a napking and wiped out the tomato sauce that still remained on his face. “We’re talking about 1165, Clef. It’s not a walk in the park. And by the way, why the hell you asked permission to do another manned exploration? We’ve already lost one too many teams in that fucking thing”
“Ohhh, you’re worried about me, Kondraki? That’s cute.” He poked him with a long, scrawny finger.
The bearded man recoiled in disgust and groaned “Ugh. I’m just saying, you’re wasting resources. You just stole away from their containment teams the most promising new agents of the Foundation”
“I know, isn’t that great? Oh, by any chance, do you have the dossiers here with you?” The strange man asked with an eager, almost childish look in his eyes.
The bearded man reached for a backpack he left on the floor and grabbed a small envelope inside it.“Mpfh. Yeah, asked Light to take them for me. You owe me, Alto.”
He opened it and gave him a thumb up.“Sure, sure, just say to the psycho butler I sent you, he and I are on good terms” He started reading out loud:
Name: Frank Gedhiman
Nationality: United States of America
Served in: US Navy on USS Bainbridge, Seals Team 2
Personal records:
Agent Frank Gedhiman is assigned to Task Force Beta-7 (designated COMM name “Maz Hatterz”) as First Rifleman. Agent Gedhiman earned two (2) commendations, in relation to Containment Breach 43A-444-XC and to Security Breach 21C-209-VL.
Combat and Civilian expertise:
Agent Gedhiman received basic Navy training and extensive Navy Seals training, especially in arctic conditions. Agent is proficient in basic CQC and advanced HTH. Agent is expert in the use of several automatic weapons, including bullpup rifles, semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles. Agent has a degree in Civil Architecture achieved at NYU.
Name: Anya Tagore
Nationality: Republic of India (Bharat Ganarajya)
Served in: Indian Army on 4th Infantry Division, Gathak Force
Personal Records:
Agent Anya Tagore is assigned to Task Force Delta-5 (designated COMM name “Front Runners”) as Commando. Agent Tagore earned four (4) commendations, in relation to Containment Breach 12L-848-VB, Situation 123480-AS, Situation 192888-GD, Situation 124566-AJ and Containment Breach 94D-585-SD.
Combat and Civilian Expertise:
Agent Tagore received basic Army training and extensive sapper training. Agent is proficient in basic CQC. Agent is expert in use of automatic, semi-automatic shotguns, explosives both handheld, planted and IED. Agent has a degree in Chemical Engineering and a degree in Psychology achieved at University of Madras.
Name: Lorenzo Tesei
Nationality: Italian Republic (Repubblica Italiana)
Served in: Italian Navy on 550 Cavour, COMSUBIN Operational Raider Group
Personal Records:
Agent Lorenzo Tesei is assigned to Task Force Omicron-9 (designated COMM name “Hot zone dancers”) as First Marksman. Agent Tesei earned three (3) commendations, in relation to Containment Breach 93K-979-JJ, Containment Breach 32F-939-IO and Containment Breach 12X-574-FK.
Combat and Civilian Expertise:
Agent Tesei received basic Army training, extensive marksmanship training and extensive COMSUBIN/amphibious training. Agent is proficient in advanced CQC and advanced Krav Maga. Agent has a degree in Modern Western Philosophy achieved at Pisa’s Normale University.
“Creme de la creme, if you know what I mean, Kondrie boy.”
The lights of night-time Paris managed to infiltrate in the inside of SUV, only slight muffled by the obscured windows. They were in the old part of the city, so they could feel the raw, authentic texture of the street beneath them at every bump. Frank looked fairly uncomfortable with the ghastly silence that reigned in the vehicle, so he asked slowly, whilst looking at the mat:
“So...Why do you do it?”
Clef stopped silently fiddling with his ukulele and waited for the other two passengers to answer.
