The Book of Friendship

by BillyColt

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Brother White’s room was unusually crowded. Not simply because he was sharing his space with Clip, but Brother Shine was there, as well. White paced back and forth frantically, while Shine watched from the desk and Clip watched from the bed.

“He’s trying to get in your head,” said Shine.

“I know that, Shine,” said White. He stopped, for a moment to look at him. “What did he do with you when you arrived?”

“Pretty much the same stuff he’s doing to you,” said Shine. “Made me ‘work’ with the prisoners as a buffer. Acted nice to me while undercutting me. Always that… what, disarming nonchalance, whatever you call it.”

“He’s the same as General Quake in a lot of ways,” said White, returning to his pacing. “The… megalomania. The abuse of power. Except Quake was more upfront about it. He didn’t smile at you while having someone stab you in the back. No, he hated me and he made it very clear. Monarch…”

“Is purple,” said Clip.

White stopped. “Yes, he’s purple. That makes it worse… I like that color.”

“Me, too,” said Clip. He looked between the two unicorns. “What should I do if he tries to kill me again?”

The Brothers looked at Clip.

“We won’t give them a chance,” said White.

“Keep him out of sight,” said Shine. “He can hide well enough.”

Clip smiled. “Ooh, yes I can. Like, if someone comes into the room, I can hide under the bed until I know it’s you.”

“Err…” White didn’t think that as the best idea. Under the bed? That’d be the first place they’d look. “Or he could hide in your room,” he suggested, looking at Shine. “Or he could switch between the two. Could you do that?”

Shine nodded.

White looked back to Clip. “Does that sound okay to you?”

Clip nodded with great enthusiasm. “Uh-huh. Sounds like fun!”

White’s features softened in a gentle smile and he seemed to relax. “Okay… we can come up with some… other hiding places. So I think we have that taken care of. Now for the next thing.”

“The raft?” asked Shine.

Clip sat up. This was his idea, after all.

“Carpenter said that they needed help,” said White.

“Help?” asked Shine. “You mean like…”

“Well, I can imagine a lot of things,” said White, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Materials is one thing… also they need a space to build it, a way to get it out into the water…” He tapped out each of the items on the bedsheet with his hoof.

“But we can still do it, right?” asked Clip.

“We’ll try our best, Clip,” said White. “But who’s gonna help us?”

“We need to find some unicorns that are sympathetic to the earth ponies,” said Shine.

White gave him a look. “Or make some unicorns that are sympathetic to the earth ponies.”

Shine tilted his head quizzically. “Huh?”

“Ooh!” said Clip. “You can go knocking on doors!”

Shine looked at the colt. “Back to the actual mission work…”

“It’s what we got sent for,” said White. “I mean… we did make some friends on Earthquake Island eventually. Maybe the same will happen here. If we can convince someone here that what they’re doing is wrong…”

“It couldn’t hurt to try,” said Shine. “But the general will likely try to keep us from doing it.”

“The general is taking me out to dinner tonight,” said White, smiling. “You, on the other hoof…”

Shine chuckled. “I don’t have books to give away. Guess I’ll have to think of something more original.”

“Monarch wants to use this as a chance to mess with me,” said White. “But we can use that window ourselves. Think you can do it?”

Shine nodded. “Just be careful. Monarch is…”

White looked at him.

“I’m not worried that he’ll convince you of anything,” said Shine. “But he’s very good at breaking your will down. Sometimes… it felt like he was trying to seduce me.”

“...Seduce?” asked White.

“What’s that mean?” asked Clip.

The other two paused.

“It means he wants to…” Shine tried to think of a way to explain. “Pretend to be White’s ‘friend.’”

“Oh,” said Clip.

White tapped his forehead. “But if I know what he’s doing, I can protect myself.”

“If you know what he’s doing,” said Shine. “Be careful.”

White nodded. “I will. Thanks for helping.”

Shine passed the bed. “C’mon, little guy,” he said.

Clip got to his hooves and hopped up onto Shine’s back. “See ya!” he said, waving as Shine and he exited the room.

White was left alone. He stood there for a while, staring at himself in the mirror. Then, minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

“I hope you don’t plan to keep me waiting,” said the voice of General Monarch.

___________

Never before did Brother White think that he would hate a string quartet. But then, before this mission he never thought he’d have to contend with a crazed warlord shoving a book up his ass or another crazed warlord having him work meaningless desk work to handle slave labor.

