Equestria's Cahill Filesby Rowan ExChaptersI - Naming the Ranks [Intervention]II - ShockIII - First AttackIntel - Letter 1I - Naming the Ranks [Intervention]If Twilight Sparkle was to rate her forced betrayal to Starlight Glimmer due to the magic of friendship, it would ruin her internal reputation as the third Lucian Princess. However, the effect was only little due to her external reputation as the Princess of Friendship, causing major of the Lucians to think that she could unite all Cahills. If she could unite all Cahills... isn’t having her friends not Lucians enough? Applejack looked over Rainbow Dash’s cloud home before retiring into her room. If she wasn’t a Tomas herself, she should’ve... done something against her. But no, they’re both Tomas. The Apple clan explored lands before they settled in Ponyville, something Applejack wondered. Does that mean they were born explorers, not apple farmers? Thinking about it, she had asked about this once. She got her answer by her strength it seemed. As for her heritage— Knock. Knock. “It’s open,” Applejack muttered out, and a cyan pony opened the door. “Say, how much can you tell from a very distant relative under 1 minute?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking quite tired. Applejack looked up as she thought for an answer. “Probably the basics,” she concluded. “Why ya ask?” “Probably because of Derpy being...” Rainbow went closer. “Tomas of all branches...” “What?” Applejack faked a laugh. “I don’t see her having somethin’ similar to a typical Tomas.” “She wanders off a lot,” Dash excused, “especially in the Everfree Forest, even managing to pass the border we set for non-Tomas.” Everfree Forest, the Tomas Stronghold of the Earth Ponies. Created by forcing unicorns to make an unstable forest. Applejack could only think of the things Derpy might’ve known... Pinkie Pie looked at the window right near her bed as she reordered her bedroom again to accommodate her new set of styles. After staring outside towards a lit window of the Apple barn and in Twilight’s castle, she decided to write a letter for her parents, both Ekaterinas who control their rock farm/Ekat stronghold. It was a nice disguise considering her father’s talent included mining for different kinds of rocks and because of his knowledge of rocks helped Equestria to choose the correct rocks for houses. As she wrote, she took another peek outside only to find her sister in a rock-camouflage spying at her, waving. She waved back of course. Pinkie went back and finished her letter and ending it up with her usual “And that’s how Equestria was made” line. On normal ponies, it was just another random thing Pinkie made up for fun, but for the Cahills, they themselves founded Equestria after moving from Cahill Island, Ponylandia. Time passed to forget such thing, and only she remembers it. Well, all the Ekats remember it actually, they only don’t tell the real truth to decrease panic. Star Swirl the Bearded even tested it out himself what would happen if the public learned about the truth, only causing mass panic and a declaration of war against the Lucians, which Pinkie still avoided. Reason, random. The Next Day... Rarity woke up staring at a letter. She sat and read the letter. At once, she immediately came downwards into the lobby and set up shop. Seeing that the shop was ready, she went back to her room and looked at the letter again. She lit up her horn, levitated the letter against the window and read the secret text within the letter. "'Rarity Belle,'" she began. "'One of our Janus allies will arrive at your shop to talk about our next move.'" 'Next move to what?' she thought before continuing. "'Octavia Philharmonia and Lyra Heartstrings will come and talk about it. If you reject their offer, I'm setting you as an inactive Janus.' Well, at least I won't get anymore family-related issues if I rejected." Her words got herself thinking, what was the last time she took part in such issues? When her great-grandmother died, and she joined a hunt for the 39 clues? That was 5 years ago, and thinking about it, Twilight was there, competing against her. As a major realization struck like a spike to her chest, Rarity madly dashed towards her closet and pulled out a briefcase. She opened it, looked around, and stared at the five boxes inside of it. The 39 Clues. As soon as she heard knocking, she quickly closed and hid the briefcase then came down towards the door and smiled as her musician friends, Octavia and Lyra Heartstrings, entered the boutique. "Um... please don't tell me Rarity has all 39 clues hidden in her room," Fluttershy hypothesised. Her mother frowned. "I'm afraid that's true, dearie." Fluttershy looked at her before sighing. "... I promised myself not to attack anypony, especially my friends..." "You need to get 1/20 of each ingredient," her mother reminded, "besides, she can't make the serum without the formula which we have, right?" "Yeah, but you know Rarity–" She silenced herself after realizing who she was talking to. "Sorry mom." "It's okay," she replied. "How's Angel Bunny?" Shocked at the sudden change of subject, Fluttershy instinctively jumped but quickly took hold of herself. "He's doing fine, mother." "Keep him safe until he's ready," her mother noted. "I'm going to write me some adventure stories for you. Do you even read them?" Fluttershy gulped. "I have read a few..." "Oh, that counts. Bye!" Her mother then flew off. Fluttershy waited for her mother before she was out of sight before letting out a scream of joy. The others wouldn't believe about the most shy mare being related into the greatest adventurer/writer after all, so she checked on Angel Bunny who was looking at them during the conversation. Fluttershy smiled before realizing that Rainbow Dash was supposed to meet with her at the picnic grounds. Oops. At the picnic grounds, Rainbow Dash was about to leave until Fluttershy arrived panting. The cyan pegasus immediately saw something suspicious about Fluttershy but quickly dismissed it, knowing she's shy enough not to do anything wrong. Suddenly, Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a note and immediately left, muttering "sorry" as she goes. The pony left on the grounds read the note, and looked at where Fluttershy went, eye twitching in betrayal. "Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash flew towards somewhere as she left the letter on the picnic grounds for her other friends to read. YOU DON'T KNOW. WHAT THIS mEANS. BACKYARD AT MY HOUSE, R3STRICTED AREA 9 NOW. -DD/FS/SS PS: Be Kind To Knock What she didn't recognize was the small M which meant something Dash doesn't know, but Twilight did as she picked up the letter and read it. Rarity, who also noticed the small M, immediately headed back to Boutique to do something else. What they also missed was the second message which were the numbers 3 and 9, which was also the reason Rarity went off. Rarity knew that a Madrigal pony wanted to destroy all evidences. She hoped it wasn't Fluttershy or else everything would be destroyed, and the foundation of their friendship is ruined. "Who would use SS as their nickname?" Twilight wondered as a hologram of