They both said, at the same time:
“Retribution”
The doctor started laughing, a big, boastful laugh that invaded the dark SUV. Frank looked beyond confused, and his eyes kept darting between him and his comrades, that, in the mean time, lifted their gazes from their weapons and tried to stare him down through their masks.
“You got a problem with that, Doc?” She spat the last word. It was true that researchers weren’t exactly a popular category in the Foundation, especially for the Agents.
He smiled at her, a smile that made her feel uneasy, and answered:
“No, of course not. I, however, find it rather... strange. Yes, strange is the word.”
Anya almost shouted at him:
“What the hell is YOUR problem, fucking psycho? You almost killed a little girl just to get rid of an SCP, you just hate them as much as we all do!” A hand descend gently over her shoulder. She snapped back to see Lorenzo beside her shaking his head. She lowered her gaze, seemingly ashamed that she lost control.
Again, he laughed, and laughed so much tears started trailing down his cheeks. He wiped them with his hand and promptly responded:
“Hate them? I don’t hate them at all, my dear Anya. Hate is for humans.”
Anya asked with more than a tinge of annoyance in her tone. “What?”
“It’s simple, actually. SCP, these things... It’s a waste of time hating them. They are just there to invest you, like a wave. You get submerged with all that cruelty, madness... chaos, but what happens if you think that the wave is drowning you because it’s actually evil? You get water in your lungs, your brain stop responding, you fall down and your corpse is eaten by fishes. They don’t think, they don’t live, they don’t feel, they just are, following their own mad little series of rules. There’s no rhyme or reason, no plan, no prime evil, no ever-watchful eye dangling monstrosities over your life, no god, no design, no action and no reaction. There is only us, with a sword made out of nonsense suspended over our heads, waiting to fall any moment now. Why do you do it, what a stupid question...” His face lost his perpetual smirk, and now sported an annoyed, disgruntled look.
He reached, grabbed his ukulele and started playing what Lorenzo recognised as a crude guitar rendition of the first Gymnopédie:
“...Somebody has to.”
Twilight Sparkle was angry. Actually, she was beyond angry. She was furious. Actually, furious was an understatement. She needed to stop herself from incinerating her bed right on spot. She stomped down on the floor, trying to vent out some rage, but every time her hooves touched the floor she brought them down harder, faster. She knew they just snatched away from her a one-time chance: she discovered a Foundation dossier. FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION.
That was the epitome of ‘carrier slingshot’. The discovery of the century! Her chance to climb the steps of this accursed organization and show everything to the world! And just when she and Feretrax managed to read that there was another Foundation, in another world, a world in which mythical creatures were calling the shots, and they already explored and mapped what they designated as 1165, an entire team of griffin agents stormed the place, took the papers, the translations, opened the door, let her Supervisor in, who then congratulated to her for the finding and said she was out of the assignment and to go back to her room and wait for a new one. She yelled in frustration and threw herself on the bed that 30 seconds earlier was about to end its purpose prematurely in a cloud of flames.
She really wanted not to, she fought with herself, wrestled with her mind to no avail, and in the end shouted what she really wanted not to shout, because that would make her sound like a rebuked filly:
“THAT’S NOT FAIR!”
A week had passed, yet her fury didn’t seem to wane. She just sat down, boiling and simmering, imagining how she could have restrained herself the next time M’bura showed his zebra muzzle at the door with that small brown envelope in his smug little mouth and-
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
She jumped on her four hooves, and tried desperately not to appear neither eager nor completely enraged. She ran at the door and opened it: no one was there. She was starting to lit up her horn, looking for however thought it was a good idea to pull a lame fast one on her when one of her stepped on something different that the cold, hard floor. She looked down and she saw a familiar light brown file. She looked around the corridor one last time, trying to find M’bura or however left her this envelope, but it was deserted. She levitated it and closed the door with a slam of magic, then returned to her bed, and opened it:
There have been several complaints of strange noises and lights that arrived to the Neighton Police Department for the last three months. It appeared that this was a mistake of the Royal Police Service, as they were originally documents meant for the Police Royal Archive in Canterlot. The pegasus courier responsible is currently being reprimanded and is on payed leave, yet we couldn’t have acquired said documents if it weren’t for this mistake, as we don’t have agents in the PRA or in the Ponyville PD, the Department that originally issued these documents. The reports describe in great detail curious phenomena and disturbing noises coming from a small patch of wood owned by the Apple family, inside the Sweet Apple Acres orchard. Your mission is to investigate these peculiar occurrences, discover if there may be a SCP involvement and report back to the Foundation.