The difference with this crazed warlord, however, was that he seemed very intent on not looking like a crazed warlord. He looked across the table at the smiling figure before him.

“Try the wine,” asked Monarch.

White took a sip. For something made from grape juice, it sure tasted bitter.

“Not your cup of tea?” asked Monarch. “A shame. I suppose wine is an acquired taste.” He chuckled a little. “Hard to please, are you?”

“Not really,” said White, his voice so low he was practically muttering.

“Now, Brother White, what ever have I done to upset you?”

“What ever have I done to upset you, perhaps it is the way that you speak,” said Brother White, making exaggerated hoof motions.

“I have been nothing but polite, Brother White. Recall that were it not for my intervention, you’d be dead… Twice, perhaps?” asked General Monarch.

“Both of those times were exactly because of your attacks,” said White. “You only ‘saved’ me from your own… actions.”

“That really was the best word you could think of?” asked Monarch, smirking.

“None of this would happen if you would just stop,” said White.

“But why should I stop?” asked Monarch. “It’s a useful exercise.”

“It… what?” White sputtered. “Useful for what? Your slave labor?”

“Oh, that’s a decent perk, but it’s secondary,” said Monarch.

“What possible reason could you have for trying to drown the entire island?” asked White.

“You’re still upset about that?” asked Monarch. “If it makes you feel better, I won’t do that again.”

White laughed. “I have literally no reason to believe that.”

General Monarch smiled silently at him for a moment. “Well, how about a visual aid?”

___________

Normally, White might have been annoyed that they hadn’t actually had dinner. However, the evening was unpleasant enough that not having the unicorns’ awful food was a minor sticking point in the grand scheme of things.

Monarch led White down the hall, down a flight of stairs, to a large doorway. “I believe you may have seen a few things of ours already,” he said, opening the door. “The machine that powers the fortress’s flight, for example.”

“Yeeessss…” said White, looking at him suspiciously. “But I don’t see what this has to do with-”

“Pearly!”

Oh please Celestia no, thought White. Unfortunately, the grinning face of Bright Idea before him was sending a loud and clear ‘yes.’

“Ah, Bright idea,” said General Monarch. “I was hoping you could show White some of the things we’ve been working on.”

“I’d love to!” said Bright Idea.

“I wouldn’t,” said White. But like so many things on the Fortress, what he would have liked didn’t really matter.

He found himself shuffled through a wide hallway of things that he couldn’t recognize, and in many cases couldn’t even describe. All manner of bizarre contraptions, profane mixtures of metal and crystal that ran off of Celestia-knows what. One seemed like a metal cube with crystal tubes sticking out of it, pulsing with liquids in different colors like some disgusting rainbow-maker. Another looked like a pot with sickly green spirals whisping out of it. Yet another looked like a cannon stuck to a dish on the back.

All the while, Bright Idea was talking. There were a lot of words, but the only things that registered to Brother White were the names.

“The Plague of Nightmares… The Unquenching Fire… The Sea’s Rage…”

“I believe White is personally familiar with that one,” General Monarch noted.

“Shame we never got a chance to test the Cannon Engine,” said Bright Idea, “the Dirts stole it before we got a chance to use it. Luckily, they’re too stupid to get it to work! Otherwise we’d be royally screwed!”

“A pun?” asked General Monarch.

“I’m sorry?” asked Bright Idea.

White walked forward, his eyes rolling as he glanced from one machine to the next. If he had found Bright Idea off-putting earlier, now he was starting to veer on the edge of outright dislike. His eyes fell upon a large cylinder of swirling white fog. Dull curiosity drove him to peer at it.

“Ah, the Endless Winter,” said Bright Idea. “That was a good one.”

White did his best to dull her voice in his mind. Then he saw it. A pale, snarling face pressing against the glass out of the fog. Then another appeared. The twisted forms of white ponies. No. Not ponies.

“It… it’s impossible…” he whispered, drawing back in horror. “It can’t be…” Windigoes.

“Oh! Impressed?” asked General Monarch, as White found himself bumping right into the larger unicorn.

“We found the things just floating around,” said Bright Idea, her voice not changing a bit as she looked forward, watching it almost admiringly. “Managed to lure them into a containment field with some simple live bait, and managed to stick the glass around them. Remarkably easy to keep them in with a simple magic lock. I mean, given that they carry their curious weather patterns with them… well, it seemed only natural to weaponize it.”