Princess Celestia flickered in front of her. "Maybe somepony who know a lot about Starswirl the Bearded," Celestia replied. "For some odd reason he's not showing up in our files, I thought he was a Lucian." "I thought he was an Ekat," Twilight objected, "much like my parents are." "Aren't you too, then?" Celestia teased. Twilight rolled her eyes in response. "Very funny and subtle, princess. Although it makes me wonder if I was an Ekat..." "No exclusive studies from me," Celestia joked again. Twilight rolled her eyes again before they both cackled into small humble laughter. They quickly stopped as the hologram disappeared and somepony with a mask entered her room. She looked around and searched for something, leaving everything in a mass. Twilight blinked and facehooved. That was the fifth time in the week for the mysterious pony to do it with her belongings. She would have to capture that mysterious pony— "Umpf!" Twilight looked at the mysterious pony who just tripped from one of her pencils, revealing yellow fur. Twilight went closer and removed the mask, to reveal the kindest of the kind faces of all of Ponyville has. "You!?" Fluttershy looked on the ground in shame as her five friends faced her, mad, confused, and upset. As they threw her questions, she could only think of the clues. The clues. Fluttershy smirked and whistled, causing them to stop. “What are you doing?” Twilight demanded. “Who really are you!?” “I’m Fluttershy,” she whispers. “We’re going through this again, huh?” Dash asked. “There must be a reason why she did that.” Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, her smirk condensed into an innocent smile. “There was.” “See?” Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy. “Why were you doing that?” I need Queen Kahill now, she thought. “I got lost, and I was wearing that ninja suit.” “Why were you searching for something then?” Twilight pointed out. Fluttershy kept smiling and made a fake oh sound. “I must’ve been on the wrong house.” “Well, that makes sense,” Twilight concluded. They all walked away until Rarity raised a note, causing Fluttershy to wince. “How about this note?” Rarity began. “Why are there numbers and a uncapitalized letter on it?” “Th-there is!?” Fluttershy took the note and looked at it. “I don’t see anything suspicious about this.” It was the Janus pony’s time to smirk. “How come, darling?” Buck. I’m screwed. “this isn’t my note, I must’ve switched it with another note,” Fluttershy lied. Rainbow Dash, who first read the note, stood up to protect Fluttershy by saying, “Yes, she did! We were s-supposed to meet at your house afterwards, right Flutters?” “Y-yes, right.” Phew. “I’m going home now,” she replied, taking the note and headed towards her cottage. As they all headed back home, Fluttershy kept thinking about how she was nearly spotted by her friends, how Rainbow Dash helped not blow her cover, how Rarity almost blew her cover, and how Twilight Sparkle and the rest was confused. She also noticed her back-up crew, a set of animal-understanding changelings under control of Madrigal changeling queen Kahill, didn’t act fast or so she thought since there was a changeling disguised at her in her cottage. The changeling looked up towards Fluttershy and quickly buzzed off. Fluttershy sighed in relief as she went towards her bed and flopped on it. Taking a very old Daring Do book named “Daring Do and the Secret Stronghold” from a shelf near her, she began to read the book while keeping in mind the writings that her mother wrote. One of them, written in six ink colors which reminded her of, well, friends. As she passed it, she noticed something with it and flipped it back to the page where she saw it. Page 39. She carefully began to read the six-inked writing while trying to analyze what it meant. One, ever loyal to her allies. Two, as kind as gentle as her eyes. Three, forever generous to everypony he sees. Four, sharing laughter by counts of trees. Five, honest as forever free. Six, leading the party with friendship at above. EoH = 39 Clues = Influential Ponies of All Time Flutter blinked. Does that mean that...? “Oh. My,” she muttered. II - ShockFluttershy was shocked to learn that there were other Element bearers like there was the Cahill branches. In fact, clues were enough to tell her that A.K. Yearling, more secretly known as Daring Do, was an Element bearer herself. Fluttershy was more shocked that in all of the Elements she could be, she was the Element of Laughter. She guessed that being an optimistic Madrigal treasure hunter gave her the position of being the Ele— Fluttershy paused and thought. Did her mother posed as an Tomas member and because of this she became who she was, an adventurer with a knack of treasures? She could only giggle as she continued reading. It was page 43 until she immediately spotted a magenta eye peeking at her room, staring at her book. Fluttershy groaned in response. “Great, just great,” she muttered as the eye went away in the direction of the door. “Hide, hide hide hide hide…” It would only be a matter of time before her Daring Do-loving friends find out about her private collection of books and read the truth about the clue hunt in which Rarity was involved. If they did learn about this, the Elements of Harmony would've shattered like what has happened to her mother's group, according the last book she created in the series Fluttershy was reading of course. If Twilight Sparkle got ahold of the magic her mother used… Fluttershy paused and hid the book as soon as she heard knocking on her door. She looked outside through a hidden tunnel to find Rainbow Dash and went back to open the door. A soft clanging greeted Rainbow Dash a nice, warm, hello. “Was that a Daring Do book I saw?” Rainbow asked. “Oh, yes,” Fluttershy answered, smiling. “I didn’t knew you liked Daring Do as well,” Rainbow commented. "You have all of them?" “Um… Yes," Fluttershy replied. "I do have all of them, in mint collector's condition in fact.” “Really?” Rainbow's face lit up. “Can I see them?” “Well,” Fluttershy looked away. “I promised my mom not to show all of it to everypony…” Whoops. Rainbow Dash frowned before she caught something Fluttershy had said which made her think. According to a small picnic she had with Twilight where they traded Daring Do books and secrets, one of them being a fact that anypony who had a mint collector's edition of any book is a relative of Daring Do herself. So… “A.K. Yearling is your mom, right?” Rainbow asked, grinning rather largely. Fluttershy let out a small squeak before pulling out a wired communicator from her mane and placed it on Rainbow Dash's ear. Rainbow Dash heard nothing until she heard a very familiar voice. A very long time in fact since she last heard this voice it was the day she got her cutie mark. “Well, look who's on the line,” a muscular voice spoke from the communicator. “How's my rainbow doing? Shocked?” Rainbow Dash spotted Fluttershy wearing the same communicator and replied, “yes, but how?” “It's all under the privileges,” Fluttershy replied, “adjacent to the classified technology we should've accessed ever since Twilight became royalty.” “Speak english,” Rainbow requested. The male voice, Rainbow's dad, chuckled. “It means you girls have beta access to new tech, such as cars and these nifty comms. Not to mention that two of you six are already in possession of the greatest tech ever…” “Who?” Rainbow Dash begged. “Who has it?” “Fluttershy, would you do the honors?” he asked to Fluttershy. Fluttershy nodded and pulled out a small test tube with a colored liquid in which Rainbow took. The cyan pegasus looked at her pegasus friend and asked, “what's this?” “Tomas serum, one of the four serums sir Cahill created,” Fluttershy replied. “Your branch's heritage.” Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy with an raised eyebrow. Her branch? Did Fluttershy meant— she did. Which meant she knew about the Cahills. And if she knew about the Cahills, Rainbow Dash thought, then she must've been a Cahill. As Rainbow Dash thinked deeper, something wasn't adding up. She was sure of it. She asked about this. "If you're you're one of my friends in possession of these techies," Rainbow began. "Then who's the other one?" “A Janus,” her dad hinted. “Most dramatic,” Fluttershy added. “And creates one-of-a-kind clothes,” they both chimed. Rainbow Dash lowered her eyebrow and her eyes widened in realization. “Rarity!?” “Did somepony call my name?” Fluttershy had to groan as she hid her “techie stuff” Rainbow named on them. She'd have to have a talk afterwards about item regulations and keeping these as a secret, as well as explaining why she frequently hides in her mane since she witnessed pulling the two communicators, which are telephones in reality, from her mane. Rainbow Factory, Cloudsdale Annex Madrigal Stronghold Blitz Splatter chuckled as his daughter and her friend sounded like they got into trouble. They always did since the day Twilight Sparkle came. That lavender princess. He wished that he'd met her personally while planning to embarrass her daughter. If he only he could visit Ponyville. He'd break a promise if he did… …no, he shouldn't have thought about it. He knew what will happen. Death to his best friend. It was all due to a sacrifice. Fluttershy’s Cottage and Animal Adoption Center, Ponyville Neutral(?) After Rarity left, Fluttershy faced Rainbow Dash who was still shocked on the revelation that Rarity had techies as well. “Now, how many branches do you think the Cahill family has?” Fluttershy took a piece of paper and wrote. “Four,” she replied. “Higher,” Fluttershy hinted. “You probably haven’t been warned by other ponies of Beware the Madrigals, do you?” “Uh…” Rainbow Dash nodded. “I was warned once, I don’t exactly remember when, but it involved something like thirty-nine things…” Fluttershy stopped and stared at her eyes, a hidden side sneaking out as she did so. Her voice also changed, shedding any of its kindness. “What, did you just said?” Author's Note Was supposed to have changelings and an OC showing up. III - First Attack“Did you just say… thirty nine things? A hunt?” Fluttershy asked as the rainbow maned pony recovered from the sudden change of tone. “Sweet gods and goddesses, there goes my plan of secretly recovering all thirty nine clues and trying to keep a secret out of it… Who won?” Rainbow raised her eyebrow. “What?” “I said, who won?” Fluttershy repeated as the kindness of her voice slowly returned. “Surely somepony won, since you actually remember having such. I wonder how the clue hunt even worked on this world since… it never happened.” “Never happened?” Rainbow became interested. “I still get the whole thing clear in my head!” Fluttershy’s interest perked up around the level when she first met Spike. “Do tell! Please do tell!” Fluttershy took out a camcorder and pressed the record button. “Hurry, before the Crystal Empire’s magical influence clears it out!” “Why?” Rainbow looked closely at Fluttershy’s eyes with a raised eyebrow. “Is it because one of the magical influences is making bad and dangerous events disappear and remove evidences of suc–” Rainbow stopped. Fluttershy pulled out a small device from her floor which looked like a miniature Crystal Empire piece and quickly hid it 10 seconds later. Rainbow Dash felt a slight headache as pictures of what seemed to be her actual memories flood her brain. Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash and took out painkillers from her medical kit and gave them to Rainbow Dash. She quickly took and drank all of the pills, and squeaked as she choked on a few. Fluttershy giggled and quickly stopped as she realized she saw fire from the cyan pegasus’s eyes. “Ten-hut!” Fluttershy quickly commanded in a Tomas accent and Rainbow Dash quickly stood and saluted. “Snap out of it, soldier! This is your friend Fluttershy here!” The two stared at each other before they fall into the floor laughing. After they finished laughing, a hologram of a pony appeared in the middle of the room they were in. Fluttershy bowed down while Rainbow Dash hesitated before she followed as well. After both of them raised up from their bows, the holographic pony went closer to Rainbow Dash. “You’ve defected,” she commented. “That’s something I never see for my life. Unless you know what’s her branch, that is.” “I actually have no idea she was a Cahill,” Rainbow Dash explained. “And she has stuff like this. To think that… Wait a bucking minute, who are you?” The holographic pony flinched. “Call me Vanilla, Tomas pony. You know the rest.” “Vanilla,” Rainbow Dash repeated as she wondered who was the holographic pony. “Okay. So, Vanilla, how are you–” she moved her cyan hoof across the hologram, “–doing this? Is this an actual hologram? Ohmygosh!” Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind her for a minute ‘Vanilla,’ that’s my friend Rainbow Dash over awesome things. She’s been like this since…she stepped into the neutralizing field.” “Yes, that neutralizing field,” the holographic pony repeated. “I swear by the old good King Sombra that she’ll be fine after she leaves the field. Apparently, if you stay for an hour near the crystal machine, the Crystal Empire is no effect until you stay there for five minutes.” “Why?” Rainbow asked, snapping herself back into the serious business area. “What will the Crystal Empire do anyway?” “It’s a project King Sombra and the Crystal Queen created to remove traces of pre-pony times,” Vanilla explained. “Only setback was that when it was first launched, all workers became the crystal ponies, and King Sombra…” The hologram shrugged. “Everypony then was happy. Too happy to remember that we had a war once with the other species.” “A war?” Rainbow Dash questioned. Fluttershy quickly shoved her off and stared at Vanilla. “She knows about the clue hunt, cutting communication! I need to give her the test first!” she told the hologram in an accent Rainbow Dash recognized but never identified. Before Rainbow Dash could recover, Fluttershy closed all of the doors and windows and opened a trapdoor from the floor, where she pulled Rainbow Dash in. Rainbow Dash’s POV (Ponyville’s Joint Madrigal Labyrinth) I woke up in an embarrassing position and quickly stood. It took sometime to realize that I was somewhere in the undergrounds of