Dreamscape of a Spoon

by Zytharros

Smile

The rain continued into the next morning as teams of two were sent out from the ship on steady, two-hour rotations to search for the missing mare. However, each team that passed through the town returned empty-hooved and reporting of high levels of fear amongst the citizens.

Big Macintosh hadn’t slept for most of the night. He tossed and turned, royally ticked that he had let her slip through his hooves. He wanted to find her and bring her back, but he had to deliver the report to his boss first before he could do anything. The pegasus team that had flown together overnight to deliver the update had arrived just before dawn this morning with a report that Baggin Bitts would be arriving towards evening to address the captain he had called “an irresponsible flank hole”, despite his years of loyal service. An Apple had never been addressed in such a manner before, but then again, this was the most important businessman in Equestria.

It still bothered Macintosh to be referred to in such a manner.

He hoped he would be able to find her and give him a report that said he had found her. At least he would only have to endure some bereavement for wasting Baggin’s time, instead of the businesspony’s wrath for losing his filly. He hoped that Colgate was having a better time on the ground than his teams had.

---

It was nearing noon, and she was nearing the end of her patience. The three-shaded blue unicorn snorted. If it wasn’t ponies scared of talking to her, it was ponies scared of the wrath of two of the six former heroes of Equestria. Colgate had gotten glimpses of each of the famed Elements of Harmony, except for Rarity and Pinkie Pie, as she had passed through the village. Applejack was running away from darn well everything. Fluttershy was guarding the former library tree alongside Rainbow Dash. Both sported a pair of sweet shades and a small-caliber steam-powered handgun, and both eyed her unnervingly as she walked past.

Twilight Sparkle, however…

Colgate nearly tripped over her as she rounded a bend with her partner towards Fluttershy’s old place. She lay on the ground, battered, bruised and completely disoriented. A long cut wrote its way down her side from cheek to flank. Three shallow stripes laid waste to the other side of her neck. No less than eight bruises coloured her body – two on her other flank, one on her side, three on her face, the black eye notwithstanding, and the others running the gauntlet of the rest of her body.

“Sweet Celestia! This one’s hurt! Don’t worry, we’ll get you well. Skyfire!”

Her pegasus partner stood at attention, his deep blue hair waving in the wind. “Yes, Coalie!”

“Gather this one up and take her back to our ship. See to it that she’s well-rested and cleaned up,” she ordered as she levitated Twilight’s battered form onto the back of the large pale pink stallion. “We need her alive. Do everything you can for her… and for Celestia’s sake, don’t buck this up!”

As her partner took off, she tapped her headset. “This is Pasty. Repeat, this is Pasty. No information on Graystone. However, I found a Harmony Unicorn who could be of help. She’s got a trio of jimmy lines on her neck and one sweet red cord on her side. She needs all the help we can give ‘er. Comet’s heading back with the goods.”

Through her earpiece, she heard a high-pitched, melodic voice answer her call. “Inbound Comet with Harmony Unicorn in tow. The H.U. has three jimmy lines and one sweet red cord. Ten-four, Pasty – Sweet Sticks reads ya loud and clear.”

With that confirmed, Colgate stirred up the all-access frequency that the Silver Spoon’s crew worked on.

“Saucer’s crew, check in!”

Slowly, replies came back over the speaker.

“Saucer One all clear.”

“Saucer Two all clear.”

Similarly, each of the nine teams of two on the ground checked in… except Team Four and Team Ten. Colgate and Skyfire were Team Ten, so they didn’t need to, but a worried look crossed over her face as Team Four failed to reply.

“Alright, that’s One through Three and Five through Ten… Saucer Four, do you read me?”

No response.

“Saucer Four! Are you there?”

Again, no response.

“Anypony seen Saucer Four?”

“This is Confounded… they last disappeared into the Everfree Forest,” another of her colleagues replied. “My partner Echo Tree and I saw them enter the forest at a gallop and vanish.”

Colgate facehoofed. “I shoulda known better than to send a stallion with a mare in heat… Okay, Saucers Two, Three and Five, meet me by Sugarcube Corner. We’ll go look for Four. The rest of you, head back to the Saucer to debrief with Sparrow.”

A trio of “Ten-four” calls were made over the secured open frequency.

