Dreamscape of a Spoon

by Zytharros

Nails and Glass

The Day it All Fell to Pieces

---

The moon had just risen a few minutes ago, and twilight had yet to dissipate entirely from the night sky. The ship creaked and groaned, its combination of metal and wood drifting from side to side as the well-trained skeleton crew still aboard adjusted various engines, valves and other miscellaneous instruments to keep the ship afloat above Sweet Apple Acres. Down on the third level of the ship, in Colgate’s personal quarters, slept a lavender mare with a mane the color of grape juice. A single pink stripe wound its way through the once-orderly adornments.

“Octavia, you monster…” she mumbled as she tossed and turned in the bed, dreaming of the last night she had seen her faithful assistant, the inside of her library, and her friends all together just one year ago.

Well, all except one.

---

It had all come down so fast no pony could have prepared for it.

Twilight Sparkle was reading peacefully in the afternoon sunlight of Ponyville’s park, humming to herself. She was enjoying the rare break after a hectic week. Somehow, Rainbow Dash had seen it fit to have all her stunts for that week end up with her crashing into various parts of the library at least twice daily. Not only were those odds astronomical, considering how wide her flight training ground was, but it was utterly unbelievable that she managed to crash through the exact same precise location in the library with a deviance of less than a tenth of a hoof in either direction.

Anyway, she was reading in the park, enjoying the peaceful, quiet day. There were only two interruptions. Pinkie Pie walked along and threw a greeting her way, but moved on, speaking of a delivery, and Applejack had passed by, lugging a small cart of apples with her sister Apple Bloom. Both always seemed tired, having had to take care of the farm together once Big Macintosh had left. Neither Apple Bloom nor Twilight had never known the stallion, since both arrived after he had taken to the skies, nor had Apple Bloom ever seen the inside of a school house. Despite this, she was at least as educated, thanks to tutelage by Twilight Sparkle, and she indeed had a friend her own age, a little orphan pegasus named Rumble.

As they passed by, they ran headlong into a group of ponies going the other way. A few cuss words were heard, and then Applejack screamed as Apple Bloom was taken. Twilight shot up out of her seat to defend the filly, but both she and Applejack were promptly stopped by a field of blue magic. A cloaked pony in an alley had stopped them with a shield spell. Applejack was beating on the glow, frantically trying to chase after Apple Bloom. Twilight analyzed the spell and realized she couldn’t shout out to save her life. The spell was delicate and precise, confusing in makeup but not powerful. Twilight tried to dispel the shield, but the caster was too quick to reformat the spell for her impressive skill to be of any effect. It held strongly until Apple Bloom was led away and disappeared into the bowels of a steel-gray airship. The restrainer was teleported back remotely, and the shields died.

Twilight immediately ran for Applejack and embraced her, holding the strong farm pony as she let out her stresses. This caused a few others, their friends, to come closer. They made it to the treehouse and locked the door.

As soon as the door was shut, Applejack’s temper exploded. She sputtered off how Philharmonic had been razing one row of trees after another. They had stolen apples, freed animals, and basically caused a general ruckus around the farm. Eventually, they had threatened to take her little sister if she didn’t allow Philharmonic to buy the property… at a price, she had added, that was well below a third of the farm’s total value. After what had just happened, Applejack was seriously reconsidering her farmland. It had already been reduced to a third its’ size from before Mac left, and she had no hooves to help her farm.

Fluttershy told of animal agitation. The Everfree Forest was being excavated and the animals were being shot to shreds. They all feared for their safety. Many had even considered moving towards Ponyville to get away from the moving onslaught. Fluttershy had managed to convince most of them to find other homes, like making the journey to Whitetail Wood to hole up until this mess passed. The others barricaded themselves in, including Angel, but Fluttershy had never heard from them again.

Pinkie Pie eventually gushed over her most recent delivery, but in the way that she was disappointed that the pony had refused her treats by not being there. She pulled out the uneaten pastries as group snacks. She had also puzzled over the absence of Apple Bloom’s worst enemy, Scootaloo, who would normally be stalking Rainbow Dash, and both Rarity and Sweetie Belle had disappeared. Neither had been seen for a couple months.