Ponyville, which I once suspected were Madrigal grounds. I guess it was since the room where I am have four doors. I head towards the blue door with the bear symbol carved on it, because it’s obviously my branch door. Or so I thought since I just ended up back on what seemed to be the same room, only with one black door and tons of changelings. I watch as a television screen show up beside the black door and saw a picture of… Queen Chrysalis. “Alright little Tomas pony,” a robotic voice told me. “Show me what you got. Defeat all of the changelings and find the key. Insert the key and answer one question, then you may pass into the next stage.” “Next stage?” I ask. “What’s the next stage?” This time, I think I heard Fluttershy’s voice. “Oh, you’ll see Rainbow Dash. Besides, I’m waiting for you over there. I think. I’m actually not sure how this place works since I never did visit this area once…” “What do you mean?” I look around and spot an M. “Are you…?” “I’m really, really, really sorry about it,” Fluttershy answered. “And since you’re here, you can’t really get out without doing all four challenges.” “And timer starts now,” the robotic voice announced. I closed my eyes as I hear hoofsteps and began to act by my instincts. Punch! Kick! Headbutt! More headbutts! After I got dizzy, I somehow managed to kick a few more changelings despite trying to recover myself. Must be because of my bloodline. “Impressive,” the robotic voice congratulated. “Get the key.” I quickly scanned the room and saw a golden stick which I quickly picked up and ran for the black door. I insert it in a keyhole and stared at the television. There were some letters on a black screen. What is the name of the changeling queen? A. Queen Chrysalis B. Queen Kahill C. Bug Queen With caution, I poked the screen. The whole screen went white then returned to the text selection. I played around, poking and making the screen white until I got bored and clicked A. The screen flashed green and immediately saw that the room was collapsing. I made a jump to the next room and saw three doors left. “I guess I’ll need to do this too, huh.” I looked at the yellow door. “Might as well… do the Ekat way!” I entered the room to find a very organized library. My brain immediately gave me two thoughts. One, find a Daring Do book. Two, find the next key and get out of the maze. I picked the second one and flew towards the next door and waited for the television. To my surprise, it was located right along the fiction section where thousands of awesome stuff were located. I smiled as the television came. Find the key and take it here, Find a book where Daring takes dare. It’s not under public’s care But Fluttershy owns a copy for a fare. I slammed a book into my head as I remember that Ekats are geniuses and are mostly made up of unicorns and earth ponies. That, and Cloudsdale is a unicorn pony invention for the pegasi. As I began to search, a part of me wants to stop. Another part of me wanted to destroy the door. Another part of me…somehow wants me to do this right for the cause. Anyways, after a whole shelf later, I find the book where the key was hidden. I stared at the title read it, “Daring Do and the Secret Stronghold. What a nice…oh.” I looked at the back and saw seven figures. I feel that recognize three of them. Might keep this book for more information. After I inserted the key, the television flashed a message for me. “Not all that reads books are eggheads, Dashie! I read books all the time!” “That sounds like something…” I stop and realized who said it once, particularly the day I discovered Daring Do. “Pinkie. Pinkie’s an Ekat.” I take the time and walked out of the next door to find two doors left. “Me and Applejack are Tomas, Pinkie’s an Ekat, Fluttershy’s… I still have no idea, and probably the most obvious of all about Rarity is that she’s a Janus. So it does make sense…but how…" A memory flashes and my eyes widen. It was somepony stealing something from my room back in Cloudsdale, a Tomas city. I quickly shrug it off and headed towards the next door, the red one. Normal POV (Lyra Heartstring’s Labyrinth Entrance/Secret Basement/Ponyville Madrigal Stronghold) Lyra, Fluttershy, and Bon Bon watched as Rainbow Dash passed the challenges with flying colors. Fluttershy giggled all of a sudden. “What’s funny?” Bon Bon asked to her Madrigal friend. Fluttershy faced Bon Bon and pulled out a small letter and gave it to Bon Bon. The earth pony make scanned and much to her shock, she dropped the letter and stared right at Fluttershy who had another letter for Rainbow Dash ready. “Are you mad?” Bon Bon asked. “You’re going out and spill all the secrets to her?” “I still remember crossing my heart not to tell anypony about humans,” Lyra chimed in. The two looked at the unicorn. “I’m not going to be chopped liver here, you know.” “Whatever Lyra,” Bon Bon countered. “Woah, Rainbow Dash is fast.” “Just like her dad,” Fluttershy added. “The only difference is that his dad was certified in Cloudsdale, and she’s gonna—” The door behind them gets unlocked and they watch as a cyan pegasus stumbled into Fluttershy and raising a hoof. Lyra chuckles while the others take her into a bed and left the room. A few hours later, Rainbow Dash woke up and looked to her left to find Fluttershy and Lyra Heartstrings staring at her while what seemed to be chess was laid in between them. Instinctively she sat, and asked how long she had been out. “Five hours,” Fluttershy replied. Rainbow began to panic. “Don’t worry, we got a changeling for your activities.” “Changelings?” Dash looked around and saw a few buzzing changelings. “I’m just for the food,” one of the changelings said. “That, and we’re just here to make sure that you’re fine.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash talked as they went towards Twilight’s castle, talking about virtually everything they could talk about from friendships to the egghead stuff Dash usually avoided. As they approached the castle doorway, Fluttershy took Rainbow Dash’s communicator and her own and threw it towards a small bin Bon Bon had. As they entered Rainbow remembered not to tell anypony or else she’ll be an outcast and Fluttershy will be forced to…drop her out. As they arrived in the throne room, the first thing they saw in the Cutie Map was the Cahill coat of arms and the four coat of arms of the Cahill branches. They also saw their other friends glaring at each other. “I hope this isn’t what I hoped would be,” Fluttershy whispered. “I hope,” Rainbow Dash answered with nervousness on her voice. “Let’s get to our seats quickly.” The two quickly went into their respective thrones and stared at the others. Twilight stomped a hoof on the cutie map and the five coat of arms vanished. She slumped in her chair afterwards. “Why didn’t you girls tell me?” she whispered loud enough. Fluttershy gulped, she wasn’t sure how to react at this point. “Tell what, egghead?