• Published 12th Apr 2013
  • 2,262 Views, 151 Comments

Beneath the Mask - TheDrunkenJinjo



One man's journey towards realizing that not everything is as it seems. Not even himself.

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Chapter 9 - Braxton vs. Rainbow Dash

The five mares and Braxton turned their heads towards the sudden outburst to see Twilight Sparkle standing stock still in the middle of the room. Her back was to the group, so that they could not see her face, but it quickly became apparent what exactly had provoked her outcry.

The library was trashed. Completely and utterly devastated. Books that had once adorned neatly ordered shelves were now scattered haphazardly on the floor, and one or two of those shelves had actually been toppled over. Even worse, what shelves were still standing had books sporadically thrown on them with no regard for any type of organization or order. To sum up, it looked as though a tornado, a hurricane, and a swarm of parasprites had run through the library all at once. Little did they know that the cause of the destruction was actually the Cutie Mark Crusaders' earlier ransacking of the building.

Twilight stood in the middle of the wreckage, unmoving and seeming to stare straight ahead. It was an almost eerie sight, like she had been transformed into a statue, as the only indication of her even still being animate was the steady rise and fall of her breathing.

Applejack was the first to gather up the nerve to cautiously walk over to Twilight’s still frame and attempt to snap her back to reality. “Uh... sugarcube?” No response. “Are ya’ll alright, Twi?” Still no answer from the lavender mare. Applejack was almost able to see Twilight’s face from around her body, and had the sneaking suspicion that she would not like what she saw.

She was right. When Applejack finally rounded Twilight’s body enough to see the look on her face, she couldn’t help but backpedal a bit in shock. Not because of any emotion displayed, but because of the lack thereof. Twilight’s face was completely blank, her gaze staring unblinkingly ahead off into nothing. Her mouth was nothing but a thin line painted on her muzzle and, perhaps worst of all, her pupils had shrunken to the size of pinpricks, leaving Applejack barely able to see the violet hue that they normally took on.

Applejack walked fully around Twilight to stand directly in front of her, but the shellshocked mare didn’t even acknowledge her. Instead, she continued to look directly forwards, her gaze passing straight through the cowpony as though she were invisible.

Applejack tried once more to bring Twilight back to down to Equestria. “Twilight, yer startin’ ta freak me out a little. C’mon, snap out of it!” She said, waving an orange hoof in front of Twilight’s face. It seemed to do the trick, as Twilight blinked hard and focused her vision fully on Applejack like she was seeing her standing there for the first time.

Applejack released a sigh of relief. “Whew, thank goodness yer back, Twi. Ya’ll had me worried there fer a min--” Applejack was cut off when she felt a pair of hooves wrap around her head and pull her into the face of one very upset unicorn.

“WHO DID THIS?!?!” Twilight screamed into Applejack’s face, “I SWEAR WHEN I FIND THE PONY RESPONSIBLE, I’LL BUCK THEM IN THE FACE MYSELF!!!!” Twilight was shaking Applejack rapidly at this point, displaying an unanticipated amount of strength for such a studious mare.

“T-T-Twilight! C-Calm down!” Applejack shouted in a vain attempt to reason with her friend. Acting quickly, Rainbow Dash flew over and yanked Twilight off of Applejack, who was still reeling from the thrashing she had just received.

“Twilight, will you relax?! It’s not that bad!” Rainbow said, holding the still struggling unicorn slightly off of the ground.

Twilight glared up at Rainbow Dash. “Not that bad?! LOOK AT THIS!!!” She shouted again, jabbing a hoof at a pile of books in a corner. “How can you say it’s not that bad, huh?! HUH?!?!” Twilight was practically hysterical by now, wriggling and writhing so much in Dash’s grasp that the pegasus could no longer keep a grip and was forced to let go.

Twilight landed on the ground and immediately curled into a ball, stroking her now slightly frazzled mane and mumbling to herself. “Keep it together, Twilight. Everything’s fine...yes...everything’s just peachy! *eye twitch* It’s just a couple DOZEN hours of organizing and reorganizing down the drain because of somepony’s COMPLETE and UTTER carelessness! *insane giggle* Nothing to get all worked up over, right?!” The unhinged unicorn was steadily descending into the depths of a total breakdown, and the others in the room could do nothing but look on with worry.

