Effigy of Anarchy

Whatever the faults of their Trottingham counterparts, Ponyville’s weather services were competent in every way. As Silent and Chase arrived at the train station, the two found it to be immaculately cleaned, and the tracks free of snow. Cloudchaser felt a tiny amount of pride in the presentation, quickly dashed by Silent’s ever dour demeanor.

“Hey,” Chase chanced to ask, “Why do you want to take the train all of the sudden?”

“I’d rather not discuss business in the air if I can avoid it.”

“Business?”

Silent glowered at Cloudchaser, prompting her to recoil. “Yes, business.”

“Oh. Okay.”

The seven o’clock to northern Equestria rumbled into the station, and soon two dozen ponies disembarked to the narrow platform. Every one of them was bleary-eyed and wandered away without so much as a peep. The only sounds they made were the scraping of their luggage on the wooden platform and the occasional groan.

As Chase boarded, she was taken aback by the wall-to-wall bodies occupying the train. The first car they approached was packed full of ponies of every size, shape, and color. Finding herself unable to find a seat, she led Silent to the next car forward, which was likewise packed.

“Doesn’t matter,” Silent grumbled, “let’s go to the back.”

“You mean the caboose?”

Silent had already turned and left, leaving Chase hurrying to catch up. She had to push and fight her way through the ponies who had decided to stand up to stretch their legs while the train had stopped. Silent remained several steps ahead of her all the way to the rear of the train, and only allowed Chase to catch up right before they were to cross to the caboose.

“Now, I’m not an engineer,” Chase said to a thoroughly uninterested Silent, “but don’t the rail workers hang out in the back?”

“No. It’s used for luggage. You’re thinking of EqRail lines. Friendship Express has a car second from the front for rail workers.”

“Oh good. I was hoping we’d get to sit in a dingy luggage compartment for four hours.”

Silent slid the door open and hopped across the connector to the caboose. The train gave its whistle and the engine began to come to life. This sent a jolt through the whole train, causing Chase to stumble and lose her balance as Silent fiddled with the door.

The door clicked and Silent pushed it open, disappearing inside as Cloudchaser made her way forward. It nearly swung into her flank as the train’s momentum pushed it closed, prompting a sour look in the general direction Silent had vanished in. A stack of suitcases were the only victims of her displeasure.

“Silent?” Chase called into the dark.

“Hurry up and get out of sight.”

Chase pushed through the cramped compartment, jumping and tripping over various bags and containers, none of which were properly secured. The random jostling combined with uneven terrain slowed Chase’s progress, requiring several minutes to travel only a few meters. Finally, Cloudchaser found Silent at the very back of the train, looking out the small glass window slotted into the door.

“Okay,” Cloudchaser said, “What do we need to talk about?”

“Not quite yet,” Silent replied.

She pushed a few of the darkened luggage containers around until she had assembled something halfway approaching a seat. Planting herself on it, Silent laid down and shut her eyes. Chase had expected Silent to say something. It slowly dawned on her that Silent was fast asleep.

“Uh, hello?”

“Silent?” she asked again.

“Rude, much? You drag me all the way back here and then just fall asleep?”

Silent’s prone form did not respond. Cloudchaser sighed. With any other pony, this would prompt more outrage. As it was, Silent’s mannerisms only aroused pity.

She was a pony who was willing to break windows and bones because a letter had come asking for help, but who couldn’t follow a simple courtesy of explaining herself to what was probably her only friend. Cloudchaser found herself unable to muster any anger over the many slights Silent had visited upon her. Instead, it produced apathy and boredom.

She sat in the freezing compartment, watching Ponyville recede into the distance, until the train took a corner, and the town was lost behind a wall of whitened trees. Lacking any interesting scenery, Cloudchaser turned her attention to the interior.

Bags. That was it, bags. She didn’t feel tired, but she had also neglected to bring something to read, or a coat. Very briefly, the idea of stealing a coat from the baggage around her came and went from her head. Despicable, that.