Since Ponyville is a tight-knit community where everyone knows each other, we could not give you an identity as a local police officer. Instead, you will be going as Magnifying Glass, private investigator hired by the patriarch of the Apple Family, Mr. Orange. Mr. Orange is one of the few civilian contractors in Equestria we have, so he has already been informed and has agreed to help. If suspicion should arise with the locals, Mr. Orange will vouch for you.
Good luck, Agent.
The telekinetic hold she had on the paper disappeared and it slowly descended on the floor. Twilight Sparkle just sat there for a moment, unsure about what to do. Then, she realized she could just say what she was thinking out loud:
“Horsefeathers.”
Ponyville managed to convey more with visuals than its inhabitants could ever hope to convey in words. The luscious, giddly, quaint, scenic spectacle of small houses, simple gardens, noises of lives marching onwards in a small corridor light, ignoring the claws and teeth lurking in the darkness that just managed to graze them from time time. Even in other settlements in Equestria you couldn’t find the same carelessness, the same live by the day attitude. Fate, as Twilight knew, is not without a sense of irony. Someone would have found most humorous that the most loveable, sweet little town in all of Equestria would be the place where Twilight Sparkle found her true, dark, cruel epiphany. The unicorn, however, wasn’t or didn’t want to think about it, as she was too occupied in trying not to catch the attention the ever-watching eye of suffocating country hospitality. She used to think fondly of how warm and the caring the citizens of Ponyville could be, when they discovered that a stranger managed to crawl its way into this love-utopia. Now, it was just an inconvenience: she felt like every single eye was studying her, from hoof to horn, and judging whether she could be trusted with a shower of kindness. Now that she was at the other end of the stick, she realized that she always saw as a show of selflessness was actually, like everything (that much she managed to learn), a calculus. She did remember the cold shoulder the town gave to a donkey that wanted to move in here after a life of travels; the only pony that greeted him-
You see I never saw you before, and if I never saw you before that means you're new, 'cause I know every pony, and I mean every pony in Ponyville, and if you're new, then it meant you haven't met anyone yet-
The clopping sound of her hooves on the soil muffled for a bit. She realized she was in front of her old home. How her legs carried her here, she didn’t know. She was afraid somepony was bound to pay his or her respects in the old tree. Somepony she knew. The relief wasn’t as nearly as powerful as her sick disappointment when she read the crudely painted letter on her door:
ABANDONED
The windows were dusty and unkempt. The tree was weak looking. She looked around before she took a peek inside: all the books and the furniture were gone. A wave of disgust took over her as she realized what she was expecting to see: a sad library, kept by a small dragon dragging his feet, handling books around with a face devoided of emotions. She wanted them to mourn her. She wanted them to be sad for her. She couldn’t even fathom they would even start living again after her untimely demise; just what was she becoming?
You are a sick, sick pony, Twilight.
Every second passed in this accursed town was another voice screaming in her head that she was a horrible, horrible creature. That she deserved to die. That she was mad, sick in the head. That she soiled forever her race, the entire ponykind, even if nopony would ever known. What was she thinking about?
Banning her sister to the moon for a thousand years? That’s cruel.
He was just having a little fun... He didn’t hurt anypony. He didn’t turn ponies into stone.
She was just trying to look after her children.