At the mention of Scootaloo’s name, Rainbow Dash merely disappeared, vanishing out a window in tears and dropping a small golden apple in her wake.

And then all hell broke loose.

The best Twilight could make of the chaos that followed, because even her memory of it was hazy, was that Rainbow’s explosive had contained some kind of combined knockout gas, hallucinogenic and delayed-effect paralysis powder. Twilight kind of remembered dragging her rear hooves around for hours, a voice that was both hers and not hers asking for some jumbled up word she could never make out. She eventually passed out in an alley.

---

With that, Twilight jolted awake. She glanced around and saw she was lying in a cabin. To her, though, she had been captured by Philharmonic’s crew and she was going to get out. She tried standing up, but couldn’t. She tried using her magic and barely managed to levitate a straw in a glass of water before collapsing back on the cot. She groaned.

“Octavia, I will make you pay for what you did to us…” she mumbled, ineffectual rage erupting from her.

Colgate chose that moment to open the door and diffuse almost all her fury with a simple “I’m glad you’re awake!”

Twilight relaxed, noting the distinct lack of the purple and gold uniform employees of Philharmonic oh-so-pompously wore. “You’re… not with Philharmonic, are you?” she asked.

“Nope,” Colgate said. “Spoonship.”

Twilight nodded, absorbing the information wordlessly.

Colgate continued, “So, what’s got Ponyville so worked up lately?”

“Octavia Philharmonica, that’s what,” Twilight spat hatefully. “She’s turned this whole town into her personal experiment facility. I’ve tried complaining to the Princesses about it, but I can’t get a letter to Celestia except by snail mail since my little dragon assistant, Spike, disappeared. On top of that, my friends have all turned on me – you probably saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy guarding what used to be my home and Applejack running around like a crazy horse on drugs. Where Pinkie Pie and Rarity have buggered off to, I have no idea…”

Colgate flinched at that.

“…but I do know something about her operation here, and it’s something she discovered in the Everfree.”
Colgate perked at that. “Octavia discovered something there, too? So did our boss, Baggin’ Bitts. What could they want out there?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. The only thing in the Everfree of any note, besides the old Castle of the Royal Sisters, is a massive gem patch Rarity discovered. She had been braving the swamps and marshlands of the Forest for some of the rarest gems, then she up and vanished.”

“Curious… Baggin’ suspected Octavia was holding his daughter there-”

“Wait – Silver’s been kidnapped?”

“Yeah. That’s why we’re back. Octavia captured Silver Spoon and is holding her prisoner somewhere. We’re trying to find out where.”

Twilight and Colgate both shared looks of concern. With some hesitation, Colgate spoke first.

“I know Baggin wouldn’t take someone of their free will. His impeccable free trade track record with Spoon Industries can attest to this. However, since Silver Spoon is captured by Octavia, it doesn’t put kidnapping out of her range of actions. Would she have captured Rarity and then gleaned the location of this gem field from her?”

Twilight nodded. “It’s possible.”

“Then why would Baggin send Mac into the forest when he knew already what was there?”

Twilight and Colgate pondered for a second the conclusion. Both came to a realization at the same time.

Twilight spoke first. “Let me tell you a story.”

She recounted her story of how everything came down on Ponyville, how Rarity and Sweetie Belle had vanished, how Apple Bloom was taken, and finally how Rainbow Dash had betrayed them all by trying to kill them. Then, she continued, “At the time, I didn’t make the connection to the arrival of Philharmonic agents and the Everfree, or Rarity’s disappearance. Rarity and Octavia had always been such good friends that I simply thought they had gone off to Manehattan and lost track of time, like they do on occasion. When I passed them by, they always seemed so exhausted, one the head of a floundering former multimillion-dollar corporation, the other a successful single shop owner. They often related over business matters.

