Chapter 50: Friendly Advice
She told them everything that might be useful to stay safe in Willowbrook. That didn't mean she told them everything. She didn't mention House Vale, or the fairy glade upon the mountains. She didn't say a word about her friends, or anypony else in town for that matter.
Being arrested might be part of her cover, but there was definitely a line between helping the strangers avoid danger and actually betraying the Lightless Star. She had no intention of crossing that line, at least not while they were at the pleasure of that organization.
Equestria would kill us if they knew what we were. So she couldn't tell them anything that would lead to the cult. Sooner or later, that information would trace back to her.
She'd brought one thing she could use to fill in the gaps on their map—her journal. She flipped through its pages, scribbling additions to their working map. Twilight watched from the side, squinting down.
"What script are you using, Firefly? That language looks... difficult."
She looked down, then flushed, ears flattening. Her journal included all kinds of things—musings about her time on Earth, adventures she'd been on with Lilac. But she hadn't even considered if there was danger to bringing it out in front of these ponies—they couldn't read English.
"It's, uh... a pretend one I made up with my friends," she lied. "I used to catch my dad reading my diary sometimes, so I started writing it like this." She flipped forward a few pages, until she found something more innocent—a drawing she'd made of Lilac. Much better than some of the dismal attempts when she had first started.
"This place is nuts," Rainbow said, as soon as she'd finished. She looked over the modified version of the map, squinting down at it. "Carnivorous fish in the lake. Ghosts that come for you on some roads, if the weather is right. Festivals you can't disrespect, or you get sick—why would anypony live here?"
"I'm not... entirely certain how much of it is strictly true," Twilight said. "There does seem to be an element of, uh—folklore. But there's no reason we should ignore any of these customs. I believe we can complete our investigation without disrespecting any of these sites."
She pointed at the mines on the map. "You've been incredibly helpful, Firefly. In the morning, Rainbow can take you home."
"After some time in the air," she privately added. "I'd like to see how you do with a few of the Wonderbolt drills. If you're gonna aim towards the academy when you're older, I can give you some spoilers about what they expect. That way you know what to practice."
Firefly beamed. It was everything she could've hoped for. "We may have a few more questions," Rarity added. "When we've completed our investigation. In case there are loose ends that could use a—reliable local narrator."
Firefly didn't go right to bed. While Rarity and Twilight were occupied with maps of the mine and plans for the next day, Firefly listened to Rainbow's stories. Some of them were downright insane. Fighting against an evil moon-god, or a spirit of chaos. An invasion of the capital by shapeshifting monsters.
The way Rainbow told them, she was at the center of every adventure, with friends who were there to help in the areas she lacked. It sounded like she was leaving things out. But Firefly didn't care. By sheer chance, she'd attracted the attention of one of the most interesting ponies in the world.
She wasn't exactly sure when she went to sleep. She didn't do it in her room, which she saw as soon as she rose. She heard voices from nearby, speaking in hushed tones.
Her head was up against rough fabric—the couch. The investigators had covered her with a blanket, but they were still talking.
"And you're quite certain there's no magical shortcut to all this?" Rarity was saying. "There's no spell to be cast, once we reach the place the Lightless Star defiled with their evil magic?"
"Probably not. Princess Celestia is sure there was an Umbrum here. They have the power to warp magic, unraveling it. Our best hope is that some of the diagrams or raw materials were left behind."
"Sure they can't just call in the army?" Rainbow asked. "Like—if this is really that bad, maybe we should be turning over the whole town, not playing detective. I don't like that there are innocent little fillies like her growing up in this nightmare town."
"Stopping this cult is beyond what we're here to do right now," Twilight said. "I'll talk to the princess, see if there's more she could do. But right now, our job is making sure the pony who did this can't do it again."
"Assuming they're even still alive," Rarity said. "Forgive me, I don't mean to sound so morbid. But I can't be the only pony thinking it, based on the description you gave. Isn't it possible that they managed to stop this monster, without surviving the attempt? Maybe there isn't a suspect for us to find. The filly did say something about gunpowder, did she not? Maybe the detonation... well, you know."
"It's possible," Twilight admitted. "That would be a shame. Celestia was hoping we would be able to bring them back to her. It would be better to rehabilitate the pony than..."
Firefly pressed her head into the couch, holding her body as still as she could. She couldn't let them see she was awake, or they might stop with all this information they didn't want her to know.