Applejack, now having just recovered her wits, trotted over and tried to talk some sense into her distraught friend. “Twilight, ya need ta get a hold of yerself! Ah mean, it’s not like it’s th’ end of th’ world! We’ll all help ya put the library back together again. Whadda ya say?” Applejack asked. Twilight looked up at her friend expectantly.

“R... Really? Y-You will?” She asked, seeming to calm down a little.

“Why, of course we will, darling! What are friends for?” Rarity said, coming up next to Applejack. Twilight stood back up and looked around the room to see her friends and Braxton smiling and nodding in agreement.

Twilight smiled as well. “Thanks, everypony. I really appreciate it.” She said, the gratitude evident in her voice. Her face then took on a blush of embarrassment as she shuffled a little on her hooves. “Hehehe...” She laughed nervously, “S-Sorry about that. I may have overreacted just a teeny-weeny bit...” She said, leading the others to look at her with bemused expressions.

Applejack leaned over and gave Twilight a friendly nudge. “Who, you? Pssh, never!” She said with a sarcastic smirk. The others in the room all chuckled merrily at this, and Twilight couldn’t help but join in with them.

“Thanks again, everypony. Now let’s get to work!” Twilight announced, and the group set off to their task.

***************

“Hey, Braxton!” Applejack called over to the human, who was busy sweeping litter off of the library floor, “Can ya come over here fer a sec?” She asked.

Braxton set down the broom and dustpan and walked over to where Applejack was standing in front of a fairly large bookshelf. “What do you need, AJ?” He asked, though he already had a hunch of what she wanted from him.

His hunch was proven correct when she pointed a hoof at the downed shelf and said, “You seem like a pretty strong feller. Ya mind lendin’ me a hoof with this shelf? Twi an’ Rarity over there have got the other one.” Braxton looked across the room to see said mares standing in front of a similar downed shelf, chatting with each other.

Braxton wondered how in the world two not-very-strong looking ponies would be able to lift that large shelf, but didn’t voice his thoughts for fear of being rude. Instead, Braxton cracked his knuckles and said, “Sure, I’ll give you hand, AJ.” Applejack raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“A... hand? What in th’ Sam hill is that?” She asked.

Braxton leaned down, raised his right hand to her face and wriggled his fingers a little. “This thing.” He said with a grin. Applejack nodded in understanding and reared up on her hind legs, placing her front legs underneath the shelf and getting into a lifting position. Braxton mimicked her stance and prepared to lift.

“Alright, on th’ count a’ three. One, two, three!” Applejack declared, and the duo began to hoist the bookcase off the ground and into it’s proper position. As they were doing so, Braxton could’ve sworn that he heard a distinct ringing noise behind him, almost like a wind chime, but he wrote it off as just his ears playing tricks on him.

Finally having lifted the rather heavy shelf back into place, Applejack and Braxton stood back and admired their work. “Whew! Well, that’s done! Thanks fer th’ help, Brax.” Applejack said with a grateful smile.

Braxton nodded in return. “No problem. If you need anything else just let me know.” He offered, before walking back over to the broom and dustpan. As he bent over to pick them up, he looked over to where Twilight and Rarity were and did a double take. The previously downed bookshelf was standing right where it was supposed to be, and the two unicorns looked like they hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Highly confused, Braxton sat the cleaning utensils down and walked over to them, silently wondering how they managed to breeze through something that he and Applejack had to strain to accomplish.

“Excuse me, girls? If you don’t mind, I got a question.” He said when he was close to them. Twilight and Rarity ceased their conversation and looked up at him.

“Of course, Braxton. What is it?” Rarity asked.

Braxton thought for a moment about how to properly word his question, before saying, “Well, I was just wondering... how did you two manage to lift that shelf so easily? I mean, you look like you didn’t even lift it at all!” Twilight and Rarity looked at each other in confusion and then back to him.

“That’s because we didn’t. We’re unicorns.” Twilight said simply, as though it explained everything. It didn’t, at least not to Braxton.

“...Yeah? And?” He said, scratching his chin.

“Well, because we’re unicorns we didn’t have to lift it. We used our magic.”

Braxton looked at Twilight like she had just sprouted a fifth hoof. “...Magic? Seriously?” He asked with skepticism clearly evident in his voice.