“While I was having lunch one day, before this mess happened, they happened to sit down at a table near me. Rarity babbled on about her latest discovery in the Everfree, a mound of gems so massive it would take her months to get through it all. I sensed a change in Octavia’s demeanour, as if she had suddenly grown very greedy in that one conversation, but Rarity didn’t pick up on it. Rarity blabbed on and on about the hoard of gems that was ‘several times larger than the average pony’ and ‘could easily supply her shop for weeks’ if she could brave the mud and muck. Octavia had zoned out by this point, and I swear I could see dollar signs floating out from her ears. In the middle of a conversation, Octavia cleared her throat, checked the time, excused herself and dashed off without any warning. Rarity called her ‘rude’ and walked off, leaving enough money to pay the bill three times over.

“That was the last time I saw Rarity before the day everything fell to pieces. I had heard that there was a scuffle over at her place, but… it was in the middle of the madness and I couldn’t get a clear idea of what happened from anyone.

“Anyway, Mr. Bitts was here one week ago with a scouting party. I saw them as I was trying to walk through town undetected by Octavia’s thugs. They were harassed by Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash for a good while until Bitts and his party of about ten disappeared into the woods. A couple hours later, only Mr. Bitts and one other pony came out, galloping back to their ship. A hoard of Philharmonic employees exploded from the forest, all manner of weaponry ready for battle. A dead pony carcass flopped off the back of a Philharmonic and landed on the side of the road – a pegasus pony named Blossomforth. Mr. Bitts was able to escape when the last of his assistants dropped a smoke screen bomb to stop the pursuers.”

Colgate clicked her tongue. “So, that gem hoard is big enough that Philharmonic saw fit to kill whoever’s there. How many employees are on-site?”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. I counted at least fifteen ponies chasing Mr. Bitts, maybe more. The average Equestrian mining operation employs about forty-five ponies, though, so that would be a safe estimate.”

“Then Big Mac’s walking to his death.”

Twilight gasped. “Why?”

“If I’m right and the scale of the operation is as big as you say it is, then my estimate would peg the employee count at roughly a hundred individuals. Big Macintosh is going into the Everfree with fifteen ponies to find Silver. That’s just over a tenth of the needed armada, so unless he’s very careful, he’ll be slaughtered. On top of that, this is likely a red herring and Silver isn’t even in the forest.” Colgate frowned. “So why would Baggin send us into a forest where he likely knows his daughter isn’t there?”

Twilight closed her eyes for a split second before speaking. “Well, with ten ponies, you won’t get far into an operation like that. Baggin may suspect Octavia’s hiding his daughter in that mine, and to confirm his suspicions, he’s sending Big Macintosh in to shake up the place and see if she’s there. If not, he probably will have a few other leads for you to follow.”

Colgate was nervous now. She had to get word to Big Mac. “Thanks, Twilight. I’ll see what Mac says.” She tapped her earpiece. “Sparrow, come in, please. Sparrow, come in.”
Static.

Colgate frowned. “Sparrow! Please confirm you hear me! Over!”

“Don’t bother,” Twilight said. “At a certain point of the forest, there’s a magic and communications dead zone. The only spells that get through are those necessary for mining operations.”

“So I have to go back into the forest with a team.”

Twilight nodded. “That’s the only way to do it.”

“The Silver Spoon… this ship, not the filly… can’t be left without a captain, though. Sending another party to them is pointless because it’s the Everfree, and we don’t even know if he or she will make it…” Colgate groaned. Every solution had its drawbacks in this newly hostile Ponyville. “Dammit! I’ve got to tell Mac!”

Twilight ground her teeth in pain and lay her head down, her strength leaving her. “I guess you’ll just have to trust in Applejack’s brother.”

Colgate’s countenance faltered. She walked over to one of Twilight’s two windows and sighed.

“Mac, come home…”

Comments

[ServingSpoon]

Well I'm hooked.

I especially love the little SM thing Octavia has going with her pets.

So is Diamond Tiara at all involved, or does she even exist?

[SFaccountant]

The moon had just risen a few minutes ago, and twilight had yet to dissipate entirely from the night sky.

Oh. For a minute there I thought Twilight Sparkle had dematerialized. Damn these ponies and their silly names!

Man, all that "friendship" sure fell apart in a hurry.
"Loyalty" doesn't just mean you feel remorse for betraying your closest friends, Rainbow Dash!