Complications

Shine looked down at the ponies lying in front of him. He inspected them individually, but they each had common characteristics. The masks, the capes… it was too much of a coincidence, they were involved in something. But the problem was, he didn’t know what.

Shine heard some mumbling from the other side of the room where the other six were sprawled out. He set them away from the others because they didn’t look threatening, but he still cast a glance at them every few seconds. It’s been almost an hour since he returned with the last pony, and he was expecting something to happen soon. He got his wish.

Shine caught the twitch of one of the masked ponies. He was one of the weird ones. His mask gave room for a horn, but he was a Pegasus. The twitch happened rapidly, but then something else happened. The strands of hair around the mask moved. Shine realized that they weren’t actually moving… they were changing. Then, his head lifted from the floor. He looked directly at Shine, like he knew that he was watching.

“Who the hell are you?” Wisp asked.

“I could ask the same of you,” Shine replied.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I have questions, and I want answers,”

“If I had any for you, I’d keep them for myself. You’re not the only one who’s wondering just what is going on,” Wisp said, gesturing to the others.

“How about we wait until the others wake up before we continue this,”

“Yeah, sure,” Wisp replied, getting up and sitting in the corner of the room. Shine heard him mutter “…come back,” before he was out of hearing distance.

Shine kept a watchful eye on Wisp, who took off his mask, but he noticed somepony else was stirring. Shine watched the last male touch his head before he rose and blinked his eyes in confusion. His gaze landed on Shine and then on Wisp before he spoke.

“Who are you two?” Dust asked.

“We could ask the same as you,” Shine responded.

“Yeah, I’d like to know the same answer…” Dust asked, rubbing his head.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wisp asked, not even looking at Dust.

“I… I don’t know… well I do know but… I don’t…” Dust asked, before sitting on the side of the room opposite Wisp.

“Great, we’ve got a looney… just don’t start babbling, I get enough of that as it is,” Wisp said, getting back into a comfortable sitting position.

Shine found Dust interesting, but before anything else can be said, one of the females started to stir. The mask had bolts of lightning on it, and he hoped she’d have some information to help them. She was the one that Shine knew. Luz, if he remembered correctly. She sat up and looked around at the peering eyes. She jumped up and lowered her head, ready to fight.

“What’s going on here?” Luz asked, squinting her eyes.

“Join the club, sweetheart,” Wisp asked grinning, getting bored of this and wanting something to happen. Dust was lost in his own little world, and Shine gave her a blank stare.

“Don’t call me sweetheart, or I’ll wipe that grin off your face,”

“I’d like to see you try, sweetheart,” Wisp said, widening his grin.

“Enough, First I want to figure out what’s going on. Wait for the others first,” Shine said, seeing the way Luz was looking at Wisp. She took off her mask and set it next to her.

“You don’t control me,” Luz said, but she still sat next to the door, near Dust.

Shine would need to take control of the situation. he knew the tension was growing and there were no answers yet. Two left, he waited expectingly. One of them stirred; her mask only showed one eye. She looked around her at the watching eyes. Wisp had calmed down, but the grin still covered his face. Luz was raising her eyebrow.

“Where am I?” Sol asked.

“Library, anything else?” Shine asked.

“Why?” Sol asked.

“Radical, she’s got the same idea we do. Who would’ve guessed it?” Wisp said, to which Shine had to glance over. His hair had changed once again, and his grin was replaced by a casual smile.

“What happened to you?” Luz asked.

“Life happens, bro. Gotta go with the flow, you know?” Wisp said, playing with his cape.

“Can someone explain this to me?” Sol asked.

“We don’t know either, see if sleeping beauty knows anything,” Luz asked.

“Wait for her to wake up, don’t want to her to get hostile,” Shine said, not wanting to hurt any chances of figuring this out.

“Hey, come sit over here, don’t want to get tired, huh?” Wisp said, motioning her over. Shine had to notice that once again, Wisp had changed hair styles.

“… Alright then…” Sol said, sitting near Wisp but still leaving a foot of distance in between.

“Love the hair,” Wisp said, reaching to feel her hair. Sol reached out to stop him out of reflex, and knocked the mask off her face. She grabbed it quickly and put it back on, but not before Shine and Wisp had a look at her.

“That doesn’t look too good, you okay?” Wisp asked.

“Yeah… I’m fine. Just… give me some space,” Sol said, scooting away a little.

Shine looked down at the last pony. He was surrounded by the weirdest group he’d ever known, and he hoped -no he prayed, that she’d be normal. He got his answer, when she screamed.

Star was walking through a field of flowers. Behind her, was Steel with a big smile on his face. She laughed and ran farther ahead. When she looked to see if he followed, she saw Dahlia next to him. Her head on his neck, a twisted smile on his face. She felt anger, and rage, and… pain. She felt pain in her heart. When she turned her body to chase him, she felt something wrap around her. It was black and soft. It was a cape.

Star tried to run, but the cape stopped her. Steel and Dahlia went into the distance and she tried to scream, but nothing came out. Then, a voice in her head asked a question. ‘If you could choose, would you choose a life of glory, or a life of empty love. Choose, your destiny or your precious Steel?’ Star gave her response without thought.

‘Steel! I want my Steel!’ Star screamed, the voice in her head sighed.

‘You are not ready…’ the voice faded into the distance. She tried to get out of the bondage, but instead, a mask came in front and was closing in on her face. She gave a final cry as it covered her.

“Steel!” Star screamed as the mask eyeholes gave way to wooden ground.

Shine observed her twitches until the scream came out.
“Steel!” Star screamed into the quiet room, sweat visible on her hooves. She looked around her and spun in 720 degrees before anyone spoke.
“Had a nice dream?” Luz asked.