Twilight and Rarity nodded in unison. “Why is that so hard to believe, darling? It was a simple telekinesis spell. Any unicorn can do it.” Rarity said. Now it was she who fell under Braxton’s scrutinizing stare.

After a moment of looking back and forth between them, Braxton’s willpower crumbled and he suddenly burst out laughing. “Hohohahaha! That’s a good one, girls! Magic? Telekinesis?! Hohohaha! I gotta admit you two have great poker faces! You really had me going for a second!” The mares just stood there as he laughed, their faces forming looks of annoyance.

Finally Braxton calmed down for the most part, though a chuckle still slipped out here and there. “Heehee... let’s be serious, though. How did you do it? Some kind of pulley or something?” He guessed. Neither mare said anything, but Twilight’s horn lit up with a light purple aura. There was a distinct chiming noise in the air, the same one Braxton recalled hearing moments before, and a book was lifted out of a nearby pile and levitated in front of his face. It was also covered in the same purple light as Twilight’s horn.

Braxton’s jaw almost unhinged as it fell open in utter shock at what he was seeing. His eyes followed the book’s every subtle motion as it bobbed up and down, held aloft by seemingly nothing. He raised a hand up and swiped it over the book and below it, checking for any strings or wires. Nothing. He looked around the book, making sure that it wasn’t just some trick of the light. It was most definitely real.

“So, do you believe us now?” Twilight asked with a smug grin and tone of voice to match. Braxton said nothing and continued to stare at the book.

“Oh my God,” He whispered in total awe, “...Magic. Real magic.” He finally had to admit to himself that in this new and wondrous world he found himself in, magic was real.

“This is absolutely amazing! There’s nothing even close to magic like this in my world!” He exclaimed, snatching the book from midair and inspecting it.

“You mean magic doesn’t exist in your world?” Twilight said with a gasp, in complete disbelief that a world could survive without magic.

“Well, yes and no. ‘Magic’ technically does exist, but it’s mostly for show. Smoke and mirrors, card tricks, and things like that. But magic, true magic like this, only exists in fairy tales and stories. In fact, a lot of things I’ve seen today are from fairy tales in my world. Almost as if...” Braxton trailed off suddenly, becoming lost in thought a little.

“Almost as if what, darling?” Rarity asked, snapping Braxton back to reality. The two were looking up at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish his thought.

Braxton shook his head and returned his attention to the book in his hands. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.” He said. Though that still didn’t sate the ponies curiosity, they decided to let the matter drop for now.

Braxton gave the book another once over and noticed something off about the cover. Namely that he couldn’t read it. The symbols on the book were different from anything he had seen before, and the closest thing he had to compare them to were Egyptian hieroglyphs. Braxton opened the book and flipped to page one, and more of the same symbols littered the page. He flipped to random pages throughout the book, but they all contained the same illegible symbols.

“Hey, Twilight? What’s up with this book?” He said, holding the open book in front of her face. Twilight’s eyes scanned the page for a moment and she looked up at him in confusion.

“What are you talking about, Braxton? There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s written in plain Equestrian.”

“Equestrian? What’s that, some kinda foreign language?”

Twilight looked at him like he was crazy and stammered, “Wha... No! It’s the language that everypony speaks! You’re speaking it right now!” Braxton was taken aback by her declaration.

“No, I’m not!” He insisted, “I’m speaking English! I’ve never even heard of Equestrian before!”

“Well, I’ve never heard of English before!”

“Have you been living under a rock? Half my world speaks English!”

“Have you forgotten that you’re not in your world anymore?”

“...Touché.” He conceded, “But if I’m speaking Equestrian, then how come I can’t read it, huh?” He said, pointing to the cover of the book.

Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, you tell me!” She said indignantly.

Before Braxton could reply, Rainbow Dash flew over and landed next to Twilight. “What, this thing never learned how to read? Hah! He’s an even bigger moron than I thought he was!” She said to Twilight.

That was the last straw for Braxton.

“THAT DOES IT!!” He shouted, throwing the book on the ground in a rage. He pointed a challenging finger at the pegasus. “What the hell is your problem with me, Dash?!” Rainbow backpedaled at first, startled by his outburst, but soon recovered and stood her ground.

“What do you mean ‘my problem’, freak?” She said, glaring daggers at Braxton.