“You’re deranged…” said White. “You’re worse than the earth ponies.”

“What?” asked Bright Idea, shocked. “Could they have come up with this?”

“Now, now, Bright Idea, we’re getting away from the point,” said Monarch. He circled around to the tank. “Yes, we did find these creatures. And we used them as weapons. Once.”

White looked at him, unsure. He watched as Monarch went from device to device.

“The Sea’s Rage. Once. The Plague of Nightmares. Once. You see, wiping out earth ponies isn’t the main goal. I see the island more or less as a convenient testing ground for our weapons. We make one. We use one. Sometimes we throw in a ground-based attack to keep the soldiers sharp for good measure.” Monarch turned to White. “You asked how you knew I wouldn’t use the weapon again? It’s simple.” He took a few steps towards White, a devious smirk on his face. “I never do anything twice.”

___________

If one of the unicorns saw what Scroll had done, they’d have a fit. It was a mess of wires, coins, paper, and a spare potato, all strapped to the little cloud-making device. He flipped a switch, and the thing gave a dull whirr to life.

“And the last test…” He took a glass of water and slowly poured it into a funnel in the top. A few seconds later, a small length of fluffy mist emerged from a spout. “Success!” Announced Scroll, lifting his hooves in triumph.

Eagle skeptically took the tiny bit of cloud, molding it a little in his hooves. “Well, it works. But, uh…” He held up the paltry mass of vapor. “It’s a little… small.”

“Well, then we just gotta make it bigger,” explained Scroll. “We’ll get more water, and make the cloud bigger, and voila!”

“‘Voila?’” asked Eagle.

“It means, like…” Scroll tried to explain. “‘There you have it’ or ‘we got this.’ Because we’ve totally got this.”

“Well, if you say so…” Eagle looked down at the cloud contemplatively.

“And best of all, that means the battery’s working,” said Scroll. “Which means I might be able to use it for other things.”

“Huh?” asked Eagle, looking up. “Oh, right, your boyfriend. Good luck with that.” He paused. “I mean it.”

“Huh?” asked Scroll.

“You’re a good pony,” said Eagle. “I… didn’t think that was something a pony could be.”

“You know, I still don’t know what to say to that,” said Scroll, shrugging. “But… you’re welcome. I’m glad this happened.”

“Me too,” said Eagle. “Obviously…”

“Well, you’re gonna get gladder,” said Scroll, kicking himself away from the desk. “Because now that this is working, we’re making clouds. Then you, my friend, are getting off of this terrible island, and then you get to go to Equestria…”

Eagle nodded. “If… Equestria is so great, why’d you come here?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Did you know that this island was going to be this bad?”

“Well… sort of.” He shrugged. “Not really, actually. I knew it’d changed its name like five times since I was in the fourth grade, and I knew there were ‘racial tensions,’ but that was all I knew.”

“But you knew all that,” said Eagle. “Then why’d you come?”

Scroll thought about it and shrugged. “I joined the Fraternity,” he said. “And they assigned me here. There isn’t… that’s kind of all there is to it.”

“But couldn’t you have… not come? I mean, they didn’t force you…”

“Well, no, but…” He paused. “I met someone and… he was just the most incredible pony I’d ever met. And I wanted to live up to that. I kinda had low self-esteem before all this, y’know? Like if-”

“You’d feel better about yourself if you did what you were told and did well at it?” asked Eagle.

“...kinda.”

Eagle nodded. “I was like that, too, I guess.”

“I also wanted to help ponies.”

“I wanted to hurt them.”

They were silent for a bit.

“There was someone I looked up to,” said Eagle. “He’s dead now, though.” He was quiet for a moment. “I’d like to meet your friend.”

“Well, maybe when we’re all back in Equestria, you can,” he said, trying to give a hopeful little smile. “We’ll need to get a lot more water. Then once we have enough cloud material to work with, it’s all on you.”

“Me?” asked Eagle. “What do I do?”

“You know.” Scroll held his hooves apart, bringing them together in an accordion-like motion. “Like… you put the clouds together. I don’t know, I’m not a pegasus.” He gave a nervous chuckle.

Eagle nodded, seemingly skeptical. “Well, I guess we’ll find out.”

___________

Scroll poured another glass of water into the machine, and then another, and another. Eagle sat in front of it, catching the fluffy wisps and molding them into an ever-larger mass.

Over next to them, Gunner was doing a little happy-dance. “It’s working!”