“D-dream?” Star asked, taking another look around.

“Who are you all?” Star asked.

“Then it looks like we’ve hit a conclusion,” Shine said, “We need answers, who has them?” Shine asked, ready to ask the important questions.

“What do you mean?” Star asked.

“I mean, why did we all meet in the same spot at the same time and none of us know why!” Shine asked, starting to get frustrated.

“What about them? Wouldn’t they know anything?” Sol asked, pointing at the still sleeping mares.

“They don’t have the masks…” Shine said, and the others immediately looked at each other. Wisp put his mask back on and Luz did the same.

“I could give a shit about these masks; I don’t want anything to do with you five. If you don’t have any answers, then I’m out,” Luz said, getting up.

“Luz, I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Shine said. Luz stopped in her tracks. She turned slowly to Shine, the mask hiding her expression.

“How… the fuck... do you know my name?” Luz asked.

Shine levitated the folder to her, containing her details, and lifted up his own. “This is why… somepony’s been keeping track of us,” Shine said, lifting up the stack of folders.

“Now… what about the rest of you?” Shine asked, looking at Wisp.

“Sorry, Wisp isn’t here right now. Can I take a message?” Wisp said.

“Wisp?” Shine asked himself, before getting the right folder out, he gave it to Wisp and turned to Sol.

“Sol,” Sol lied, wondering if there was a folder named Spectra somewhere in there. Shine was confused for a second, but he reread the folder names until he found one labeled Sol. He didn’t remember that one, and was reluctant to give it up. He turned to Dust, who looked at him blankly.

“What’s your name?” Shine asked.

“I don’t know…” Dust said, rubbing his head, “I was trying to figure that out right now.”

Shine shook his head and turned to Star.

“Star,” She said.

Shine pulled out her file and gave it to her, then watched their faces as they read the bios. When Shine looked at Wisp, his hair had returned to the normal hair style he saw before, and was busy reading.

“Why do you have these?” Star asked, curious.

“Let’s just say that’s not what we should be dwelling over, I want to know what you all know,” Shine said.

“That’s not much…” Dust said, from his corner of the room.

“Inside operatives? Just who the fuck was a spy?” Luz asked.

“This is recent… the festival wasn’t that long ago…” Star said.

Sol dropped her folder to the ground and said nothing.

“How do they know all this?” Wisp asked.

“Have they been spying on us for that long?” Luz asked.

“What else have they known? Did they know about Steel and Dahlia?” Star asked.

“Steel?” Luz asked.

“My coltfriend, he… betrayed me…” Star said.

“Damn, same thing happened here. Feel for you,” Luz said, for the first time not feeling hostile towards others.

“You wouldn’t know… Steel left me at the festival, he was with some other mare… how could you know that pain?” Star asked, starting to get angry.

“I was trying to be sympathetic…damn. My coltfriend left me to die, and you got ditched for some other bitch. At least you ended up better than me,” Luz said.

Shine heard the sounds of the others waking up behind him. He could tell that having twelve of them in one room would be too much to handle. He’d need time to think about all this. When Twilight came over, he leaned in to whisper.

“Ask if those other five know anything, and tell them what’s going on. I’ll handle these five,” Shine said.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t talk this out as a group?” Twilight asked.

“We won’t be able to find any answers if we’re always arguing. It’s better to split up,” Shine said. Twilight didn’t disagree, and went to explain things to the five who had a bad case of a hangover. They seemed dazed, but still understood what she told and asked them.

Shine all the while listened to what was being said in front of him. He didn’t want to intervene, and maybe it was best if they split up even further.

“Better than you? I was crushed, I really loved him, and he didn’t care. Do you know how that feels?” Star asked.

“You think you’re the princess around here, don’t you? You’re nothing but a stuck up brat getting over your first crush. Try to think about other’s feeling, why don’t you? You act like you’re the center of the world. Well I’m glad he left you,” Luz said.

“Argh…” Star said, before opening the door and leaving.

“Wait, Star, darling! You need to leave with style and grace, style… and grace!” Rarity said, following her out and leaving a carpet of red behind her.

“I don’t need to deal with this,” Luz said, walking out behind Rarity.

“I… uh… need to go too,” Fluttershy said, noticing all the new ponies and leaving after Luz. Shine was wondering how many more would leave.

“I don’t know what the hay is going on here, but call me back when you figure it out. C’mon Sol, let me finish showing you around,” Rainbow Dash said taking Sol and leaving.

“Ooh, Wisp, we should go too, the party train’s leaving without us,” Pinkie said, pushing him out, his hooves flailing.

“Wait... Pinkie-“ Wisp tried to resist.

“Shine… what happened?” Twilight whispered.

“Nothing… nothing happened,” Shine replied as he watched Applejack try to reason with Dust about why they should leave. Applejack did have one statement that intrigued Shine though.

“Did your memory fail on you? I thought we discussed who you were,” Applejack said.

“Who am I?” Dust asked, as Applejack persuaded him out the door.

“Did you figure anything out?” Twilight asked. Shine realized that everypony had gone and split up further than he wanted. Then he felt a weight lift his shoulders, as another one fell on top.

“I… have no idea…” Shine said, passing out from sudden pain all over body.

Author's Note

I blame the editor. It’s his fault. Anyways, like I think I mentioned earlier, these will be shorter chapters because I don’t want to detract too much time from the other story. Now, I’m wondering (Actually it was my editor’s opinion) if I did this chapter the right way. It feels kind of off, but at the same time, I’ve never written from the third person POV of different characters that I knew a lot about. So, I might redo this chapter if I feel there’s a better way. Just a heads up in case the word count changes.
Next Time: Confrontation, how many times can you go unconscious in a day?