Yet, why she felt she had to despise them? She didn’t. She didn’t hate Nightmare Moon, she didn’t hate Discord, she didn’t hate Chrysalis. Why she felt compelled to loathe them? Everything around her reminded her that, in fact, they weren’t actually so bad. She saw things far worse, and she kept hating them. Why she kept hating them, why she thought she was the monster? She did what had to be done! These ponies, they wouldn’t know any of it! Everyone beside them had to sacrifice what they held most dear in their hearts and minds, but they still judged you from the safety of their glass fortress! They were judging her, right now. She felt it, she felt every suspicious gaze, every doubtful eye. Every single one of them, thinking higher than thou. Thinking they were the chosen ones, the ones controlling the sky, the clouds, the soil, the sun and the moon. Thinking that every little ray of light and every frickle of spring rain was there just for them.
You just did what had to be done, Twilight. You survived. You protect them, and they manage to make you feel GUILTY about it! They are the ones that should feel bad, they are the one predating on your very soul! THEY SHOULD FEEL GUILTY!
Her left hoof impacted on the ground, creating a small cloud of dust. Twilight Sparkle wanted to spread the truth, the truth about everything: Celestia, the Foundation, the SCPs. But she won’t do it for them. They don’t deserve to know the truth. Ponies are not worthy of the truth. But the truth will make them worthy.
The truth will make them become true to their hearts.
The lovely countryside and the crisp, fresh air of the autumn dusk did wonders to quell her seething worry: soon she managed to push back her anger just enough to concentrate completely on the task at hand. She needed to: Applejack was the cause. She needed to lie through her teeth with the Element of Honesty. She knew Applejack fairly well. Actually, out of her ‘friends’, her company was the one Twilight appreciated the most. Yet, the only remorse she had was that she happened to get the lie-sensible one, and lies were the only thing keeping her afloat right now. After a long walk she knew well and didn’t forget, she started to see the familiar sight of apple trees in the distance, and the familiar sound of thudding and bucking. She rolled her eyes: just what she expected? That her death shocked Applejack to the very core and that the freckled mare decided to become a classical composer out of respect for her? The mental image managed to make her giggle a bit. She was already at the outer fence, and she could see her ‘friend’ bucking an apple tree in the distance. She thought she’d have mixed feelings about this reunion, but she felt just as empty and annoyed as any other day, and she wanted to get over with this as fast as she could. Applejack turned her head and saw Twilight, that now sported a beige coat and a jaunty black mine with coffee-brown streaks. The Element of Honesty covered fifty meters in less than twenty seconds, stopped right in front of Twilight and introduced herself with her unforgettable accent and a smile on her muzzle:
“Well, hello there, miz.....”
Twilight coughed a bit and answered: “Glass. My name is Magnifying Glass”
Applejack offered her a bright orange hoof, but the unicorn didn’t even looked at it. The farmer pony ears drooped a bit, before she asked:
“I’m Applejack, pleasure to make your acquaintance. So, what brings ya’ll here in this mighty fine apple farm, miz Glass?”
“I was sent here by your uncle, miss Applejack” The earth pony looked a bit surprised.
“Uncle Orange sent ya? For what?” She asked, her eyes betraying her raising suspicion.
“I’m a private investigator, ma’am. I’m here to... investigate those strange noises and lights you have been seeing for a while” Twilight managed to mantain a ‘no-joke’ tone, hoping it would at least appear less suspicious in her former friend’s eyes. But she knew the relationship between Orange and her niece wasn’t exactly stellar. Applejack warmed up a bit, though. It looked like she bought it.
“Oh, thank goodness. Those darns thingies gave me an mah family the heebie jeebies. Poor Applebloom, mah lil’ sis, is scared witless.” Her gaze darted for a bit to a small patch of trees behind Twilight, on the other side of the road. The unicorn assumed it was the infamous infested forest.
“Don’t worry, miss Applejack. I’m here to get to the bottom of this.” She turned around, preparing to go back to Ponyville “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to search for an accomodation. I’ll see you tonight, Miss-”
A hoof grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her back.