“Don’t get too excited, don’t get too excited,” said Scroll, unable to conceal an eager grin on his face. “Gotta keep focused, don’t jinx it…”

He reached his glass into the barrel one more time, and poured it carefully into the little device.

“So, once we got the whole thing, what, do we just… keep it in here until tonight?” asked Eagle.

Scroll nodded. “Yeah. Don’t want it to get spotted or else someone will think I’m being more suspicious than usual.” He paused. “You know, it’s funny, since White left, Quake hasn’t shown up here.”

“Well, it isn’t hard to see why,” said Gunner. “I mean, you’re, well, just an earth pony he finds kind of annoying. White was a unicorn who really pissed off the general. Especially when he started spreading rumors that they were an item.”

“Wait, what?” asked Scroll. “White wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, there was a whole scene at the bar,” said Gunner. “Wild passions, from what I heard…”

Scroll stared at him. “You know, I think I’m just going to… assume that you heard wrong, and continue with what I was doing.” He mumbled, pouring water into the machine.

“So you think that’ll be ready for tonight?”

“Uh-huh,” said Scroll.

“I just need to…” Eagle screwed his face, trying to keep the mass of vapor in his hooves. “Keep it together.”

“And tonight you’ll be on your way to Equestria!” said Scroll triumphantly. “And then. Heh. Ha. Hahahahahahaha!” He laughed. He kept laughing, uncontrollably, like a mad scientist from one of his comic books.

“Should I be scared now?” asked Eagle.

“I’m not sure…” said Gunner. “Scroll?”

“Things are going my way!” said Scroll, his eyes gleaming. “For once, nothing is going wrong!” He took a deep breath and calmed down. “Okay. Hold on. Calm down.”

“I’m trying,” said Eagle.

Scroll got up from his desk and paced around the room a bit. “I’m sorry. I’m just, like, really getting stoked about this. We get the cloud ready, Eagle heads for Equestria, he gets help, I get the teleporter thing going and get to White…”

“How are we going to explain you disappearing?” asked Gunner.

Scroll stopped and paused. “Oh. Um… Hm.” He thought about it for a minute.

“Are you going to have to?” asked Eagle with a shrug. “I mean, Scroll was just talking about how the general doesn’t seem to pay attention to him right now.”

Scroll paused to consider this. “You… might have a point,” he said. “Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, it’s not like I’ve ever cared exactly what General Asshole thinks. But anyway!” He clapped his hooves together. “Now, we’re well on our way to getting the cloud ready to go… we just need to make sure that we won’t have any surprises when we set out. I’ll scout out somewhere on the beach that might make a good spot.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Eagle, moving to his cot. “I’ll grab my coat.”

“And I can go talk with Trigger Mark about patrols or whatever,” said Gunner. “Make sure nopony walks in on us and leaves us with something awkward to explain.”

“Alright,” said Scroll, looking between the three of them. “Tonight’s the night, everypony.”

And with that, the three of them set out. The library was silent, not so much as a creak from the broken door. If anypony had been present, however, eventually they would have heard a sing-songy voice coming in through the window.

“Hello, boys!” called Tap’s voice. “Coming in with a check-up… Boys?” She stepped in, looking around. She saw nopony there, merely the incomprehensible claptrap of Scroll’s desk. “So that’s that…” She looked over at the cloud. “And that’s… that.”

She walked over to it, scrutinizing it. “Every time I see one of these things in the sky I get freaked out,” she mused, putting her hoof to it, and finding it went right through. “It’s air,” she said. “It’s nothing but damp air.” She laughed to herself as she looked back at his workstation.

“And you’re what the unicorns use, huh?” she asked, putting her hoof to the crystal, running a hoof along a coil of wires, coming across to what looked like an improvised switch. She had no idea what Scroll had done. She suspected that Scroll himself didn’t know, either, and had just thrown together a bunch of copper wires, hoping for the best. Lazily, she tapped the switch. She noticed the crystal glow for a moment, and then there was a flash of light. And then she had no idea where she was.

___________

There were things that took Scroll some time to get used to. They were changes in his lifestyle, but they were manageable. A lack of video games was one of them. The violence. The absence of his mother’s cooking. The comforting routine of school deadlines and exam dates. Some of the things that took getting used to were even good things, like the responsibility of caring for someone, or having someone who cared about him and had his back.

