Through a Mirror, Darkly

"LAST STOP, BALTIMARE STATION, LAST STOP BALTIMARE STATION." The conductor bellowed as he stepped down from the rear car, as the crowd of ponies dispersed along the platform he sighed happily, even as he almost tripped over an elderly mare who seemed hell bent on beating her young pegasus escort to death with her walking stick.

"Excuse me ma'am." The elderly mare merely smiled at him before continuing to beat the you colt over the head with her weapon of choice.

As he reached the locomotive itself he breathed in the salty air of the nearby city, salt air and steam, seaside and trains. His two great loves. He poked his head inside the drivers cabinet. "al' right you lot, station crew will be here in a bit so rest easy for now." the ponies within smiled in relief, a few cheers going up from the earth ponies responsible for pulling the train.

Soon enough the relief did turn up and the train was taken away and put in a siding to await the next day of use.

Fluttershy stepped down from the engine, her coal stained face smiling as she realised that they had done it. Making her way to the staff room to clean up she couldn't help but skip a little, it had been so long since she felt the cool breeze on her fur and been able to enjoy it.

Four mares stepped out of the station, Rarity took the opportunity to wish them all luck and maybe she'd see them on holiday later, advising them to stop by her shop if they could, before heading that way herself, leaving the three holiday makers to find their hotel.

The two guards headed towards the barracks, before they turned down a side street and were lost to view, moments later Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash emerged from that same side street chatting animatedly about their 'holiday' while carrying two flower patterned suitcases between them.

The conductor went into the staff room shortly after Fluttershy, a minute or two later Applejack emerged followed by Fluttershy as the pair talked about their day of 'work.'

-'Belle's Boutique' not long after that-

"I have to say Applejack that was neatly done," Rarity congratulated the farm pony as she entered the store followed shortly by Fluttershy.

"Shucks, it weren't nothing really Rares." The cowpony replied.

Fluttershy nodded as she passed Applejack, "I have to admit, this particular plan was well thought out at least, and I have to say shovelling coal all day did have a certain... charm to it." she admitted as she settled into one of the plush seats that occupied the waiting area, "not that I'd do it regularly mind."

Applejack nodded, "I hear ya, a good day of honest labour never hurt anypony."

"Although where did you learn to be a conductor?"

Applejack grimaced, "A life of roaming will teach a pony many things."

"I don't think AJ will let us keep the armour Pinkie." Rainbow called as she entered the building lugging her suitcase in and dropping it to the floor with a resounding crash as the armour within clattered noisily.

"Awww, but I could have sooo much fun in it!" Pinkie complained as she hopped in her suitcase somehow staying on her back.

"That's what I'm worried about." said Rainbow as Pinkie grabbed the suitcase handle, whipping it over her head and sending it sailing towards where Dash's suitcase had landed.

A moment before impact however it was seized in a glowing purple radiance before bursting open, revealing a very pissed Twilight Velvet, "When I get my muscles back I will be glad that stuff like this will be difficult to pull off." she glared at Applejack, "luggage? Really? I mean I agree with the concept of the plan and all but..."

A hoof on her shoulder stopped her, "It was easier this way and you know it, you are the most wanted criminal here Velvet." Rarity told her.

"Just because I know it doesn't mean I have to like it. But regardless of that, very well done Applejack. You combined your skill and knowledge to come up with a plan to get us to Baltimare undetected, B."

"What? Only a B?"

"I deducted marks because you made me luggage." She looked at Applejack, who was shooting her a look that said 'you do better' "fine, A-, and only because you're good at what you do and overall nothing was too objectionable, except the luggage part."

Rarity moved to the back of the store, opening a small wooden door and gesturing towards it, "might I suggest we continue this conversation downstairs darlings? I imagine that they have descriptions out on you three by now."

The mares filed past her and made their way downstairs into a small circular room Pinkie carrying Twilight once more, the unicorn complaining about the indignity of it all.

As the mares took their seats around a large table the room took on an expecting air.

"Are you waiting on me?"

At the sound of the voice of a stallion the room froze, when a hoof fall echoed around the room each of the mares reacted differently. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all relaxed in their chairs knowing who the owner of the voice was. They each then remembered that the other three wouldn't know, and would likely presume the worst.

Fluttershy and Pinkie each assumed the worst, and reacted accordingly. Fluttershy spreading her wings and taking to them, hovered near the ceiling scanning the room for the intruder, Pinkie followed suit, only in her case staying low to the floor and looking around in much the same fashion.

Twilight didn't move, instead her horn flashed purple and snare like tendrils of magic whipped out, racing around the room trying to find the intruder. Latching onto something she pulled, whipping the owner of the mysterious voice into the table cracking it clean in half with the force of the blow.

Seeing their target Fluttershy and Pinkie both leapt towards the prone stallion intent on restraining him and getting some answers.

"Wait! Hold on there he's friendly he's friendly!" Shouted Applejack as the murderous trio descended on the unlucky stallion, "don't go harming my brother would you?" The three mares backed off slowly, keeping a wary eye on the still body resting in the ruins of the table. "This is Macintosh Apple, we call him Big Mac." She shook the large stallion with a hoof when he didn't respond she leaned down and shouted in his ear, "Big Mac, caravan's leaving without you!"

Instantly the stallion sat bolt upright a panicked look in his eye, before remembering where he was, "Hello Applejack, anypony get the owner of that carriage?" he shook his head, grimacing in pain as he greeted the rest of the room, "hello all." he waved, "I didn't mean no harm, I shouldn't have said hello like that. Though I do suppose I deserved a good decking for running into you so heavily like that on the station at Ponyton Applejack."