“Oh don’t ya ‘miss’ me, lady. Ya’re going to solve this pickle, and Ah’ll be darned if Ah’ll let you let hit the hay anywhere but here. Consider yourself a member of the Apple family for the time bein’”
Twilight was prepared to this. She knew that once Applejack set her mind on something, nothing would make her change it. So she simply uttered a simple courtesy form, lest not sound too rude
“I wouldn’t want to impose, miss Applejack...” Answered Twilight.
The earth pony waved a dismissive hoof at her. “Oh, don’t be silly, ya silly filly. It’s mah pleasure”
The unicorn managed to create a convincing facade of reluctance:
“I guess, staying here would aid greatly my job.....”
“Then we’re settled, miz Glass. Now, let’s go inside, Ah’ll introduce ya’ll to the family” She swiftly grabbed her hoof and dragged her across the fields until they reached the Apple household. It was as Twilight remembered it. She saw Big Mac closing the door of the barn. He turned around to see his sister waving at him. He slowly made his way to them:
“Big Mac, this is Magnifying Glass. She’s a private eye, Uncle Orange sent her to investigate those strange sounds and lights. Miz Glass, this is my big brother, Big Macintosh.” He said:
“It’s might nice to meet ya, miz Glass” and he offered a hoof. Twilight was trying as hard as she could to create a persona: a rugged, rude private investigator who wanted to solve the mistery and get the hell out. The less amiable she managed to appear, the more likely they just let her do her thing and leave. So, she didn’t shake his hoof.
“Mpfh. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Macintosh”
He looked a bit disappointed, something Twilight considered strange, since she almost always saw the humongous earth pony unfazed by everything.
“Just call me Mac...”
Applejack snorted slightly, visibly annoyed by the unicorn’s lack of manners. But she managed to keep her annoyance bottled up.
“Let’s go inside...” She practically pushed Twilight trough the opened door. Even the inside was just the same, and of course, sitting on a rocking chair in the corner, there was a really old mare she instantly recognized:
“That’s Granny Smith. Everything’s really tirin’ her up, so it’s best not to wake her up.” They went upstairs and Applejack knocked on the first door on the right. A familiar voice resonated, muffled, in the corridor.
“What?”
“Applebloom, we have guests! Get here, I want ya to introduce yourself”
There was a sound of hooves running on a wooden floor, and the door opened shooting. Standing in front of her, a filly she remembered smaller, and with a blank flank. She could see a plank and a hammer crossed.
I missed it....
“Applebloom, this is miz Glass. She’s a private investigator Uncle Orange payed to discover what’s going in the forest”
The eyes of the filly beamed up with wonder after she heard the word ‘investigator’.
“Hello miz Glass, Ah’m Applebloom! What is it like being a private investigator? Is it hard? Is it cool? I have friend called Scootaloo that loves saying ‘cool’, I bet she would find you cool!”
Twilight tried not to break in tears right there. She still wasn’t used to seeing...fillies. Or anything small, for that matter. She managed to maintain her composure and answered plainly:
“It’s job like any other.”
Applebloom was visibly disappointed by this cold display, so she blurted that she had to finish her homework, darted back to her room and slammed the door.
An awkard silence invaded the corridor and Applejack slowly walked downstairs, and the lavender unicorn followed. They stopped in the porch. Big Mac surpassed them and went inside the house, closing the door behind him. Both mares were silent for a while, gazing at the sun halfway through the horizon. It was hard to distinguish between the clear sky emptied of clouds, and the stretch of trees that was in front of them; both were bathed in the same calming orange hue. It wasn’t season, yet they could hear cicadas in the distance. How long since Twilight Sparkle had cradled herself in such a comforting sight? For a year, all she saw was rock, and metal. Yet, old, crooked trees felt far more stable and majestic that walls of stone and ceiling of cold metal.