But it was so hard to stay awake—their voices blurred into her breathing, and she was asleep again.
At least until someone nudged her gently on the shoulder. She looked up, and found Rainbow standing there. The pale glow of sunrise shone in through the window behind her. "Hey, Firefly. Wake up."
They flew that morning—and into the afternoon. Rainbow didn't take her home until the carriage rolled away from the hotel far below, setting off towards the mine.
That was for the best—this pegasus could keep going forever without showing even the slightest sign of wearing out. "There might not be anything else for you to do, kid," she said, when they landed on the balcony. "Wouldn't want to be around you too much, for ponies to see."
Firefly practically collapsed onto the balcony, her wings falling limp to either side. It hurt now, but her body still pulsed with energy. Rainbow didn't go easy on her the way her instructors at school did. Maybe if she could get River to fly with her in the mornings, she could keep up a training schedule. It would be too hard to do on her own.
"Yeah," she said. "I hope some of what I told you can help. What you're doing here sounds so... scary. Guess I'm not that sad you don't want me going underground with you."
"I think you’re brave enough," Rainbow said. "But Twilight won't have it. We can't get some local filly hurt while we're investigating. If we find anything down there—"
She shook her head. "I want you to write me before you apply to the Wonderbolts, okay? I put my address into your journal, you'll find it. I'll make sure they give your application the attention it deserves. And if you're ever in Ponyville—look me up. There are some ponies I'd like you to meet."
Rainbow had looked through her journal while she was asleep? Her ears flattened to her head as she thought about it. Hopefully the mare hadn't noticed the sketches she made of her classmates...
"You don't think we'll talk again before you leave?" she asked. She tried not to sound pathetic—but she definitely sounded pathetic.
"We might," Rainbow said. "But in the meantime, just make sure you tell anypony who asks how harsh we were. We kept you up all night asking you questions. We, uh... drew scary pictures, and made you look at them. We gave you all the worst ice cream flavors."
Firefly nodded. "Good luck finding your, uh... unicorn."
The pegasus spread her wings, preparing to take off. Then she stopped, glancing over her shoulder. "Oh, one more thing. I know there aren't a lot of little ponies who feel the same way we do. You might feel like there's nopony to talk to."
She draped one wing over Firefly's shoulder, lowering her voice. "But you should totally ask that filly out. She'd be lucky to get a special somepony as awesome as you."
She let go, leaving Firefly's face practically burning with heat. "Y-you how?"
She couldn't read all the stupid things Firefly wrote about Lilac. But there were plenty of little sketches in the margins.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Because I've been there. You just gotta ask her. And if she doesn't feel the same way—find somepony who does. You've got a lifetime. Love is one of those things that doesn't go as fast as we want it to."
She took off, scattering dust and fallen leaves off Firefly's balcony. She stared after the pegasus, watching as she cut across town and vanished from sight.
She hurried inside, depositing her satchel of possessions. She couldn't help flipping through her journal before she did anything else, searching for whatever Rainbow had left.
The pegasus hadn’t hidden it, just flipped all the way to the last page. There was her signature and address, in hoofwriting messier than Firefly's own. There was a brief note, reiterating what she had just said. Firefly should send her a letter before applying to the Wonderbolts.
But I never will. Lilac is going to get us back to Earth. I won't be staying around long enough to get accepted.
Firefly needed some time to catch her breath, so she used the next hour or so to write what she remembered of her meeting with the Canterlot investigators—in English, of course. When Lilac came back, she might be able to make sense of it. But for that to happen, she would need to record their words exactly.
Dusty would be at work right then, probably visiting with the Skywatcher Society, or maybe up in the air investigating some new ruin.
I wonder what happened to that storm-castle. She would have to visit Refuse Cenotaph when she got the chance, and see if anything had crashed into it. She doubted that whole city in the clouds could have fallen, or she would've heard something by now.
She wasn't that surprised to hear someone knocking on her balcony door, then poke their head inside.
"Firefly, you back?"
That was Velvet Moon. These days, seeing her was a reminder of the unfairness of puberty—she looked so mature for her age already, while Firefly felt like she'd never grow up. Less embarrassing, since she didn't have any of the same confusing fog in her head when River was around.
Rainbow thinks I'm gay.
How was any one pony supposed to handle so much pressure?