One thing he never got used to, however, was the still night air of the island. With no pegasi for the wind, the air at the beach felt dead. A full moon above them in a cloudless sky lit the expanse, making it feel oddly eerie.

Scroll suppressed these feelings as best as he could. He, Gunner, and Eagle stood on the beach, a makeshift raft made of clouds between them.

“So you know what to do?” asked Scroll.

“I head off there,” said Eagle, pointing off to a constellation on the dark horizon. “I go until I get to Equestria. I find the nearest office of the Fraternity, and deliver this letter.” He tapped a pocket in the coat he was wearing. “And then… I try to start a new life.”

“The Fraternity can help with that,” said Scroll hopefully. “Maybe you could become an author or an activist or something. There’s a place in Equestria for everyone.”

Eagle nodded.

“Good luck, kid,” said Gunner. “We’re counting on you.”

“Thanks. I…” Eagle looked between the two of them. “I’m glad I met you. Not just because I didn’t end up dying like I thought I would. Just… you made me look at things differently. I…” He went silent.

“Eagle?” asked Scroll.

“Sometimes I think to myself that… I worry if I really can change,” said Eagle. “I did horrible things, and… fuck, I liked doing them. And I wonder if that will always be a part of me.”

Scroll thought on this for a moment. “I think you’ve shown us that you can change,” he said. “I mean… I can’t read your mind. I can’t say I know everything that goes through your head. Or your heart. But I do know one thing.” He put a hoof on his shoulder. “I gave you a lot of trust. And you could have done so much to hurt me, but you didn’t.”

“Well, some of that’s self-preservation,” Eagle mumbled sheepishly.

“Maybe,” said Scroll. “But friends help each other, don’t they?”

“He’s got a point,” said Gunner.

“I’ll think about that,” said Eagle. He grabbed the cloud and pushed it toward the edge of the water. It wasn’t a very big cloud. Not even as big as a raft. But it would do for this. He pulled back his coat and spread his wings. They were still sore, but the cool air was oddly comforting. And for the first time since being bedridden, he felt he had some measure of control, of power, of freedom. He got on the cloud, and softly beat his wings, taking him out over the water.

With one more look back, he smiled, waved and went on his way. Scroll and Gunner waved back and watched as he went further across the water.

“We did it,” said Gunner, beaming. “We did a good deed and now we don’t have to worry about getting shot for ‘harboring the enemy.’ I’d call that a win-win.”

Scroll sighed happily. “Well, technically that’s not a win-win, a win-win is - wait.” He stopped, seeming to count things out in his head. “Well, a win-win for us and him.” He pointed at the shrinking form of Eagle. “Not so much a win-win for us and, well, Quake.”

“Two ponies won,” said Gunner. “Wait. Do I count me?”

“Sure.”

“So three ponies won,” said Gunner. “That makes it a win-win-win.”

"But for it to be a win-win there has to be a conflict between the two. Or three, in our case. We didn't really have a conflict between the three of us."

"Sure we did. He wanted to murder you at first and then Trigger Mark and I came to shoot him. And you didn't want us to shoot him," said Gunner. "Wait... if we're adding Trigger Mark, would that make a win-win-win-win? Or did he not get anything?"

"That's actually a really good point…" said Scroll, before the idea of making a ‘scatter to the four wins’ joke occurred to him.

“Well, let’s celebrate. Tavern. On me!” said Gunner. He slapped Scroll on the shoulder. “We need a break.”

“Well, we did just have baked potatoes last night, but…” Scroll chuckled. “Aw, heck, why not?”

“All right! Let’s get drunk!”

“Pushing it just a little.”

Gunner laughed as the two of them headed back to town, making their way to the tavern. Scroll wasn’t sure what he’d drink. Come to think of it, he wasn’t sure if they had anything that wasn’t alcohol, except maybe for water. Maybe he’d just get a salt block.

Upon entering the tavern, they saw a bemused-looking Barrel trying to calm down two cranky customers.

“Just, just calm down, guys, she’ll be back soon…” said Barrel.

“How soon?” asked one of ponies, leaning into the counter.

“I, uh…” Barrel blinked, before spotting the others as they entered. “Oh! Scroll!”

“What’s going on?” asked Scroll.

“Oh, nothing… is Tap with you?”

Scroll and Gunner exchanged glances. Barrel’s eye twitched as he realized that they were as in the dark as he was.

