2) [ACT 1 END]2,881 words

A Loving Memory

Joe’s POV
Sometime in the Past

…

For over an hour I was glued to this plush airplane seat, taking note of every word the woman across from me said.

The room itself was small with two tiny windows on either side of the room and a soundproof door sealed us off from the rest of the plane.

It was the perfect meeting room. Although, with the questions I was throwing at her, you would think it was an interrogation.

“Joe. We have an entire flight to discuss everything,” She reminded me with a calm smile.

This woman, to keep introductions short, was the Princess of Equestria, Celestia. Although, as I talked to her she was a human being.

She had blond hair that passed over her shoulder and had the height of an amazon. She wore a custom white pantsuit that would seem gaudy had one's attention not settled on the sharp white horn jutting out of her skull.

When she spoke back, I took a moment to realize how I probably looked to her. A human, in the midst of college, was grilling what some would relate to a god for their accounts.

I dismissed the thought and frowned. “Well, I have plenty of questions.”

“All of which I promise will be answered. However, we have at least 7 more hours until we land. And I am prepared to stay here with all of you until I have answered every question.”

I took a deep breath. Despite the Princess wearing that porcelain mask of an expression, I read between the lines. She was concerned. I had acted nothing but tense the moment she joined us on the plane and had started barraging her with questions in a borderline manic desire. She wanted me to calm down for both our sakes.

“What are you truly worried about?” She didn’t lean forward or raise her tone. It was simply her air of character that forced me to respond.

“That all of this is some sort of test,” I admitted. It came out more pointed than I meant for it to be.

“A test.” Her calm almost became dispirited. “How is it that everypony thinks what I ask for are tests?”

“Are you that surprised?” I set my notes aside. “You came to me and my brothers with an invitation to Equestria but said we needed to do something first. A pretty big something, I’ll point out.”

It was inaudible but I saw Celestia open her mouth in an ‘ah’ motion.

“You can rest assured that this is no test.” Her calm demeanor returned. “You have nothing more to prove.” Her tone, however, said differently.

“Nothing more to prove,” I repeated. “But that means we did prove something. What was it? Why?”

Celestia’s mask cracked in a moment of discomfort. “Do you wish me to answer that?”

I said nothing. Instead I picked up my notes yet again and waited.

“Very well,” she ceded, reclaiming her neutral expression. “There may come a time when something opposes Equestria. We would like to call on your help if that happens.”

I frowned. “But you already have the Ele—” “Beyond that,” she said gently. “I know we have our solutions but it is unwise to depend on the first plan to succeed.”

I sat back in my seat. “We’re a backup?”

She nodded. “Yes. If something were to go wrong, it’s wise to have another strategy.”

I glanced down at my notes. “And that’s why you want to bring us to Equestria. Because we have…

…

Joe’s POV
Present Time
Outside the Clubhouse

…

Whatever I was watching, the vivid scene was replaced with the same warping sensation I had last time. Even when I tried thinking back on what I just saw, I remembered everything perfectly up until that last moment.

Then nothing.

Back in the current time, I struggled to regain my footing. After those orbs popped and struck myself and Applebloom, that entire memory took only a second or two to play out. Then it was back to reality.

When I was safe from tumbling over I turned back to Applebloom. She was clutching her head, no doubt from a similar headache to mine, and blinking rapidly.

“Are you alright?” I asked her, ready to catch her if she were to fall.

“Y-Yeah...Ah think so.” When she had herself together, she and I glanced back into the room. The lights and orbs were gone without any trace. All that was left was the pile of discarded paper airplanes.

“But Ah remember now,” she told me.

“Remember what exactly?”

“Them paper planes,” she clarified. “Ah remember that Scoots an’ Ah were messin’ with ‘em before. It felt like that was. Yesterday?”

I thought about my own memory for a moment. It was entirely clear but that feeling of ‘just yesterday’ wasn’t there. In fact, it felt like it was weeks ago.