“I’m sorry to leave ya here, miz Glass, but Ah have an appointment with a friend of mine. We’re having supper in an hour, ya’ll hear the bell. Well.... Ah best be goin’. Good evenin’, miz Glass”
Twilight Sparkle just nodded, and waited for the earth pony to disappear in the distance before leaning a bit on the edge of the porch. She really, really wanted to stay here. She really wanted to run back to the library, find a book and start reading. Then Spike would come, asking her where would they eat for dinner. They could go to Fluttershy’s cottage, she always liked it when they visited. Maybe, after dinner, they could settle down, on the hill behind it, and watch the stars a bit. Surely, Rainbow would come to greet them, they would ask her to go fetch Rarity, and Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. Applejack would bring a casket of apples, and Rarity would go on a tirade on how much uncouth grass could be. Pinkie Pie would probably talk non-stop, dragging everypony in never-ending debates on whether mints could be considered, in all respects, actual sweets. After a while, she and Spike would wish goodnight, and go back to the library. She would tug Spike, and then go read for a while on the balcony, basking in the fresh air of Luna’s night. Then she would go to bed, sleeping peacefully, freed from nightmares.
“I’ll always be with you.” Those black eyes stared at her. The charred beak didn’t move, yet the words kept flowing out.
Maybe she could still fix this?
“Always”
This place was worse than Canterlot. She didn’t want to stay here. She desperately wanted to get out of this damn town. She went inside, found Big Mac cutting some apples on the table in the kitchen, and told him in the same atonic voice she would be not present for dinner, that they could find her in the notorious patch of wood. She didn’t wait for an answer, and stormed out in the dying twilight, trotting lightly between the trees and the farming equipment, reaching the road, and then, the woods.
This ‘forest’, and she knew she thought the same thing of something incredibly strange, was, for the moment, the most normal and mundane patch of trees she had ever seen. Even when she wasn’t a highly trained agent, she would find far more scary normal looking forest instead of, let’s say, the Everfree Forest. The latter was so outlandishly strange, that it seemed far more cartoonish than creepy. Yet this.... this couldn’t even be called a real forest! Fairly big, but not thick, and all the trees were the same! She walked through it for what seemed hours; the sun already had given way to the moon, and the sound of cricket was invading her perked up ears, ears desperate to catch a strange sound, and eyes scanning between trunks looking for peculiar lights.
Yet nothing happened. She hoped desperately that all this trip, everything she had to swallow, to change, to hide was not in vain. She hoped that reminiscing everything that she had lost, a town that constantly reminded her of the worst decision she ever made was not a fruitless exercise. It was dark, and cold. She shivered a bit. Maybe the next day, something will happen. Twilight will aks the Apple Family if these happenings took place every night, or just in a regular basis. She walked back to the deserted dirt road. In the distance, she could see the small Ponyville shimmering in the night. The lights were still on in the Apple house. She sighed, teleported over the fence, and started the walk back to the rustic mansion. Halfway through, she saw the door opening with a slam, and a breathless Big Mac galloping to her. He stopped, breathed a bit, and then told her, his eyes full of concern:
“Miz Glass! Applejack found a strange critter in our barn! She’s waiting for ya inside, she asked me to look after Granny and Applebloom”
Twilight beamed, excited. A strange critter! Maybe this wasn’t just a waste of time! What if she actually found something worth mentioning the Foundation? She nodded, trying not to look to eager, and dashed to the barn door. She opened it with a slam of magic and ran inside, the door closing behind her. Everything was dark, and she couldn’t see a thing; maybe Applejack was in the back?
“Miss Applejack? Are you th-”
A flash of blue light blinded her momentarily, but she swiftly realized it was coming from the floor: she looked down to see a gigantic symbol made out of dazzling light shining on the floor of the barn. It looked like a rune. She tried to launch a light spell to see what was going on around her, but her horn was unresponsive. The unicorn tried to concentrate as much as she could, but her magic was completely inert. A voice she remembered caught her attention.