Silent would have done it in a heartbeat. Cloudchaser suddenly became worried that perhaps something was rubbing off on her.
Fighting with the random jostling of the train and the unstable luggage mountain, Cloudchaser made her way back towards the front. When she got there, the door had frozen shut, and required several agonizing minutes of discomfort to dislodge. Once the door had opened, a blast of chilled winter air hit her face and assailed her eyes. Blinded, Cloudchaser stumbled across the link and opened the next car’s entrance.

A wave of warm air passed over her, along with the awful scent of many unwashed ponies. Though there was precious little seating available, simply being warm again was enough, and Chase breathed a sigh of relief - through her mouth.

She searched for a few minutes before finding a seat. Before she could sit, another pony warded her off.

“My husband is in the washroom,” a kindly old mare explained.

“Oh, my mistake,” Chase said.

“Travelling alone?” the mare asked.

Chase gave a pained expression. “Not quite.”

“It’s all right dearie, you can have my seat. We’re getting off at the next station.”

“Oh,” Chase said, finding herself unable to contain a smile. “Thank you very much!”

“Don’t worry about it.”

The mare stood, gave another smile, and ambled her way out to the aisle. She waved down another old stallion and the two departed towards the front of the train without a look back.

Chase sat down in the spot and considered, for a moment, going to get Silent. She scratched that idea when she thought somepony might take her seat. Doubly unfortunate would be Silent’s reaction if she were woken unexpectedly. Instead, Cloudchaser reclined slightly and unfurled her wings. With a spare seat, she had enough space to check over her feather alignment.

That kept her attention for only a few moments before the boredom threatened to return. Normally, she’d ride the train with friends or Flitter, and spend the time talking to them. Even if Silent were here, she probably wouldn’t want to talk. Instead, she decided to listen in on the other conversations going on around her.

Chase let her ears glide over the various ponies, isolating threads among the background noise. Laughing, talking, a few hushed discussions coming from behind her. Nothing of note crossed her ears, until…

“Are we gonna make the big meeting tonight?”

“Yeah, the train will arrive at eleven.”

Cloudchaser snapped her head to zero in on the source of the sound. It was coming from somewhere ahead of her. She could not see the two colts who were talking, but she was intrigued nonetheless - the train reached Trottingham at eleven.

“So where are you from?”

“Trottingham, I was just visiting my brother in Los Pegasus.”

“Oh. I’m from Fillydelphia.”

“How’d a Fillydelphian come to join the Sons?”

Chase’s eyes widened. She had just thought it’d been a coincidence, but now she was alarmed.

Unfortunately, she lost the next part of the conversation as a foal somewhere in the car started crying. Chase stood up and strained her neck, trying to spot the two colts who had been speaking. She saw a sea of ponies, and sat back down in frustration.

Chase patiently waited for the crying to abate, yet the foal had far more stamina than most any other child she’d ever dealt with. Even when it stopped, she couldn’t recover the thread she had heard before and had to wait until the stop in Whinnychester, which was an hour away from Trottingham.

Chase finally spied her two targets as several ponies got up to leave the train. While the two were unassuming colts about her age, they both had baby-blue bands wrapped around their upper forelegs. They were obliviously chatting to one another while ponies pushed past them. Chase smirked to herself as a plan formed.

A few minutes later, the train lurched forward again. One of the colts had decided to look out the window while the other stared at his watch. Chase surveyed the scene and quickly hopped over the seat in front of her into an empty spot, closing the distance.

As she prepared to vault another seat to get even closer, she suddenly remembered that she and Silent were wanted mares. Being spotted by two members of the Sons of Equestria would sound a death knell.

Cloudchaser scanned the area for something she could use to hide, and found it in a discarded fashion magazine somepony had left when they got off the train. After a quick look to make sure nopony was paying attention, Chase scooted over and snatched the magazine.

Now with a clever disguise, she repositioned herself directly behind the colts and held the magazine up. The only thing better than eavesdropping on these colts was how awesome it was going to be to tell Silent what she had done!

“Hey,” one of the colts said. Cloudchaser calmed herself down and tried to block out the sound of her own heart rapidly beating.

“Yeah?”

“Did the elder ask you to bring your marefriend to the meeting tonight?”