At the same time, that memory I had back at the schoolhouse, about reading a book, suddenly felt so long ago. Like years, actually.

When comparing that memory to talking to Princess Celestia, the perspective is there, I noticed. Wait a second. Celestia.

“I remember Princess Celestia,” I told her.

“Ya do?” Applebloom asked me. “But, ya said y’ain’t even from Equestria.”

“And I’m not.” I stuck to that.

Except, now that I went from ‘Princess Celestia is the dumbest thing I’ve heard’ to ‘I can now envision what a demi-god looks like’, I had no clue what to believe right now.

“I do remember something else though,” I told her. “She and. And her...” I bit the inside of my cheek. Nope. Still missing some things. “Princess Celestia is the reason that I, and probably my brothers, are in Equestria. She brought us here.”

“Why would she do that?” Applebloom was curious and thankfully not doubtful.

“Not a clue,” I lied. We were apparently a backup plan. But telling that to Applebloom and having no explanation would not help my case.

Why would she believe we are a backup plan, I asked myself. I’m not even twenty years old. My brothers are even younger than me. There’s nothing special about the three of us. If we’re a backup plan for when things go bad...

I stared up at the dome. That and all those goats apparently aren’t normal. Still, how were we supposed to help with that?

Nevermind, I told myself. All that means is that your brothers might be in danger. This girl’s family too.

“Do you have any idea what those orbs were?” I asked Applebloom.

“Aside from magic? No idea,” she admitted. “But when they hit us, that’s when we remembered stuff, yeah?”

“More than likely. Which means we might want to keep an eye out for them. Speaking of which, let’s use that spyglass.”

Suddenly, Bloom’s eyes lit up. “Oh. Oh! Ah jus’ remembered. Ah think we gotta map a’ Ponyville somewhere ‘round here too.”

“Good. You look for that, I’ll set myself up at the watchtower upstairs.”

The two of us then split up to do exactly that. I ran back down the ramp to grab my supplies off the tree stump and headed for the watchtower while Applebloom started searching the inside of the clubhouse.

When I went up a smaller ramp, shuffling through overgrown branches as I crawled, I noticed that the room was even smaller than it seemed on the outside. I had to crouch to avoid hitting my head and it only fit one person.

I sat down cross legged in the room and prepared the space. I opened the curtains from each window just enough to point the spyglass through every direction and laid out some paper and pencils next to me.

“Ah’m comin’ up,” Bloom called from the clubhouse. After a second or two, her head poked out through the branches with leaves and a twig stuck in her hair and bow.

“Ah thought it was a map but really it’s just a doodle Sweetie Belle made. It’s got all the important places on it though.”

She handed me a large piece of paper that had a kid’s crude drawing covering the entire thing. Complete with smiling sun and multi-colored flowers in random places. Several names and words were written and crossed out along the sides too.

The map had a picture of a treehouse, probably the one we were in, at the center. On one side were several houses which made up the town with what looked like a gingerbread house, a carousel, and tower-like building.

There were a few farm houses opposite of the treehouse and a large, dark green blob with ‘Everfree Forest’ written over it. That was about it.

I nodded and set it up beside me. “It’ll do.” Then I offered Bloom a pencil and paper. “Do you think you can write?”

“Uh...Yeah. Ah suppose Ah’ll give it a shot.” She took the pencil from my hand and took a second to figure out what she was supposed to do with it.

Then she stuck it into her mouth.

It took me another minute to tell her that humans do, shockingly, not eat our pencils. So after I got her to hold the pencil with her fingers she seemed ready to go.

Please at least let it be legible, I prayed. Then I looked out the window.

“Okay. To begin,” I called out. “It looks like the center of the dome is directly above your town, Ponyville. It spread in every direction in a perfect circle.”

I started tracking where the dome spread across, looking for landmarks. “Like we already figured, it emcompasses the entirety of the town and probably most if not all of the farms.”