Colgate bolted back over to Sugarcube Corner to meet up with her friends. She could feel the air thicken – something was going to go down, and she didn’t like it. She had never had much of a taste for violence. She would rather help someone with dental problems than create more work for herself. She knew how to hold her own, however, from a small stint on a pirate ship a few years back when she and Sparrow had a brief falling-out.

Well, the so-called “falling-out” was actually a ruse to get the Silver Spoon out of a tight spot.

She played double agent for a few days, earning Big Macintosh trust on both sides of the tense conflict while slowly degrading the reputation of the pirate captain. However, she was caught one day telling ship secrets to her stallion buddy, which erupted into a battle of epic proportions.

That battle solidified Captain Mac’s hold on the ship. It quashed a mutiny that had begun to build, and in fact had added to their ranks because of how Colgate had played double agent. She had delicately weeded out who was loyal and who was not, telling those who weren’t loyal to their current captains nothing but honest truths, and spilling lies to those who were for their opponent. In this, she built loyalty where there was none, and stripped them bare where there once was nothing else. Doing so, she had not only weeded out the anti-Macs, she had also created a fully-workable, functional, and amiable crew.

Sparrow and Pasty… Yes, they had grown into formidable legends among airship captains. Few pirates dared to attack the Silver Spoon anymore, purely due to their reputations. That was likely why they were being paid nearly twice as many bits as any other captaincy pair on the air – Baggin Bitts wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

She stopped in front of the confectionery. As she finished the thought, the other teams joined with her. She had three pegasi, two unicorns (including herself), and two Earth ponies to work with. Surveying her team and already dividing them up based on skill, she smiled.

“Okay. You, Earth Pony Quakewalk.” A freckle-faced pale yellow-brown pony stood at attention. “You take a unicorn and a pegasus. I’ll take the rest.”

“Gotcha,” the pony said.

The teams quickly sequestered themselves and moved towards the Everfree. In a few minutes, they entered into the thick brush. They walked slowly, keeping an eye out for their companions. Soon they came to a fork in the road that led five different ways.

“Oh geez…” a pastel pink unicorn groaned. “As if we haven’t lost enough ponies already…”

Colgate threw an annoyed look at her.

“All ya gotta do is take a cup of friendship…”

The seven ponies jumped at the sudden, mysterious sing-songy voice. Colgate swore she remembered that voice from somewhere. They listened further, but no sonic traces could be heard beyond a slight sad whimpering chuckle. They slowly proceeded down the middle path, heading straight forward. A few minutes later, they heard the snapping of twigs and another little sob.

“Stop.”

The order from the small black-and-red pegasus colt froze everyone cold. They stopped and listened for something – anything – that would direct them. All they heard was the rustling of leaves.

“Celestia dammit…” Colgate muttered before she turned her voice to eleven. “We know you’re out there! Whoever you are, speak up now!”

“All ya gotta do is take a cup of friendsh-”

The same voice, interrupted by another sob.

“This way!”

The same colt bolted ahead of the party in the direction of the song. Each of the exploration party followed. Colgate remembered going to school with the mare behind the voice, but she couldn’t remember her name. It wasn’t Pinkie Pie. No… this voice, although just as cheery, was deeper and held an air of ignorance one couldn’t easily forget.

“P… no, Tarp… Dink…” Colgate stammered, trying to remember her name. “Deer… Drink…”

As they ran, Colgate growled and howled into her headset, “Sparrow! That pony with the weird eye! Mailmare! Gray flank! What in Tartarus is her name!?”

“Derpy!” Big Mac’s voice rang clear over his headset. “Hurry up! Ya gotta find ‘em before-”

“No time for a reminder!” Colgate shouted exasperatedly, “I’m doing the best I can! Harmony Unicorn should know more, but we can get some information from Derpy for now!”

“Why would Derpy be in the Everfree, anyway?” the Captain asked. “She’s usually too scared to even think of venturing close to it.”

“A lot of things don’t add up, Mackie,” Colgate admitted as they rounded another bend. The same phrase from before repeated itself, as if the poor pony caught in its threshold had no will to say anything else. “For now, our two best leads are heading your way and somewhere deep in he-”

Her hoof caught on a stray root, sending her and the Earth pony Quakewalk following her crashing into the earth below. Both cursed loudly.