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Ah rather step back…” Applejack told her. “Cousin.” “Oh, sh–" Fluttershy quickly plugged her mouth with her hoof. Everypony looked at Fluttershy who threw a neutralizing magic crystal into the center of the map. Before Twilight could’ve reacted, the crystal activates, knocking her out. Fluttershy immediately ran outside to be followed by Rainbow Dash who was chased by Pinkie Pie who was being chased by Applejack. “Hey Fluttershy,” Dash called as she caught up. “What’s the plan?” “Remove all traces!” Fluttershy commanded as they made a sharp turn. “And make sure we are still together.” “Why?” Rainbow Dash asked as they flew over a makeshift barricade and entered Lyra’s house through the back door. “Is it because Cahill ponies can’t reunite properly?” Fluttershy locked the door and paused. “Yes,” she admitted. “During the pre-pony times, it was said that some Human Madrigal Cahill united the whole family.” “Then why can't a PMC do the same?” Rainbow Dash questioned. Fluttershy looked at her. “Pony Madrigal Cahill.” Fluttershy thought for a few minutes before she answered. “Because of magic. It was always told that history repeats itself; apparently the clue hunt was that history that always repeated. I just hope the next of us doesn’t have to be the ones…” “Hey Flutters,” called the house owner. “I just found the remaining thirty eight clues.” “Where?” Rainbow Dash asked for Fluttershy. “Rarity’s house, I’m afraid.” The three looked at Bon Bon who looked different. Looked…older. Much older than the others. “I always knew that she had them, but I never knew that she’d also put my best friend’s efforts into waste by stealing it from the Madrigal vault which is now the ruins of the Everfree controlled by Tomas.” “Uh…” Lyra looked at the others before to Bon Bon and lit her horn. “Why do you look like that?” “This is how I look like Lyra,” she confessed. “I’m sorry about this. I hope you’ll understand that.” “Well, you are my best friend,” Lyra answered. “Right?” Fluttershy stared at Rainbow Dash as Bon Bon nodded yes. She is actually really freaked out by the events aside, and she just wanted to hide under her bed. The Next Day... Twilight Sparkle woke up with no memories of yesterday’s event. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both woke up laughing about the “dream" they just had. Rarity woke up and quickly started work even if most of Ponyville was just waking up. Rainbow Dash woke up facing a cloud statue of herself which fell to her face soon after. Fluttershy… was not home. She was supposed to handle a tea party with their friends but they couldn’t find a trace of her especially Rainbow Dash who had kept her dark memories. She felt like something was wrong. After the others had left, Rainbow headed to her bedroom and pulled out Daring Do and The Secret Stronghold and began to read it. As soon as she hit page five, she recognized a very familiar handwriting from a best friend. I’m sorry. Find me at the cave where the dragon once slept. -FS and BSBD Rainbow Dash closed the book and stared at a window pointed at The Mountain of Dragon Cavern… … And saw her friend practicing karate as a brown belt with a black belter. Dash blinked. Fluttershy had a brown belt? When did she got this belt? As soon as she stepped closer to investigate, the black belt pony stopped and Fluttershy immediately ran inside the cave. The black belt pony walked slowly towards Rainbow Dash blinked and slapped her. “What was that for?” she asked towards the mare who turned out to be… Bon Bon!? “How did you– what– holy scootz.” “That’s a welcoming towards the Madrigal compound,” Bon Bon replied and slapped again. “And that’s for trying to keep Madrigals a secret.” “Ow” was Rainbow Dash’s only answer as she dodge the third slap. “Stop that, please.” Bon Bon nodded. “I guess the name ‘BSBD’ tick anything of your head?” “Uh…not a clue,” Rainbow answered. “Unless…” Her answer was interrupted by a very familiar manly voice. “BON SWEETIE BON DROPS! GET YOUR CRAZY MADRIGAL EQUIPMENT OFF MY DAMN ROOM!And I hope you have an explanation why you used that name in most of your letters...” Intel - Letter 1Author's Note INCOMING TRANSMISSION THE LETTER WAS SENT TO FLUTTERSHY BY MADRIGALS. H.I.S.A. O.C.A.L. Intel - Letter 1 A Day Prior... Fluttershy looked at a parchment that was on her table and smiled. She remembered the time this letter arrived on her doorstep when she was just a filly in Canterlot, how her parents looked at the letter and gave it to her, and went with her towards the said location which was soon to be her future house. To whoever received this letter, If you have received this that means you are a Cahill, no matter how you are named. If you are not to believe me, then you can safely ignore this letter. I cannot say much to your life however. This family, the Cahill family, started long before the reign of Discord, during the time of the mythical two-legged creatures. A time which I simply call the pre-pony times. Through this, the Cahills controlled and shaped the world as it is today. You might wonder how this family existed long before our species came. I will tell you personally, but one thing I could say to you through this letter. It was not a coincidence how you ended up with this. You will know soon enough why. I know what you might be thinking. Is the Princesses Cahills? Is the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony Cahills? Is Starswirl the Bearded a Cahill? Is the writer of this letter a Cahill? All of those answers are simply yes. I am much of a Cahill as much as you. You might be also asking yourself how much the Cahills shaped Equestria. Almost all of it. From the layouts of the houses to the technology we use both in military and our regular lives. To how we made furniture. Cloudsdale, one of my favorite things the Cahills gave to all of us! And you can contribute something for the future. If you know what the Cahills are. Take note however, that there are groups that want power and control. Those groups are never to be trusted. Especially Madrigals. Those mysterious ponies who claim themselves Cahills... I am afraid I have been stalling. Meet me in Ponyville, at a cave hidden in plain sight. You know what cave it is. -BSBD
I - Naming the Ranks [Intervention]If Twilight Sparkle was to rate her forced betrayal to Starlight Glimmer due to the magic of friendship, it would ruin her internal reputation as the third Lucian Princess. However, the effect was only little due to her external reputation as the Princess of Friendship, causing major of the Lucians to think that she could unite all Cahills. If she could unite all Cahills... isn’t having her friends not Lucians enough? Applejack looked over Rainbow Dash’s cloud home before retiring into her room. If she wasn’t a Tomas herself, she should’ve... done something against her. But no, they’re both Tomas. The Apple clan explored lands before they settled in Ponyville, something Applejack wondered. Does that mean they were born explorers, not apple farmers? Thinking about it, she had asked about this once. She got her answer by her strength it seemed. As for her heritage— Knock. Knock. “It’s open,” Applejack muttered out, and a cyan pony opened the door. “Say, how much can you tell from a very distant relative under 1 minute?