“prob. ably...most. farms…” Applebloom nodded. “Got it.”

“I see that huge forest your friend, Ms. Belle, called Everfree. It looks like the dome cuts into it at some point. Only part of it’s sealed in with us. Miles of it though.”

“miles...of Everfree...”

“Opposite of the town,” I continued. “It looks like there’s a steep mountain. Oddly enough, the mountain’s so tall that the peak is sticking out of the dome. Possibly a way out?”

“mountain equal tall...sticks out dome...Way out, question mark,” Bloom said aloud. “Are ya talkin’ ‘bout Mt. Cragfall?”

“Cragfall?” I glanced back.

“Yep. It’s called that on account a’ how tall an’ pointy it is. Also ‘cause a’ all the avalanches.”

“Charming,” I noted. “Anything else important about it?”

“Well, since all the rocks tumble down, there’s a quarry nearby. Ah think it used ta be a mine at some point?”

“Go ahead and write that down,” I instructed. “Regardless, that looks like everything that’s inside the dome. Finish up your notes.”

“Uh. Roger.” I gave her a few more seconds to finish writing before I started scanning the town. But I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to work.

I don’t know what’s normal about her town and what isn’t. I’m no use here.

I took the spyglass off its stand and turned to her. “Ms. Bloom, go ahead and hand me the pencil. You need to look at the town.”

“Ah don’ think both of us can fit in there,” she told me with a frown.

“Don’t need to. Hold onto the door frame and stand up. You’ll get a better view from there anyways.”

It didn’t take much more convincing than that. After Bloom handed me the notes, I helped keep her from falling as she held onto the wall for support. When she figured she was safe, she stood up straight and started to look around.

“W-Woah.” She instantly began marveling at the sight of everything around her. “Ah didn’t realize the sight from up here was so great! Ah shoulda tried building the watchtower higher.”

“Focus,” I reminded her.

“Oh. Uh. hehehe...Sorry.” She took the spyglass from me with one hand and used it to peer down on Ponyville. Her wonder and smile strained right away. “That ain’t right.”

“I’m going to need more detail than that Ms. Bloom.” I took the pencil and a blank page. “Detail by detail. Start with what’s normal and work from there.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “Well. Side a’ town furthest from us looks fine. That’s where most neighborhoods are set up.”

That was the side with the houses built along the hills. Most of them had thatch rooftops and older architecture but that didn’t seem to surprise Bloom. Still, no change was still worth taking notes on.

“The side a’ town closer ta us is where it gets weird,” she went on. “It’s like there’s a line dividin’ the town. On one side everything’s normal but on the other it’s all done up like a giant party.”

So what I saw wasn’t normal, I realized. “More detail, Ms. Bloom. What exactly?”

“E-Everythin’,” she repeated. “There’s streamers an’ colors all over the place. Ah see a few small tents. Then there’s the big tent an’ the giant pink Ferris Wheel. When’d that even get there?”

I started noting everything, especially the big top and wheel. Structures as big as those are hard to miss. Not to mention, that Ferris Wheel was too large to be part of a travelling fair.

“That’s very good,” I praised. “Still, look closer. Any other details? I’d rather too many than too little.”

Applebloom started listing off everything she could see, even describing how deep into the fair it was set up. Every word of it I wrote down until I practically had a map of the carnival in essay form.

Then she paused and began leaning forwards. I took a second to correct her before she fell and she turned back to face me. ”It’s hard ta tell, but Ah think Ah see ponies movin’ down there.”

She offered the spyglass back to me which I took and looked as carefully as I could. As Applebloom said, there was certainly movement. All of them looked like a uniform color, however.

Pink.

“Why would ponies be hangin’ out at a giant party with Ponyville in a dome?” Applebloom asked herself.

“Why indeed,” I joined in. “I think that’s enough notes about your town for now. Take the notes back, I’m gonna do a sweep of the other places.”