“I mean that ever since I got here I’ve been trying to be a nice guy, but for whatever reason you’ve done nothing but insult and threaten me at every turn! So I ask again, what’s your problem?!” He exclaimed, returning Rainbow’s heated glare.

Rainbow flew into his face and said, “My problem is that you're some freaky weirdo who’s been following me and my friends around all day planning Celestia knows what! I don’t trust you for a second!” She poked him in the chest with a hoof as she spoke.

“Listen, you ego-boner stroking meathead! Why can’t you get it through your thick skull that I’m not some kind of villain? Not that it matters. I don’t particularly need the trust of a pony whose hair looks like it was the victim of a bad dye job!”

After that last part, Rainbow looked about ready to explode. “Don’t you make fun of my mane, you bastard!” The other ponies gasped at their friend’s shocking use of profanity.

“And what are you gonna do about it, huh?!”

“YOU WANNA GO, FREAKSHOW?!”

“ANYTIME YOU’RE READY, JOCK STRAP! BRING IT ON!!”

“THAT’S ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!!”

The pony and human were literally butting foreheads, each one ready to beat the daylights out of the other, when the command hit their ears and they turned towards it’s source.

Rarity was absolutely livid. Her face was beet red and she glared at them with ice-cold cerulean eyes. Braxton and Rainbow Dash gulped in unison, both of them knowing that this was the look of a mare on the edge.

“What is the matter with you two?!” She shouted, “We are here to help Twilight clean the library and you two are bickering like schoolfillies!”

Rarity addressed Braxton first. “First off, Braxton! You may have saved my sister, but I simply will not allow you to insult Rainbow Dash! She is our friend, we will not stand for it!” Braxton couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After all, it was Rainbow who had been insulting him all day! Braxton was about to voice his thoughts, but was cut off by an uproarious laugh from Dash herself.

“And as for you, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said, cutting the pegasus’s laugh short, “Braxton is correct. Ever since he arrived, you have done nothing but belittle him, even though he has done nothing to deserve it! He is going through a rough time right now, having been pulled from his world and all, and you antagonizing him is not helping the situation!” Braxton’s frown transformed into a cocky grin as he beheld Rainbow’s slack-jawed expression.

“Now then, I want you two to shake and make up, so that we can put this whole dreadful conversation behind us. Is that clear?” Rarity said.

“Not happening!” Braxton declared, folding his arms.

“No way am I shaking hooves with that thing!” Rainbow announced, mimicking the human’s actions.

Rarity slammed her right hoof on the wooden floor of the library, startling everyone present. “Do it! NOW!” She loudly commanded, blue sparks flying from her horn.

The human and pony backed up a bit and swallowed again, before turning to each other and glaring daggers. Reluctantly, the two raised their right hand and hoof respectively, connected them, and gave one firm shake, their eyes never disconnecting that spiteful glare.

Rarity nodded firmly. “Good. Now that that’s settled, we can--” She was cut short by the library door opening to reveal Spike, who had his eyes closed and was wearing a jolly smile.

“Twi, I’m back! I dropped off the CMC and... I...” He trailed off when he opened his eyes to see the six ponies and human standing in the center of the still fairly wrecked library. Spike blinked a few times and looked around for a minute, taking in his surroundings

“...Whoa. What’d I miss?”

***************

The remainder of the time spent cleaning up the library was done in almost total silence, with tensions still riding high from Braxton and Dash’s earlier blowout. With Spike’s help, however, coupled with his experience at restocking shelves and tidying the library, the job was finished in no time.

The library was back to it’s former glory, but to Twilight, there was still much work to be done. She still had research to conduct.

“Braxton? Are you ready to answer some questions now?” She asked the human, who was dusting off the last bookshelf. He nodded and, remembering he still had his revolver on him and not wanting to accidentally sit on it, removed his belt holster and rested it on a nearby table. He walked over to where the ponies and dragon had gathered around a couch, and plopped down on top of it, while Twilight levitated a piece of parchment and a quill over to her with magic. Braxton rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his palm as Twilight wrote a few preliminary notes on the paper. When it looked like she was done, he spoke.

“So, Twilight, what do you want to know?”

Author's Note:

Well, that escalated quickly, am I right?

There will be blood. ...Maybe.