“Well, uh,” Barrel continued, “she left a few hours ago. Said she was gonna see you and, well, uh, she hasn’t gotten back yet…”

Scroll stopped. “Oh no…” He said. He should’ve known that the day was looking a little too good.

___________

Tap had no idea where she was. It was cold, hard, dimly-lit, and it smelled like mildew. She took a step forward, out of what looked like it was one of dozens of stalls lining the walls. Like a bathroom, except with nowhere to shit. She opened her mouth, about to call ‘Hello? Is anyone there?’ But she stopped.

Oh, fuck. This is the unicorns.

She darted forward, down the hall. She had to get out of this room. Find someplace to hide. She didn’t know what would happen if she got caught, but she knew it wouldn’t be pretty. Earth pony in horner territory. If General Monarch was anything like General Quake, well… she would rather not think about that.

She rounded a corner. One was much like any other. She turned to head up one flight of stairs, but at the sound of hoofsteps from above, turned around and went down another path. She needed to find something that looked like a room. Somewhere that could give her a frame of reference. As it was, it felt like she was walking in some sort of alien maze.

Is this how the unicorns live? she wondered. Once she found safety, she’d have to think of which negative adjective the environment explained.

However, as she skulked down the curiously empty halls, different goals started to form in her head. She needed to find Brother White. She could reasonably assume that he wasn’t dead (after all, General Monarch was probably fruity enough to like the guy).

As she descended, more paths branched out. More doors. And then more sounds. She could hear voices.

“I’d kill to get a job on one of the upper levels,” said a voice.

“Killing isn’t going to get you that,” said another. “You need to make sure the right pony likes you.”

“Well, I don’t have many options,” said the first. “I’m kind of unlikable.”

And before Tap could think to do anything else, she was face-to-face with two unicorn guards.

“Um…” said the first.

“Hey, what are you doing here!” said the second, clearly a little more alert.

“I, I…” Tap stammered. Oh, shit, think of something. “I got lost!” She glanced between the two of them. The second one was eyeing her with clear suspicion, but the first one seemed to be a little more confused… and a bit curious. “I’m looking for a friend of mine.”

“Well, uh, we’ll take you back to the other earth ponies,” said the first one, puffing himself out a bit more.

“What if I’m not looking for an earth pony?” she said. She examined each of them carefully, batting her eyelashes. “I might be looking for a unicorn…”

The two looked at each other. “What… kind of unicorn?” asked the second one, his word coming out slow as though he were cautiously choosing them.

“A handsome kind… charming smile…” She cosied up to the first one, batting her eyelashes. “You think nopony likes you?”

“W-well, uh…” said the first one.

“Uh, shouldn’t we be, like…”

“Sh!” the first one said quietly. “I’m not blowing this!”

“Well, that’s great for you, but-” the second one started.

“Hey, you want in?” Tap asked. The second one seemed to shut up at that. She put her forelegs around their necks. “Look, I think we can get along here. You help me… and I’ll help you…”

The two unicorns exchanged glances. Then they exchanged grins.

___________

“Tap?” called Scroll, walking across the beach. “Taaaap?”

“Tap?” asked Barrel, looking under a rock.

“So, you said she went to see Scroll?” asked Gunner. “Like, at the library?”

“Yeah, I think so,” said Barrel, pacing a little as a seagull landed in front of him. “Oh, hey, Gwynna. You wouldn’t happen to see my sister, would you?”

“Craw!” The gull replied.

“Well, I’m clueless,” muttered Gunner, walking up to Scroll. “Maybe we should check in with the general.”

“Wait,” said Scroll, holding up a hoof and looking at Barrel.

“I know he’s an asshole, but y’know, Tap and him-”

“I don’t mean that,” said Scroll. He pointed at Barrel, who seemed to be smiling.

“Really?” asked Barrel. “You have?” The gull made a small barking sound. “The library?” he asked. “Okay, I figured. But where’d she go after?” The gull made a screech.

“What’s she saying?” asked Scroll.

“She… didn’t come out,” said Barrel. “Are you sure?”

“Kwa-kwa,” said the seagull.

“Well, that settles it,” said Barrel. He happily turned to the other two. “Gwynna says she walked into the library and didn’t come out.”

“But we’ve been in the library,” said Scroll. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, Gwynna said she didn’t leave after… I dunno. Twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? And hour? Maybe after she stopped watching. That could have happened.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Scroll.

“Well, let’s check for clues,” said Gunner.