“No, we went last week.”

“Oh. I’ve heard some things.”

Cloudchaser flipped a page. She wasn’t at all interested in the kind of garbage that she was looking at - though the spring lineup from J.C. Bit would look great on Flitter - but she had to do something to keep from arousing suspicion.

“Yeah, like what?”

“Like, do they start to act different?”

“How do you mean?”

Chase’s throat clenched. She felt her blood boil and used as much concentration as she could to keep from blowing her cover.

“Like, they… uh…”

“What?”

“... what’s your marefriend’s name?”

“Jenny.”

“Did Jenny used to wait on you? Like, make you sandwiches and stuff?”

“No, she was always busy. Used to work at the greenhouse.”

“Was?”

“Yeah! After we visited the elder, she totally changed. It’s awesome.”

“So it was true. That’s what the guys were saying happened to their girls. And sisters, too.”

“Once you hear the truth, you never go back. That’s why the Sons are the future.”

“Yeah I guess. I hope Lilac doesn’t give the elder any trouble.”

Cloudchaser had to measure her breathing carefully and concentrate hard to keep her hooves from shaking the magazine. It was all she could do to gently slide down the seats towards the aisle without screaming at the two colts.

They didn’t know what they were doing. That was the only explanation that Chase could tell herself as she made her way back to the caboose. That somepony would want to do that to a lover or even a sister was disgusting. If she had not left then, she was not certain what she would have done to them.

Give them a stern lecture, at worst.

She hoped Silent wouldn’t be so forgiving.

Silent had risen at some point after the last stop, and Cloudchaser found her looking idly out the window at the rear of the caboose. The rattling of the luggage disguised Chase’s inept bumbling and tripping as she approached, and Silent said nothing even as Chase sat down next to her.

Chase gave an idle smile. Silent, as usual, was not interested in talking.

“I have some news,” Cloudchaser offered.

Silent grunted.

“Uh, I overheard some guys talking. There’s a big meeting tonight.”

“Eleven thirty, in the Archaeology building at the University of Trottingham,” Silent said, once again without taking her eyes off the scenery.

Cloudchaser let her jaw hang open for a few seconds. When she realized what she was doing, she held it shut with a hoof.

Silent turned to look at her. The brief nap had not done much for her appearance. Even in the low light, Chase could see the red veins running across her eyes.

“There’s one tomorrow night, too, for anypony who missed the first one. No doubt there’ll be a lot of targets for interrogation there,” Silent said.

Cloudchaser had a bit of the wind knocked out of her, but the pride returned a moment later.

“Well I still eavesdropped on them,” she said, puffing out her chest slightly.

Silent turned back to the window. Chase sagged and frowned.

“Wait!” Cloudchaser said suddenly, prompting Silent to arch an eyebrow.

“They’re gonna do that thing again! We’ve gotta stop them!”

“Thing?” Silent asked.

“Yeah! Whatever they did to Flitter!”

Silent now turned her whole body to face Cloudchaser.

“When?”

“I don’t know!”

“How?”

“Don’t know that either.”

Silent pressed closer to Cloudchaser. Chase instinctively backed up.

“Who?”

“The two guys in the compartment up ahead!”

Silent jerked backwards suddenly, resuming her previous pose of an ornate carving looking out the window. Cloudchaser shook herself to make sure she was still awake.

“Good. Excellent,” Silent said flatly.

“I guess that’s one way of putting it…” Cloudchaser said, letting herself trail off.

No sooner had Chase said that than she noticed a change in the reflection of Silent’s face in the window pane of the caboose. It was not quite curiosity that etched itself there, but it was definitely earnest and certainly different than the usual brooding look.
Silent did not turn as she spoke, or provide any gesture. Silent merely said, “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Chase said, “I mean, it’s good for us. But it’s bad ‘cause, uh, Flitter was messed up, and… Why am I explaining this to you?”

“We’re going to stop them, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, of course!” Cloudchaser said. It did not upset her as much as it had before. Something about Silent’s confidence dispelled the anger. Chase even caught herself smiling slightly: Silent had said we!

