Hatoful Ponyfriend - Bad Ponies Love

"It appears that as of late nothing other than poison sealed the Mayor's fate."

Zecora walks out of the late Mayor Mare's office. Rarity and I had fled the building as soon as we discovered the corpse and returned to the hospital to tell Princess Luna and Zecora what we had found. The two of them had accompanied us back to the scene of the crime for a second examination.

"She was most likely dead when the alarm was sent out." Zecora continues. "What you saw and heard was a recording, no doubt."

"I found something as well." Princess Luna emerges from a small side room with a tangle of wires and tapes levitated in her blue magic. "It seems that someone has used old recordings from previous disaster drills and broadcasted it on a timer. This plan was very well thought-out."

"So they gather everypony in the town hall? Why?" Rarity looks a bit defeated.

"Maybe to keep them out of the way?" I suggest. I realize that if that was the plan all along, it's a good thing we left Rainbow Dash there to protect the citizens.

"I expect we will be keeping this to ourselves as well?" Princess Luna asks, the sentence sounding more like a command than a question. We nod, and I can't help wondering if Spike and Mayor Mare were poisoned by the same pony.

There's a moment of silence before I take a look around the room. The lamp is still flickering and I can see shelves and cabinets filled with papers and documents. "Do you think there's any information here? Something we can use?"

"We might as well take a look." Rarity says, starting on a bookshelf to her left. I hear her mutter something about a needle in a haystack.

Occupying the desk are books and papers, of course, the flickering metal lamp, a small pile of messily-sealed envelopes, most likely school projects from young colts and fillies. I turn to the books and papers and nothing is useful. Ten Things to Never Do in Politics. No. A Lecture on the History of Equestria and How It Benefits Our Youth. No. Fifty Shades of Neigh. Definitely not. Everything else I find is similar.

"Have you found anything?" I hear Rarity call to me.

"No," I reply, turning to check the shelf behind me. In my haste, I bump the desk a bit harder than I would have liked and the lamp crashes forward heavily, landing on the floor with a noise that makes all of us jump. There's a bright flash that makes me blink and the bulb is out. Once again, we are in darkness.

"Derpy!" Rarity hisses in frustration.

There's a moment before Princess Luna, still standing in the doorway, lights her horn and gives us just enough light to see by.

"Was that always there?" I hear the princess ask, and I turn around again, this time careful not to knock anything over.

The lamp has pushed up a floorboard, revealing a hidden compartment about the size of a large watermelon. I'm afraid of what could be inside, but I take a step closer and peer into the rectangular compartment. Inside are two things: A flat, rectangular locked box and a large, egg-shaped stone with a hole in one side.

"What are these?" I bring the two items to Princess Luna. Rarity comes to join us, it seems she hasn't found anything.

"An egg, by the looks of it," Rarity says, almost sounding impressed. "Why is there a hole in it, though?"

"It's a fake, possibly," Princess Luna says, lifting it in her magic and examining it from all angles. "Or, it is not an egg at all." She carefully lifts the flat box. "I'm afraid I do not know how to open this, either." The glow illuminating the room goes out until the only light comes from that surrounding the two items. The light around the box sparkles and flashes for a moment before the midnight blue alicorn sets it down.

"This box is enchanted," she says, a worried expression on her face. "I'm afraid I do not know enough to safely unlock it. I have to wonder though," her expression changes to one of puzzlement, "why Mayor Mare was in possession of these objects."

"I don't think we can find anything more in here," Rarity says. "Do you think Fluttershy will know anything about these things?"

Our options are fairly limited, so there's not much we can do but leave the building. Zecora stands outside with Mayor Mare's corpse on her back. "We will take the Mayor back to the hospital," Princess Luna says. She lowers the box to the ground, keeping the egg in her magic. "I will continue to examine this at the hospital," She looks at me and Rarity. "I trust the box will be safe in your hooves?"

"Of course, Princess," Rarity bows her head.

I hear somepony clearing her throat and Zecora is looking at me. She makes a beckoning motion and I hesitantly walk over to her. "Derpy Hooves, come speak to me. I need a moment, if you please."

"Yes, Zecora?" I ask, still suspicious.

"You still do not trust me, I can tell. In you heart does suspicion dwell. Nopony here conspires against you. This whole thing is yours for you alone to work through. You are in this whether you like it or not. I ask again, do you remember what you forgot?"