“It’s useless. We made sure thou won’t be able to use thy magic.”
Panic and fear were starting to overwhelm her, and she stuttered:
“P-Princess Luna?”
A horn, a dark blue horn lit up, and a big ball of light formed in the room. She closed her eyes for a moment, her eyes defeated by the sheer brightness. When she could manage to open them, she saw the only sight in the world she never wanted to see:
In front of her, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack. Behind them, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. The princesses shared the same stern gaze that tore a hole through her. The smaller mares were displaying a different set of emotions: Rarity and Rainbow looked at her suspiciously, Fluttershy was whimpering a bit but she managed to hold her ground, and Applejack was looking at her with a face that only spoke of contempt. Princess Celestia laid a gentle hoof on the earth pony shoulder and said:
“You did good, Applejack. Who knows what could have happened if this...spy managed to get a hold of what she wanted” The mare blushed a bit, before resuming her serious gaze towards Twilight:
“Shucks, Princess. Ah don’t really know about this ‘ Foundation’ you told us about, but first Ah saw her she struck me down as the lyin’ kind.” Celestia nuzzled her a bit.
“Good work, my little pony. Thank the goddess she stumbled on somepony so observant” Her stare locked itself on the trapped unicorn, and her voice lost all the warmness and kindness she had a moment before. “As for you... I know you’re trained not to reveal your identity. But you’ll find I have spell that can be very useful for finding out informations. First, I’m gonna wash out every possible enchantment or tracking system they managed to put inside you. I know how many spells they use on their agents. You have one last chance to tell me everything with your will. Otherwise, I’ll just probe your mind... It’s not a nice procedure, I assure you.”
Twilight Sparkle lips quivered a bit, before she could emit a discernible sound.
“You’ll r-regret t-this, Celestia” She managed to say, her eyes trying to fight that impassive gaze.
“Mpfh. We’ll see about that.” Her horn got engulfed in a white aura, and the unicorn was covered in light for a moment. She could see it all: the disguise enchantment flowing down from her like wet paint, making visibile her purple coat underneath. She could see the slow building horror and surprise in her faces as they saw the form of a stranger change into one they knew all too well.
The enchantment formed a luminous pool around her hooves for a moment, before disappearing into the thin air, sparkling a bit. A deadly silence reigned in the room, until she spoke with her voice, her true, not magically altered voice:
“I told you you would regret this.”
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So Celestia now knows what really happened to twilight but damn did you really have to end the chapter at such a cliffhanger can't wait for the next chapter to come out.
1236859
Understand this, my friend. A cliffhanger is an author's guiltiest pleasure. I don't deny there is some kind of sadistic ring to it, but what I do, I do because I want to make the story more enjoyable for my few but passionate readers. Also, I enjoy seeing you squirm :3
update soon please the suspense is killing me
1313720
You have no IDEA how much I'd love a native speaker as an editor, since I'm not, and I'm mostly self-taught. But it's hard to find someone with the willingness (and the knowledge, I don't have any friend who could just look through the stuff I write) to just sit and correct mistakes upon mistakes.
Actually, if there's anyone willing and able that's reading this message, contact me and I'll be forever grateful.
What is taking so long? When is the next chapter?
Yo just out of interest I'm curious as to when the next chapter will come out but I can wait as long as it takes for it to come out just that damn cliffhanger leaves wanting to know what happens next but take your pace will rather wait a long time for a good chapter rather than one that was rushed and sucks.
I have half of it written down, something like 4.200 words. However, I have school, so if you want to blame someone, blame Horace, Kant, the Italian Resurgence and the goddamn Bakunin. I can't make any promises, but maybe, maybe, I'll have it completed by Sunday, if not earlier.
1380791
As I said take your time with it I can be very patient if I need be, once waited a whole year for a fanfic on another site to update guess the waiting made it even more special when it finally did come out.
05 Council is gonna be pissed.