They made their way back to the library, muttering amongst themselves that this didn’t make sense. They’d been in the library since when Tap was said to have been there, and they’d seen no sign of her.

“This doesn’t make sense,” said Scroll, pushing the door open. He looked around. “See if maybe she left something, or if something was moved, or-”

“I dunno,” said Gunner, looking around. “I don’t see anything… distinctive. Just the mess you’ve got here…” he said, poking at a dusty pile of books.

“Gwynna,” said Barrel, turning to the yawning seagull. “Do you remember anything?”

The seagull made some squawking sounds. “A flash of light and then nothing?” asked Barrel. Gwynna responded with a sound that even Scroll recognized as an ‘uh-huh.’

“Flash of light?” asked Scroll. “But I don’t…” His eyes fell on the mess on his desk. “Oh. Oh shit.”

“What?” asked Gunner.

“It worked…” Scroll sat down at the desk, staring at the device. “It actually worked.” A grin crawled across his face. “I… I did it!”

The device worked. Tap must’ve turned it on, and it took her to the unicorn fortress, which meant that

“Oh shit,” he said, his expression suddenly turning to one of grave concern, his smile sinking like a rock.

“Scroll?” asked Gunner, nudging his shoulder. “Could you, uh, explain?”

“She’s on the fortress,” said Scroll, adjusting his glasses and starting to frantically look through his desk for nothing in particular.

“The what?” asked Gunner. “Wait, the unicorn place? How do you-”

“This thing!” Scroll said, gesturing. “I, I, I think it works, and she must have gotten it to work…”

Barrel had fallen silent and was staring at the two of them, his face blank and numb. Gwynna prodded him, trying to get a reaction, but he just stood there. Tap was gone. And she was probably in danger.

Scroll was blindsided as Barrel barrelled towards him, trying to grab at the mess of wires. He let out a yelp as he fell to the floor on his rump, only able to watch as Gunner grab him.

“Calm down!” shouted Gunner.

“I have to save her!” said Barrel, his voice uncharacteristically high and frantic. “She she she could die if I don’t!”

“Barrel, stop and think!” said Gunner.

Gwynna squawked.

“If, if we just, just run in we’ll be in bad,” stammered Scroll, moving his shaky legs to stand as best as he good. “We have to think about this.”

“What happened?” asked Gunner.

“I don’t know!” said Scroll. “I mean, I guess she must’ve come in when we went out and turned on the thing, and now…”

“It’s your fault!” said Barrel, wild-eyed and waving a hoof at him. “If if you hadn’t been trying to do this it wouldn’t have happened!”

“Barrel, calm down,” said Gunner.

“No, he’s right,” said Scroll. The two looked at him, Barrel seeming to calm down, though he was still breathing heavily. This may have been the most that Barrel had exerted himself in a while. “I’m the one who caused this. I’m responsible.”

“Okay…” said Gunner. “So what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to follow her.”

“What?” asked the other two. Gwynna squawked something that probably meant the same thing.

“Scroll, that’s a suicide mission,” said Gunner. “You’re going to walk into a place you don’t know full of… ponies who are going to hurt you.”

“Well maybe he could sneak?” suggested Barrel.

“I suppose…” said Gunner. “But how are you-”

Scroll was already making his way to a chest in the corner of the room, flipping it open. “Okay, let’s see, we should still have some of these…” He started shuffling through assortments of gaudy clothing and costumes that had been used for one or two ill-advised pageants, scattering brightly-colored clothes into the air behind him.

“Uhh, Scroll?” asked Gunner. “What are you…”

“TA-DAAAA!” Announced Scroll, striking a pose. He now wore a gaudy costume with a fake plastic horn, a top hat, monocle, fake moustache, and cape, with a cane twirling around his hoof before lightly tapping himself in the head. “Oof…”

“What is…” said Barrel, as Gwynna made an unsure squawk.

“Meet Toppington von Monowinkle,” said Scroll. “Genteel unicorn at your service.”

“This seems uncharacteristically racist of you,” said Gunner.

“It’s the best disguise I have,” said Scroll, deflating a little.

Gwynna made several loud squawks, first at Scroll, then at Gunner and Barrel.

“Uhh…” said Scroll.

“She says we need to slow down and think about this,” says Barrel.

Gwynna made a grunting noise and nodded her head.

The three of them pulled up some chairs, sitting around the table.