The zebra looks at me with her piercing blue-green eyes. It's hard to believe that she's not conspiring against me, not when she says something like that. "I don't remember if I've forgotten anything, Zecora. Thank you." I turn and follow Rarity to Fluttershy's cottage as quickly as possible. I need to get as much distance between that crazy striped mare and me as possible.

Fluttershy seems resigned to the fact that we will keep coming back and simply opens the door when we arrive, making no attempt to delay whatever apocalypse the thinks will strike her cottage first, of all places. We hastily explain what happened at the Mayor's office and show her the box we found in the secret compartment.

"You didn't try to open this, right?" Fluttershy asks urgently, tapping the box with a hoof.

"Princess Luna said it would be unsafe," I say, backing away from the table where we stand on the off-chance that Fluttershy does, in fact, manage to set it off somehow.

"Well, she's right," Fluttershy replies. "If she had forced it open with magic, or if somepony used a hammer on it, the box would explode. Simple. And it would probably take out any nearby ponies." She speaks casually, as if she is talking about the eating and sleeping habitats of one of her animals. "If you give me some of your patience, I believe I can get this box open."

Rarity and I watch in silence as she walks over to a rug, pulls it aside, and removes a loose floorboard. She returns to the table with what appears to be a briefcase. When she opens it, Rarity and I both see that it's filled with about fifty tiny, metal tools.

"You can pick locks?" Rarity's eyebrows look like they're about to fly off her face. "I thought... I mean... what?!"

"It comes with the job description. Stand back please." Fluttershy picks a particularly tiny instrument and aims carefully at the keyhole of the lock on the flat box.

"Job desc-" I begin.

"Stand. Back."

Rarity and I take a few steps back. Then, for good measure, a few more. The only noise in the room is the quiet clicking of Fluttershy picking at the lock.

Click!

"Got it. Oh, b-" She stops herself before she finishes the word. "...unnies."

"What's wrong?" I ask, walking forward. "What's in it?"

"Who puts a sealed case inside a sealed case?" She demands, her shouting voice barely higher than her normal voice. It's absolutely-" she stops again and clears her throat. "Well. It must be important. On the bright side, there's also this." She reaches into the box and pulls out a small, crystal key with her teeth. Rarity takes it from her.

"Do you think it fits in that egg?" I ask? The key is small, but larger than the keyhole in the still-smaller case that Fluttershy has uncovered.

"It must," Rarity nods. "Thank you, Fluttershy. You have proven most helpful."

The pegasus is already working on the second box. "This one will take some time. Go on, do what you need to do. Come back in a few minutes."

I want to ask her about Zecora, what she meant about all of this being for me, if she meant it at all. I don't want to disturb her as she delicately unlocks the second case, just in case it explodes. I back out of the cottage to join Rarity and we make our way to the hospital.

We quickly trot towards the hospital. Hopefully, whatever this key does will give us some answers. We don't have many other options at this point.

Creak... thump... CRASH!

Out of nowhere, the metal monster lunges out at us, swinging it's heavy arm. I hear Rarity scream as I panic and fly straight upwards. I spin upwards and I can feel myself falling back towards the ground. Frantically, I flap my wings, not caring where they take me as long as I don't face-plant into the thing I'm running from.

I'm back in the air, spinning again. It takes me some time to even out into a steady hover. I can't see Rarity's light, the hospital, or the monster at all. The town is nothing more than a vague black blur. I realize something, though. We didn't hear the monster at all before it attacked us. This means that it's either intelligent enough to know how to hunt us and lie in wait, or someone is following us and is giving it orders. Either way, I can't trust that it's not lurking beneath me. I'm afraid to touch the ground. I'm afraid to land, but I don't have a choice.

Slowly, steadily, I begin to lower myself until I feel the hard ground beneath my hooves. Only, that's not what I feel. Instead, I feel leaves brushing against my legs. That's impossible, I couldn't have left Ponyville. It's probably a bush. No, when I lower myself further, I land on what is none other than the branch of a tree. I step off and land find myself on solid ground. A really short tree? I take a few steps forward and walk into a railing. I seem to have landed on the balcony of someone's house. A tree house.