As quickly as this had come, it had gone, and Silent’s face returned to its ever-dour glare.

Silent gripped the window’s latch and pulled it open, blasting a fresh gust of freezing air into the compartment.

“What the hay?“ Cloudchaser protested.

“Come on, we need to be in the air before we get to Trottingham. I don’t want to be seen getting off the train.”

Silent vaulted through the narrow window with an agility Chase had not seen before. It looked so effortless that Cloudchaser backed up towards the luggage and squared herself before the window.

She hopped forward and immediately caught one of her legs on the window frame. She fell halfway over outside the caboose, with wind blowing hard in her face as the train kicked up a gust in its wake. When she managed to pull her leg free, she tumbled over again and landed on the narrow metal step, bracing herself against the railings to keep from falling off the train entirely.

Sheepishly, she righted herself before jumping off and taking flight. Silent swooped by a few moments later and pointed towards the horizon, where the lights of Trottingham reflected off the clouds covering the sky.

Cloudchaser has insisted on tailing the two colts she had overheard when they got off the train, though that plan was thrown out as soon as the two tried to implement it. Chase was barely able to recognize the colts from the air, and the shifting sea of faces coming and going on the platform made it all but impossible to spot the blue bands the two had worn.

Instead, Chase followed Silent towards the University of Trottingham, whose many dilapidated brick buildings sat in a campus on the northern edge of the city. Though it was late at night, many of the buildings still had lights escaping their windows, and students could be seen walking on the lit pathways leading away from the campus tavern.

Silent evidently already knew where the Archaeology building was located, and Chase followed her lead as she swooped lower. One of the structures, larger than the rest, had lights pouring from its foyer, and Silent guided Chase to land on its roof.

“All right, what’s the plan?” Cloudchaser asked. Some of Silent’s courage, she reasoned, had spilled over into her. No doubt this was going to be dangerous, but she was ready.

“Go inside, find out what they’re up to, and stop it,” Silent replied.

“That’s it?”

Silent failed to answer, instead reaching under her wing briefly. She pulled out a small red sphere and passed it to Chase.

“Take it. It’s a smoke bomb. Throw it hard at the ground to activate it.”

“A smoke bomb?” Chase asked, gently taking the sphere. After a brief examination, she tucked it under her own wing.

“I’m not as prepared as usual, I haven’t had time to visit my supplier. We’ll have to make do with just this.”

“Wait, what other supplies do you usually have?”

Silent cocked her head slightly. “Stink bombs, lockpicks, magnesium grenades, snap-flashes, chloroform, rope…”

“Sorry I asked,” Chase muttered.

Silent trotted towards the building’s edge and looked down. Chase followed, likewise surveying the scene.

“Front is too dangerous. There’s a connection with the Geology building that should still be open. Are you sure you don’t know where those colts will be?”

Chase shook her head.

“The meeting will probably be in the main lecture hall. If we poke around the classrooms, we’ll probably find your colts.”

Silent hopped onto the building’s ledge, causing a clump of snow to roll off and fall to the pavement below. There were no ponies on this part of campus to notice. None outside, anyway.

The two flew towards the ground, skimming over it as Silent led Chase around the side of the building. In the darkened alley, an unlit connecting hall led between two of the buildings. In the middle was a double-door, barely lit by the reflection of the moon.

As Silent landed, she held up a hoof to signal for quiet. Chase landed as softly as she could and waited as Silent examined the doorway. A quick pull indicated it was locked, but that did not deter them for long.

Silent motioned to Chase to pull on the door. Chase did so, and Silent gripped the frame with her forelegs. She braced herself on the ground and pushed. For a few seconds the two quietly put their strength into the wood and heard a very slow creaking sound announce their progress. Then, suddenly, a snap came from the lock and Chase abruptly pulled the door back.

Silent padded in and waited for Chase to follow. As Cloudchaser passed, she noted that the aged wood around the lock had given way, making the metal bolt useless. Where Silent had learned such a trick she did not know, but it would require the strength of a second pony to execute. It made Chase wonder whether or not Silent had had another partner at some point in the past.