“Okay,” said Scroll, putting his hooves up. “I’ve been meaning to get this working so I can find White. With luck, we could find out about the other earth ponies, if they’re safe, or if there’s anything we can do to rescue them.”

“Like Buzz’s dad?” asked Barrel.

Scroll nodded.

“And now Tap’s apparently turned it on,” said Gunner. “And if Tap’s gone, ponies are going to notice. I mean, she’s a pretty popular pony.”

The three of them nodded.

“And if Quake notices…” said Barrel, slowly piecing it together. “Oh. Ohhhh…”

“Fuck,” said Gunner. “He’s gonna be pissed.”

“And if he thinks I had something to do with it,” said Scroll. “Well… rather take my chances elsewhere?”

“What are we gonna do if he asks where you are, though?” asked Barrel. “If he thinks about you he’s going to come looking.”

“And then he’s probably not going to care,” said Gunner with a shrug. “I mean, like we said, he doesn’t really care about Scroll.”

“But if he does come looking and I’m not there, it might make things worse…” said Scroll, rubbing his chin.

Slowly, a grin came across Gunner’s face. “Wait,” he said, putting a hoof on the table. “I think I have an idea.” He got up and went to the bookshelf. “Ah, here we are,” he said grabbing one of the Fraternity’s books and starting to flip through it. The other three looked at him curiously. “Scroll, don’t worry about us. I think Barrel and I have it figured out.”

“We do?” asked Barrel. Gunner walked over and put an arm around him, showing the open page in the book. Barrel looked at it, saying, “ohhhh. I think I got it.”

“Going to apply a lesson?” asked Scroll.

“Soooomething like that,” said Gunner. “Been wanting to try one of these anyhow.”

Gunner and Barrel exchanged looks, slowly grinning. Barrel nodded. “Yeah, okay. I can get working on it tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll need your glasses, though,” said Gunner.

“It’s my last pair, though,” said Scroll. “But I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures…” He walked over to the desk, setting down the glasses. “Good thing I still have a monocle. Make sure you hide this thing before somepony else comes looking or accidentally uses it.” He smiled at them, a small twinge of the sadness that comes with saying goodbye. “And… if you have a chance, try to continue my work.”

“Heh… yeah,” said Gunner.

“See you soon,” said Barrel.

“Squawk,” said Gwynna.

Scroll smiled, nodded, and hit the switch. There was a flash of light, and he was gone.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

If the main characters of this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[terrycloth]

So... just how many ponies could the teleporter carry?

[BillyColt]

7833681 One at a time, basically. Meant to be a thing that a pony would press and then... Oh. Oh dear. I think I might've done a plot hole. Initially in the plotting process I guess it was just supposed to be Scroll who went by himself, and then later I thought "y'know, it'd be funny if Tap went as well." Oops. Maybe I can say something like "Scroll altering the power content prevents it from teleporting itself" or something like that. If someone can think of a better thing, I'm all ears.

7833648 Heh. It's funny you ask that. As a vocalist, I often think about voices, and so that is something I think about with the characters I write. I have sorted some of the major characters by voice type. Brother White is a tenor, in the vein of popular male Broadway performers like Jeremy Jordan (who's probably better known to non-theatre people by his role in show Supergirl). Scroll's more of a light baritone, a little on the high side, and sounding a tad whiny. I'd suggest looking up Brett Carver's portrayal of Leo Frank in the original Broadway production of "Parade." The others a bit less specific. Tap's a mezzo-soprano, sort of your Aldonza from Man of La Mancha type, deep enough to have a real edge to her tone, while Barrel's something of a simpleton bass voice. Quake's also a bass, though more of a raspy Lee Marvin type than Barrel's cleaner sound. General Monarch is also, well... I kinda just imagined "Christopher Lee," so that's obvious. And Clip is a squeaky-clean boy soprano.

[Yami Vizzini]

As one problem is resolved, another arises. Though I can't imagine we've seen the last of Eagle....

[Mix-up]

I was great to see an other chapter of this story again after so long.

Well I wasn't expecting Scroll to be the one saving the day this time around, and I like the idea that they will try to pass themselves as unicorns to get to the other Earth Pony slave workers. I wander how the island will be able to deal with such a sudden influx of their own member that where thought to be missing for the food.

I was really hoping to see Eagle being part of the Fraternity, and see the awkward reunion with there other pegasuss counterpart , but I guess that it was already starting to get really crowded in the group so far for now.