I feel around for a door and it's unlocked. I feel bad for breaking into someone's house, but this is an emergency. I trip several times as I make my way through the pitch-black room.

"Don't let there be stairs," I say to myself before tumbling down a spiral staircase and landing on my back in a candle-lit room. A library.

Spike's library.

My breath catches in my throat and all I can think about is every single I delivered heavy boxes of books to this library for a librarian I never even met.

"Come in for some tea, Derpy?"

"I'm sorry, I have lots of things to get done."

"Just one cup? I even have muffins, your favorite."

"Oh... why not?"

The M-word always got me. Every single time. He said the librarian didn't like eating in the library, but that never stopped us. I never saw her, but Spike always talked about her.

"You."

I whirl around and knock over a stack of books. A purple unicorn is looking at me with a completely expressionless face. She stares unblinkingly and I nod slowly.

"Yes?"

"You eat in the library, Derpy Hooves."

"Oh." Then it clicks. "You're the librarian!"

She is silent.

I don't know whether it's the library, the candle-light, or the presence of this strange purple unicorn, but I feel like I should talk quietly. "What's your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle." Simple enough.

I take a breath. This is the hard part. "Twilight Sparkle, Spike-"

"Don't worry," she interrupts. "I already know. He told me." She sounds blunt, but not uncaring, like she's accepted the truth long ago.

"He told you? How?" Her words confuse me, but I realize now is not the time to think about it. "How do I get to the hospital from here? It's too dark outside to see."

"Fly straight out from the door, you should find it soon enough."

"Thanks, Twili-" I blink. She's gone. I didn't hear her leave. I want to find her, but there are more important things to do.

Rarity is pacing when I return to the hospital and when I land at the doors, she flings her hooves around me and wails, "Darling! You're safe!" She straightens up and clears her throat. "That's good."

It's great to see Rarity again. That's not something I ever thought I'd think. "I'm glad you're safe," I tell her, and I mean every word. "Did the key work?"

"We wanted to wait for you, in case something happened and we need to be together." She offers a smile which I return. Princess Luna and Applejack come out of the examination room, the princess levitating the egg and the key in her magic.

Looking between us, Princess Luna prepares to unlock the egg. "Are we ready?" Rarity, Applejack, and I nod. She insets the key into the lock and turns it.

Nothing happens. I'm almost disappointed. It doesn't open. It doesn't explode.

Suddenly, I feel my feel fall out from under me as the ground shakes beneath us like an earthquake. There's a deafening grinding and crashing.

It stops as suddenly as it starts. When we look out, we can see a single shaft of light shining down through the darkness that once covered Ponyville. I can see the other mares looking at each other in alarm. We are probably thinking the same thing: There is no way that everypony will not have noticed that.

Princess Luna is the first to her feet. "Let's go and see what happened," she sighs and leaves building.

"So much for not causing a panic," Rarity sighs as she lends me a hoof up.

As we expected, all of Ponyville is outside. I look up and I see a single square opening at the top of the dome. This confuses me, it would only allow pegasi to escape.

"We should check around the edge for exits for earth ponies," I say, but Princess Luna holds a wing out, stopping me.

"Wait," she says. She sounds concerned. "Something isn't right."

We approach the crowd and I can hear Rainbow Dash going through the crowd, doing her best to calm a townsworth of panicking ponies and failing.

"No, wait!" I hear her calling. "Don't go up there!" I hear her call. An earth pony tries to gallop off and she flies to stop her. "We don't know what's out there!"

"Be still!"

I leap sideways as Princess Luna's magically amplified voice blasts into my ears. I had forgotten she could do that. The ponies stop their shouting and stomping and turn to look at her. All but one.

Before anyone can stop her, a purple pegasus I don't know frantically flies towards the hatch. "I'm not staying in here any longer!" I hear her shout before she disappears through the opening. As soon as she is out of sight, we hear a roar and a scream of agony. A gout of fire blasts through the opening and I see the pegasus fall back through the hole, limp and burning. She screams until she hits the ground in the center of town.

I can only stand there in shock. Somepony just tried to leave the dome. And died. Princess Luna goes to calm the townsfolk, Rainbow Dash takes a group of ponies to look for the fallen pegasus, and Rarity stands beside me. I can't hear her words.

With a rumbling, like the sealing of a stone coffin lid, the dome is shut and we are plunged into darkness once more.