“Right.” Bloom sat back down on the ramp and took the notes back. “Wow. Ya wrote down everything Ah said?”

I set the spyglass back on its stand and turned it towards Mt. Cragfall. “If there’s no room, just use the next page.”

I angled it up towards the top, the only part of it I could see. “Now then, the mountain. To start, it looks like some clouds managed to get stuck inside the dome but most of them are towards the top. There’s movement in the sky as well.”

Applebloom started writing again, falling into a groove. Meanwhile, I only stared at the mountain for a little longer before giving up. It was too far away to get any details and the quarry was hidden behind hills and stray trees.

“Next up, Everfree Forest,” I told her. “The forest looks pretty thick so no hope in seeing what’s below the canopy. However, I think I see some sort of structure deeper in.”

“It’s an abandoned castle,” Bloom informed me. “No pony ever goes near it since the Everfree gets more dangerous the deeper ya go. Just gettin’ ta Zecora’s hut can be a little tricky.”

“Zecora?”

“She’s a zebra that makes all kinds’a remedies an’ potions. Ah help ‘er out every now an’ then.” There was a brief pause before Applebloom spoke again. “Ah wonder if she’s a human right now too..."

I moved the spyglass towards the edge of the Everfree that faces towards us. Right away I could see there were barricades and ramshackled walls up between where the farms started and the forest ended.

“Looks like those goats put more than only one roadblock up,” I explained. “I’m seeing their work walling off the forest.”

“Wait, what?” Her voice was distressed. “Sweet Apple Acres is built near the forest. What’s it look like?”

“Patience Ms. Bloom, we’ll get—” “Just check it now.”

I sighed. Fine, I thought. Besides, it’s too far away to count the goats anyways. The barricades are all I’m going to see.

Rather than move to the next window, I just handed the spyglass back to Applebloom who was already standing back up. Within seconds, she was balanced and looking in the direction of her farm.

“Ah hope whatever them goats are doin’ they haven’t messed wit’ the—" Applebloom’s face didn’t fall exactly. It was more like all her determination got blindsided and she had no clue how to respond.

“What the hay?” She asked herself.

“Don’t leave me guessing here,” I said half-heartedly.

“The goats are there,” she began. “An’, they’re all wanderin’ around like they own the place. But that’s not all. There’s. Th-This huge, eye-sore of a statue?”

“Statue?” Now I was getting curious. “Of a goat or something abstract?”

She shook her head and handed the spyglass back to me. Though she refused to look away. “Neither. It’s somepony Ah’ve never seen before.”

I set the spyglass on its tripod and started looking around. As Bloom said, the goats were going about their day. Some of them locking horns like typical goats do, I think, while others were stripping apart carts and organizing lumber. Probably for more barricades.

In the center of it all was a large blue figure with bull horns and a black tie around his tree trunk of a neck. He was talking to about seven goats that all surrounded him.

Minotaur, I guessed. If ever something resembled a minotaur it would be that thing.

Behind him was a stone square base that had to be 20x20 or so in feet. Then, standing atop it was the stone statue of a pony that Applebloom saw.

It stood on three legs with its mane and tail tied up in equal fashion. It had its eyes closed and its head bowed down in sadness with what looked like a cowboy stetson pressed up against its chest.

Finally, chiseled along the front of the base were three words:

In Loving Memory

Author's Note:

Huh. Wonder who's statue that is...Oh well. If I forgot then they're probably not important. Still, who knew goats could make a statue of that good a quality?

QotC: So I got a bit of a loaded question here. Let's see how it pans out. Who's best pony?

I'll be trying to keep up the pace on the chapters ahead. For those of you just now seeing this story, I hope you're enjoying the story!

The story as it is, has been spread across three stories but as the story goes on that'll be less so. But until then, the groups need to explore on their own for a bit.

Until next time! Cheers,
-Zeke

352 views

Previous Chapters Next

Harmony's Thieves - 4428Gamer

Stats

FIMFiction

Follow & Support Us