Applejack smirked, "and I thought I had you that time, after all you did hoof the case over to Rarity."

"You may fool many ponies Applejack but you can't fool your own brother."

Fluttershy rolled her eyes, "Hello Macintosh, I'm Fluttershy, this is Velvet and that's Pinkemena."

Big Mac raised an eyebrow as he regarded the trio, "lovely to meet you all. I am sorry if I upset you." He moved to the far side of the room, and the mares moved back into their seats around the slightly wrecked table, which was repaired in another lavender flash by Twilight.

"Well anyway," Applejack coughed, breaking the awkward silence, "I asked Big Mac here to come down and meet y'all, he works on getting us our supplies where we need them, without him the whole movement wouldn't really be able to do anything outside Baltimare."

"So you have a supply network then? That's surprising considering the competency displayed up until now." Fluttershy muttered.

"The entire clan of Apples helps out, all the Apple nomads from here to Los Pegasus are in on our little resistance, as such we can have supplies anywhere we need them in a few days at the most, the disguises we used to get out of Ponyton? Delivered that same day by Big Mac when we arrived at the station, admittedly there were only four disguises but we were only expecting to be having to disguise four ponies, not six."

"I myself am the current head of the nomads," continued Applejack, "but Big Mac is filling in for me while I'm 'missing'." She nodded her head at the large stallion, who nodded back, "We use Rarity's business, 'Belle's Boutique' as a means of securing some funds for our operations, Rarity supplements this with her earnings from *ahem* other pursuits."

"She steals from rich ponies."

Applejack sighed, "thanks Rainbow, yes, in her spare time Rarity goes for 'walks' she's actually generated quite a reputation for herself as the cat burglar Opalescence."

This time Fluttershy looked genuinely impressed, "I see, so you're the infamous Opalescence that has been driving the law forces insane."

Rarity blushed slightly, "What can I say? I'm a naughty mare. I like relieving ponies of those heavy gems and bits they insist on hiding away."

"Now I see why you would struggle planning a breakout, your targets are usually more, well, pocket sized." Fluttershy and Rarity shared a smile.

"Finally Rainbow Dash here acts as our scout and recon pony, she gets the info we need that we can't get from the ground. She's also good in a fight

Rainbow sat up proudly, "and I'm fast too, nopony is faster than me."

Applejack nodded, "She's right, I've never seen anypony go as fast or perform manoeuvres as well as Rainbow does, personally I reckon she puts most pegasii to shame, no offence Fluttershy."

"None taken, Rainbow was always one of the best, if not the best, when she was at flight school with me."

"And that's our entire team, we're small but we can get the job done." Applejack finished with no small amount of pride in her voice.

Fluttershy applauded politely, "Well I can say that I'm impressed, and for the right reasons too." She looked at the other two ex-prisoners then rested her chin on her hooves, "but first let me give you an idea of what we can do, I am Fluttershy, I command the respect of any member of the criminal world who went to Ponyton maximum security prison. I have contacts throughout the underworld that owe me more than a few favours for, 'services rendered' while in prison. Otherwise I specialise in extracting information from ponies through more, physical means."

"She means torture." Pinkie stated nonchalantly.

Fluttershy shrugged at the assembled ponies, "Prison is hell, I was the queen of hell, I didn't do nice things every day."

Pinkie takes her cue and continues, "I'm Pinkemena Dianne Pie, call me Pinkie, I have over ten thousand convictions and I'm almost as widely respected as the Ice Queen over there. I specialise in causing distractions and extracting information in less, bloody, ways than Sadistshy."

"She means non-physical torture." Fluttershy finished, smiling sweetly at Pinkie.

The room looks expectantly at Twilight, "I'm Twilight Velvet, I was convicted of being a dangerous pony twelve years ago, and locked up in Ponyton maximum security prison, eight years ago I staged a breakout, the spells I used caused extensive damage to the prison. To contain me further I was imprisoned in the secure wing and encased in a Magical Suspension Harness. That was my state of being for the last eight years, I specialise in magic and pretty much only that."

"Wait, y'all were imprisoned since you were eight?" Applejack stuttered in disbelief. Twilight only nodded, confirming the orange mare's thoughts. "Dangerous how?"

Twilight sighed and answered, "Having too much magic potential to control safely, according to the prosecutors."

"If you were imprisoned then how were you able to learn magic like teleporting? I though you had to be at least in college to even look at the process of teleporting." Rarity asked her.

Twilight smiled a secretive smile, "I have my ways."

"Y'all keep saying that." Applejack pointed out.

"and until I'm certain I can trust all of you that's all you'll get out of me." She looked at Fluttershy and Pinkie, "Even if you use torture to try and get more."

The pink mare stalked over to the unicorn, looking her in the eye, "Is that a challenge?"

Twilight smirked, "If it was it would be one you could never win."

"Either way," Big Mac finally broke his peace from the other side of the room, "you all seem to have skills that the others could use, so I suggest you try working together." He looked at all six of the mares critically, "and try not tearing each other to pieces."

Tipping his fedora to all assembled as he quietly left the cellar, "You know how to contact me, it was nice meeting you all." he stated as the door closed behind him, leaving the six ponies to settle their differences alone.

Fluttershy looked at Applejack, "So, what's next on the agenda?"

"Now," Applejack stated, "We send a message to everypony that the sister's time has come."