“Coalie! Are you okay?” Big Mac asked. “I’ll send the cavalry over if-”

“No need, Mac, just some stupid roots,” she interrupted. “And stop butting in. Coalie out until we learn more.”

She made a mental note to apologize for that one later as she got up and attempted to plunge deeper into the Forest with her crew, but her pace was slow. She had sprained a leg, which would hamper her progress significantly. The rest of her team looked at her concerned as she limped on, bearing her injured limb with a poker face that would fool her own mother.

They didn’t have far to go. In a couple minutes, they found themselves in a clearing. This clearing was devoid of any occupancy except a small fire, a gray pegasus with her back to the new arrivals, and a small, half-finished muffin lying idly on the ground. The poor mare was rocking back and forth, mumbling the same singular phrase over and over again. Beneath her hooves rested a body.

A pink body.

Colgate shuddered. “D-Derpy…”

The mare’s ears didn’t perk. She barely acknowledged their presence, except with a flap of her wings.

“Col…” she mumbled, emotionless and flat. “Colgate.”

A sniffle escaped the pegasus. The tri-blue mare tried to approach her, but was stopped by a yellow flash. Derpy’s head drooped and the mare lay down.

“What happened here?” Colgate asked.

Another sniffle. “You shouldn’t have come back for your friends…”

“Why?” she asked.

Derpy turned her head towards her former friend. Colgate tried to peer through the mare’s messy, unkempt and extremely long mane at her face, but she couldn’t. Derpy turned away, turning her head to the sky. The midafternoon sun felt wonderful on her body.

If only I could see it again… she thought before she sobbed. Tears ran down her face.

“Derpy?” Colgate asked. “Let me help.”

The pegasus stood and flared her wings before turning slowly toward Minuette. In her forelegs, she hugged a head… a head with a flattened pink mane and a shocked expression…

Pinkie Pie’s head, still connected to a body that no longer contained life.

“No!!” Colgate shrieked. “How in Celestia’s holy name did this happen!?”

Derpy’s eyes filled with tears. “Ask the one who calls herself Viola… the one who kidnapped Rarity… the one who kidnapped Silver Spoon… the one who…”

The gray pegasus furiously tossed her mane out of her face. As the wave of gold descended to one side, Colgate gasped.

“The one who took my sight!!”

Derpy’s eyes… her beautiful eyes were… gone…

The pegasus quickly covered her face again. “That’s why I can’t ever leave. I have to protect Pinkie. I have to protect Pinkie… I h-have… t-t-to…”

The pegasus curled into a ball around the dead body. “Momma’s here… Momma’s here… All ya gotta do is t-take a c-c-cup…”

Colgate pressed a hoof against whatever barrier this was and shed a tear for her innocent friend. Something was very wrong. She felt it deep in her core. Her soul shook with the pain of a lost hometown.

“Twilight knows everything,” she said. “I’m certain she can tell us all we need to know.”

As she walked away, Derpy looked back. She heard the hoof-prints shuffle into the night. It was then she remembered something.

“Colgate!” she shouted, petting the head of her dead friend.

Hearing her name, the pony turned and bolted back. She stood in front of the imprisoned pegasus once more.

“I have a message from the former Princesses Celestia and Luna,” she said. “Save yourself.”

“From what?” Colgate asked.

Derpy sobbed. “From Ponyville. From Equestria. From… her.”

“Who?”

Derpy swallowed and, for the first time in their meeting, dropped the head. She walked over to Colgate and eerily glared square into her eyes, the voids where Derpy’s should have been piercing even deeper into her soul than had ever happened before.

“From Octavia.”

Comments

[not-so-anonymous]

Big Macintosh hadn’t slept for most of the night. He tossed and turned, royally ticked that he had let her slip through his fingers.. i think you mean hooves.

[not-so-anonymous]

Also, write more please.

[djthomp]

Ack, this may be getting a bit dark for me.

[Zytharros]

964358
Don't feel bad. When this one finishes, I'm not sure I'll be able to read it again.
We'll find out where my currently sordid muse takes me.

[ServingSpoon]

Octavia! Dun dun dun

[SFaccountant]

Well, who ELSE would run the pony mafia?
I see a lot of potential here.
"Cutie Mark Crusaders Mob Enforcers, YAAAAAAAAY!!"