"Sure am." She sat up from her journal, flicking it closed. There was probably more she could write, but she had already hit the highlights. She would go crazy if she tried to sit here all afternoon. "You're up early."
Velvet nodded. "Haven't seen you in days. Is everything okay?"
Firefly nodded weakly. This was her friend, so she didn't want to lie. But if she shared the wrong things, ponies might overhear. Maybe her dad would get in trouble—or she would.
The Lightless Star think we're gods. Would they still try to punish us?
"Better now. Got arrested for the first time."
"Arrested?" she repeated. "What does that mean? You’re not in jail!"
Firefly rehearsed the story the investigators had given her. She kept from lying as much as she could. Yes, they'd taken her to their hotel, and asked her many questions. She had warned them about various dangers in the city, but never mentioned anything she shouldn't know. She hadn't told them about the cult's hideouts, or anything specific about how to find them.
"Woah," Velvet said, when she was finished. "Why do you think they're here, anyway?"
She shrugged. "Something about that explosion, I guess. They're scared of the magic that happened. Wouldn't tell me why."
That last part wasn't technically a lie. She'd overheard most of it when she slept.
"If you're free, you should come over to River’s. Everypony's getting ready for the Fetlock Fete tomorrow. Are you going?"
She glanced nervously around the room, her eyes eventually falling on the dress she had stolen from the sky. She lifted it in one hoof. "Guess I should. Let's go!"
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
607 users online
813,059 hits today, 1,960,719 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Good choice, it looks like the breezes here are either a divergent group from the normal ones we know of or the fey in this world operate on more traditional rules, as in don't mess with them if you want to live. On a different note now both of our main characters are gonna need to revaluate their lives big time if they make it back home, the feelings for the same (original) sex is probably not going away soon or at all.
Welp I guess I was wrong about the journal lol
Excited to see where this goes
11243022
Or twilight is being realistic, remember that our MCs are not normal by any stretch, magically anyway. Who knows how transitioning from a non-magical body from to one brimming with it might affect the magic they can use in the first place. Their former human status might break the species factor of how magic is used (Pegasi need it to fly potentially, and earth ponies need it for their connection to the earth, unicorns can focus it outwards), so the magic of their new bodies might lead to both having some overlap with other species. Especially if the cult was trying to get alicorns, who naturally blend said magic already.
So lilac's being able to cast such outward magic would surely be an outlier. Especially since the outward magic is a unicorn thing. At least that is what I understand.
Even if the investigation doesn't find anything connected to Lilact the lives of Lilac and Firefly have been turned upside down. Firefly isn't certain she wants to go back to Earth. Of course there also a possibility that the investigation revelas Dust Storm is a changeling which would turn all of Willowbrook upside down.
Firefly's done all she could to protect and mislead the investigation. It's time to rest. Though her attention turning to Lilac probably wouldn't give her much.
You don't know if that's true. But I guess you don't know if that's false, either.
Let's just hope Twilight's satisfied at Firefly's explanation.
No reason not to keep customs. If nothing else, you'll keep the locals placated.
Hopefully a cave-in is enough to end the investigation there.
Seems like Celestia also expected that one of her ponies did something foolish. No one in the investigation has any idea of the reality of the situation. What happens when the truth gets back to her?
It'll be important to search the castle if it hasn't been destroyed. But when will Firefly have the skill to go there herself?
Nothing else to do. Time to go back to normal stuff until the next crisis.
11247791
I don't know if it's going to be a thing or not, but going back to Ch. 35:
I don't know how easily anyone could connect hair to a pony, but if that lock of hair survived the explosion...
11247857
Oh yea… plot device i guess.
11247857
If some strands of hair survived a massive explosion, I am going to call shenanigans.
[Edit] Then again, the four of them were frantically running through the tunnels for quite a ways to get to the black powder storage, there's a really good chance they left some hair or some other identifying things somewhere along the way. My money's on them finding evidence of Little Risk's or River's presence, just to throw things for a loop.
Hopefully Firefly includes the part on the investigators much preferring rehabilitation over anything harsher. Hopefully Lilac believes that and doesn't assume it's a euphemism. Suffice to say, the Bearers being themselves, especially when contrasted against the Lightless Star's more hostile behavior, may be the strongest possible argument for betraying the cult. But that's no guarantee, especially since we can't know for certain just what Celestia really thinks of two unfortunate souls torn from a place where souls shouldn't be able to exist.
No! Not the bad ice-cream flavors! 😭