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking quite tired. Applejack looked up as she thought for an answer. “Probably the basics,” she concluded. “Why ya ask?” “Probably because of Derpy being...” Rainbow went closer. “Tomas of all branches...” “What?” Applejack faked a laugh. “I don’t see her having somethin’ similar to a typical Tomas.” “She wanders off a lot,” Dash excused, “especially in the Everfree Forest, even managing to pass the border we set for non-Tomas.” Everfree Forest, the Tomas Stronghold of the Earth Ponies. Created by forcing unicorns to make an unstable forest. Applejack could only think of the things Derpy might’ve known... Pinkie Pie looked at the window right near her bed as she reordered her bedroom again to accommodate her new set of styles. After staring outside towards a lit window of the Apple barn and in Twilight’s castle, she decided to write a letter for her parents, both Ekaterinas who control their rock farm/Ekat stronghold. It was a nice disguise considering her father’s talent included mining for different kinds of rocks and because of his knowledge of rocks helped Equestria to choose the correct rocks for houses. As she wrote, she took another peek outside only to find her sister in a rock-camouflage spying at her, waving. She waved back of course. Pinkie went back and finished her letter and ending it up with her usual “And that’s how Equestria was made” line. On normal ponies, it was just another random thing Pinkie made up for fun, but for the Cahills, they themselves founded Equestria after moving from Cahill Island, Ponylandia. Time passed to forget such thing, and only she remembers it. Well, all the Ekats remember it actually, they only don’t tell the real truth to decrease panic. Star Swirl the Bearded even tested it out himself what would happen if the public learned about the truth, only causing mass panic and a declaration of war against the Lucians, which Pinkie still avoided. Reason, random. The Next Day... Rarity woke up staring at a letter. She sat and read the letter. At once, she immediately came downwards into the lobby and set up shop. Seeing that the shop was ready, she went back to her room and looked at the letter again. She lit up her horn, levitated the letter against the window and read the secret text within the letter. "'Rarity Belle,'" she began. "'One of our Janus allies will arrive at your shop to talk about our next move.'" 'Next move to what?' she thought before continuing. "'Octavia Philharmonia and Lyra Heartstrings will come and talk about it. If you reject their offer, I'm setting you as an inactive Janus.' Well, at least I won't get anymore family-related issues if I rejected." Her words got herself thinking, what was the last time she took part in such issues? When her great-grandmother died, and she joined a hunt for the 39 clues? That was 5 years ago, and thinking about it, Twilight was there, competing against her. As a major realization struck like a spike to her chest, Rarity madly dashed towards her closet and pulled out a briefcase. She opened it, looked around, and stared at the five boxes inside of it. The 39 Clues. As soon as she heard knocking, she quickly closed and hid the briefcase then came down towards the door and smiled as her musician friends, Octavia and Lyra Heartstrings, entered the boutique. "Um... please don't tell me Rarity has all 39 clues hidden in her room," Fluttershy hypothesised. Her mother frowned. "I'm afraid that's true, dearie." Fluttershy looked at her before sighing. "... I promised myself not to attack anypony, especially my friends..." "You need to get 1/20 of each ingredient," her mother reminded, "besides, she can't make the serum without the formula which we have, right?" "Yeah, but you know Rarity–" She silenced herself after realizing who she was talking to. "Sorry mom." "It's okay," she replied. "How's Angel Bunny?" Shocked at the sudden change of subject, Fluttershy instinctively jumped but quickly took hold of herself. "He's doing fine, mother." "Keep him safe until he's ready," her mother noted. "I'm going to write me some adventure stories for you. Do you even read them?" Fluttershy gulped. "I have read a few..." "Oh, that counts. Bye!" Her mother then flew off. Fluttershy waited for her mother before she was out of sight before letting out a scream of joy. The others wouldn't believe about the most shy mare being related into the greatest adventurer/writer after all, so she checked on Angel Bunny who was looking at them during the conversation. Fluttershy smiled before realizing that Rainbow Dash was supposed to meet with her at the picnic grounds. Oops. At the picnic grounds, Rainbow Dash was about to leave until Fluttershy arrived panting. The cyan pegasus immediately saw something suspicious about Fluttershy but quickly dismissed it, knowing she's shy enough not to do anything wrong. Suddenly, Fluttershy gave Rainbow Dash a note and immediately left, muttering "sorry" as she goes. The pony left on the grounds read the note, and looked at where Fluttershy went, eye twitching in betrayal. "Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash flew towards somewhere as she left the letter on the picnic grounds for her other friends to read. YOU DON'T KNOW. WHAT THIS mEANS. BACKYARD AT MY HOUSE, R3STRICTED AREA 9 NOW. -DD/FS/SS PS: Be Kind To Knock What she didn't recognize was the small M which meant something Dash doesn't know, but Twilight did as she picked up the letter and read it. Rarity, who also noticed the small M, immediately headed back to Boutique to do something else. What they also missed was the second message which were the numbers 3 and 9, which was also the reason Rarity went off. Rarity knew that a Madrigal pony wanted to destroy all evidences. She hoped it wasn't Fluttershy or else everything would be destroyed, and the foundation of their friendship is ruined. "Who would use SS as their nickname?" Twilight wondered as a hologram of Princess Celestia flickered in front of her. "Maybe somepony who know a lot about Starswirl the Bearded," Celestia replied. "For some odd reason he's not showing up in our files, I thought he was a Lucian." "I thought he was an Ekat," Twilight objected, "much like my parents are." "Aren't you too, then?" Celestia teased. Twilight rolled her eyes in response. "Very funny and subtle, princess. Although it makes me wonder if I was an Ekat..." "No exclusive studies from me," Celestia joked again. Twilight rolled her eyes again before they both cackled into small humble laughter. They quickly stopped as the hologram disappeared and somepony with a mask entered her room. She looked around and searched for something, leaving everything in a mass. Twilight blinked and facehooved. That was the fifth time in the week for the mysterious pony to do it with her belongings. She would have to capture that mysterious pony— "Umpf!" Twilight looked at the mysterious pony who just tripped from one of her pencils, revealing yellow fur. Twilight went closer and removed the mask, to reveal the kindest of the kind faces of all of Ponyville has. "You!?" Fluttershy looked on the ground in shame as her five friends faced her, mad, confused, and upset. As they threw her questions, she could only think of the clues. The clues. Fluttershy smirked and whistled, causing them to stop. “What are you doing?” Twilight demanded. “Who really are you!?” “I’m Fluttershy,” she whispers. “We’re going through this again, huh?” Dash asked. “There must be a reason why she did that.” Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, her smirk condensed into an innocent smile. “There was.” “See?” Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy. “Why were you doing that?” I need Queen Kahill now, she thought. “I got lost, and I was wearing that ninja suit.” “Why were you searching for something then?” Twilight pointed out. Fluttershy kept smiling and made a fake oh sound. “I must’ve been on the wrong house.” “Well, that makes sense,” Twilight concluded. They all walked away until Rarity raised a note, causing Fluttershy to wince. “How about this note?” Rarity began. “Why are there numbers and a uncapitalized letter on it?” “Th-there is!?” Fluttershy took the note and looked at it. “I don’t see anything suspicious about this.” It was the Janus pony’s time to smirk. “How come, darling?” Buck. I’m screwed. “this isn’t my note, I must’ve switched it with another note,” Fluttershy lied. Rainbow Dash, who first read the note, stood up to protect Fluttershy by saying, “Yes, she did! We were s-supposed to meet at your house afterwards, right Flutters?” “Y-yes, right.” Phew. “I’m going home now,” she replied, taking the note and headed towards her cottage. As they all headed back home, Fluttershy kept thinking about how she was nearly spotted by her friends, how Rainbow Dash helped not blow her cover, how Rarity almost blew her cover, and how Twilight Sparkle and the rest was confused. She also noticed her back-up crew, a set of animal-understanding changelings under control of Madrigal changeling queen Kahill, didn’t act fast or so she thought since there was a changeling disguised at her in her cottage. The changeling looked up towards Fluttershy and quickly buzzed off. Fluttershy sighed in relief as she went towards her bed and flopped on it. Taking a very old Daring Do book named “Daring Do and the Secret Stronghold” from a shelf near her, she began to read the book while keeping in mind the writings that her mother wrote. One of them, written in six ink colors which reminded her of, well, friends. As she passed it, she noticed something with it and flipped it back to the page where she saw it. Page 39. She carefully began to read the six-inked writing while trying to analyze what it meant. One, ever loyal to her allies. Two, as kind as gentle as her eyes. Three, forever generous to everypony he sees. Four, sharing laughter by counts of trees. Five, honest as forever free. Six, leading the party with friendship at above. EoH = 39 Clues = Influential Ponies of All Time Flutter blinked. Does that mean that...? “Oh. My,” she muttered.
II - ShockFluttershy was shocked to learn that there were other Element bearers like there was the Cahill branches. In fact, clues were enough to tell her that A.K. Yearling, more secretly known as Daring Do, was an Element bearer herself. Fluttershy was more shocked that in all of the Elements she could be, she was the Element of Laughter. She guessed that being an optimistic Madrigal treasure hunter gave her the position of being the Ele— Fluttershy paused and thought. Did her mother posed as an Tomas member and because of this she became who she was, an adventurer with a knack of treasures? She could only giggle as she continued reading. It was page 43 until she immediately spotted a magenta eye peeking at her room, staring at her book. Fluttershy groaned in response. “Great, just great,” she muttered as the eye went away in the direction of the door. “Hide, hide hide hide hide…” It would only be a matter of time before her Daring Do-loving friends find out about her private collection of books and read the truth about the clue hunt in which Rarity was involved. If they did learn about this, the Elements of Harmony would've shattered like what has happened to her mother's group, according the last book she created in the series Fluttershy was reading of course. If Twilight Sparkle got ahold of the magic her mother used… Fluttershy paused and hid the book as soon as she heard knocking on her door. She looked outside through a hidden tunnel to find Rainbow Dash and went back to open the door. A soft clanging greeted Rainbow Dash a nice, warm, hello. “Was that a Daring Do book I saw?” Rainbow asked. “Oh, yes,” Fluttershy answered, smiling. “I didn’t knew you liked Daring Do as well,” Rainbow commented. "You have all of them?" “Um… Yes," Fluttershy replied. "I do have all of them, in mint collector's condition in fact.” “Really?” Rainbow's face lit up. “Can I see them?” “Well,” Fluttershy looked away. “I promised my mom not to show all of it to everypony…” Whoops. Rainbow Dash frowned before she caught something Fluttershy had said which made her think. According to a small picnic she had with Twilight where they traded Daring Do books and secrets, one of them being a fact that anypony who had a mint collector's edition of any book is a relative of Daring Do herself. So… “A.K. Yearling is your mom, right?” Rainbow asked, grinning rather largely. Fluttershy let out a small squeak before pulling out a wired communicator from her mane and placed it on Rainbow Dash's ear. Rainbow Dash heard nothing until she heard a very familiar voice. A very long time in fact since she last heard this voice it was the day she got her cutie mark. “Well, look who's on the line,” a muscular voice spoke from the communicator. “How's my rainbow doing? Shocked?” Rainbow Dash spotted Fluttershy wearing the same communicator and replied, “yes, but how?” “It's all under the privileges,” Fluttershy replied, “adjacent to the classified technology we should've accessed ever since Twilight became royalty.” “Speak english,” Rainbow requested. The male voice, Rainbow's dad, chuckled. “It means you girls have beta access to new tech, such as cars and these nifty comms. Not to mention that two of you six are already in possession of the greatest tech ever…” “Who?” Rainbow Dash begged. “Who has it?” “Fluttershy, would you do the honors?” he asked to Fluttershy. Fluttershy nodded and pulled out a small test tube with a colored liquid in which Rainbow took. The cyan pegasus looked at her pegasus friend and asked, “what's this?” “Tomas serum, one of the four serums sir Cahill created,” Fluttershy replied. “Your branch's heritage.” Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy with an raised eyebrow. Her branch? Did Fluttershy meant— she did. Which meant she knew about the Cahills. And if she knew about the Cahills, Rainbow Dash thought, then she must've been a Cahill. As Rainbow Dash thinked deeper, something wasn't adding up. She was sure of it. She asked about this. "If you're you're one of my friends in possession of these techies," Rainbow began. "Then who's the other one?" “A Janus,” her dad hinted. “Most dramatic,” Fluttershy added. “And creates one-of-a-kind clothes,” they both chimed. Rainbow Dash lowered her eyebrow and her eyes widened in realization. “Rarity!?” “Did somepony call my name?” Fluttershy had to groan as she hid her “techie stuff” Rainbow named on them. She'd have to have a talk afterwards about item regulations and keeping these as a secret, as well as explaining why she frequently hides in her mane since she witnessed pulling the two communicators, which are telephones in reality, from her mane. Rainbow Factory, Cloudsdale Annex Madrigal Stronghold Blitz Splatter chuckled as his daughter and her friend sounded like they got into trouble. They always did since the day Twilight Sparkle came. That lavender princess. He wished that he'd met her personally while planning to embarrass her daughter. If he only he could visit Ponyville. He'd break a promise if he did… …no, he shouldn't have thought about it. He knew what will happen. Death to his best friend. It was all due to a sacrifice. Fluttershy’s Cottage and Animal Adoption Center, Ponyville Neutral(?) After Rarity left, Fluttershy faced Rainbow Dash who was still shocked on the revelation that Rarity had techies as well. “Now, how many branches do you think the Cahill family has?” Fluttershy took a piece of paper and wrote. “Four,” she replied. “Higher,” Fluttershy hinted. “You probably haven’t been warned by other ponies of Beware the Madrigals, do you?” “Uh…” Rainbow Dash nodded. “I was warned once, I don’t exactly remember when, but it involved something like thirty-nine things…” Fluttershy stopped and stared at her eyes, a hidden side sneaking out as she did so. Her voice also changed, shedding any of its kindness. “What, did you just said?” Author's Note Was supposed to have changelings and an OC showing up.
III - First Attack“Did you just say… thirty nine things? A hunt?” Fluttershy asked as the rainbow maned pony recovered from the sudden change of tone. “Sweet gods and goddesses, there goes my plan of secretly recovering all thirty nine clues and trying to keep a secret out of it… Who won?” Rainbow raised her eyebrow. “What?” “I said, who won?” Fluttershy repeated as the kindness of her voice slowly returned. “Surely somepony won, since you actually remember having such. I wonder how the clue hunt even worked on this world since… it never happened.” “Never happened?” Rainbow became interested. “I still get the whole thing clear in my head!” Fluttershy’s interest perked up around the level when she first met Spike. “Do tell! Please do tell!” Fluttershy took out a camcorder and pressed the record button. “Hurry, before the Crystal Empire’s magical influence clears it out!” “Why?” Rainbow looked closely at Fluttershy’s eyes with a raised eyebrow. “Is it because one of the magical influences is making bad and dangerous events disappear and remove evidences of suc–” Rainbow stopped. Fluttershy pulled out a small device from her floor which looked like a miniature Crystal Empire piece and quickly hid it 10 seconds later. Rainbow Dash felt a slight headache as pictures of what seemed to be her actual memories flood her brain. Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash and took out painkillers from her medical kit and gave them to Rainbow Dash. She quickly took and drank all of the pills, and squeaked as she choked on a few. Fluttershy giggled and quickly stopped as she realized she saw fire from the cyan pegasus’s eyes. “Ten-hut!” Fluttershy quickly commanded in a Tomas accent and Rainbow Dash quickly stood and saluted. “Snap out of it, soldier! This is your friend Fluttershy here!” The two stared at each other before they fall into the floor laughing. After they finished laughing, a hologram of a pony appeared in the middle of the room they were in. Fluttershy bowed down while Rainbow Dash hesitated before she followed as well. After both of them raised up from their bows, the holographic pony went closer to Rainbow Dash. “You’ve defected,” she commented. “That’s something I never see for my life. Unless you know what’s her branch, that is.” “I actually have no idea she was a Cahill,” Rainbow Dash explained. “And she has stuff like this. To think that… Wait a bucking minute, who are you?” The holographic pony flinched. “Call me Vanilla, Tomas pony. You know the rest.” “Vanilla,” Rainbow Dash repeated as she wondered who was the holographic pony. “Okay. So, Vanilla, how are you–” she moved her cyan hoof across the hologram, “–doing this? Is this an actual hologram? Ohmygosh!” Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind her for a minute ‘Vanilla,’ that’s my friend Rainbow Dash over awesome things. She’s been like this since…she stepped into the neutralizing field.” “Yes, that neutralizing field,” the holographic pony repeated. “I swear by the old good King Sombra that she’ll be fine after she leaves the field. Apparently, if you stay for an hour near the crystal machine, the Crystal Empire is no effect until you stay there for five minutes.” “Why?” Rainbow asked, snapping herself back into the serious business area. “What will the Crystal Empire do anyway?” “It’s a project King Sombra and the Crystal Queen created to remove traces of pre-pony times,” Vanilla explained. “Only setback was that when it was first launched, all workers became the crystal ponies, and King Sombra…” The hologram shrugged. “Everypony then was happy. Too happy to remember that we had a war once with the other species.” “A war?” Rainbow Dash questioned. Fluttershy quickly shoved her off and stared at Vanilla. “She knows about the clue hunt, cutting communication! I need to give her the test first!” she told the hologram in an accent Rainbow Dash recognized but never identified. Before Rainbow Dash could recover, Fluttershy closed all of the doors and windows and opened a trapdoor from the floor, where she pulled Rainbow Dash in. Rainbow Dash’s POV (Ponyville’s Joint Madrigal Labyrinth) I woke up in an embarrassing position and quickly stood. It took sometime to realize that I was somewhere in the undergrounds of Ponyville, which I once suspected were Madrigal grounds. I guess it was since the room where I am have four doors. I head towards the blue door with the bear symbol carved on it, because it’s obviously my branch door. Or so I thought since I just ended up back on what seemed to be the same room, only with one black door and tons of changelings. I watch as a television screen show up beside the black door and saw a picture of… Queen Chrysalis. “Alright little Tomas pony,” a robotic voice told me. “Show me what you got. Defeat all of the changelings and find the key. Insert the key and answer one question, then you may pass into the next stage.” “Next stage?” I ask. “What’s the next stage?” This time, I think I heard Fluttershy’s voice. “Oh, you’ll see Rainbow Dash. Besides, I’m waiting for you over there. I think. I’m actually not sure how this place works since I never did visit this area once…” “What do you mean?” I look around and spot an M. “Are you…?” “I’m really, really, really sorry about it,” Fluttershy answered. “And since you’re here, you can’t really get out without doing all four challenges.” “And timer starts now,” the robotic voice announced. I closed my eyes as I hear hoofsteps and began to act by my instincts. Punch! Kick! Headbutt! More headbutts! After I got dizzy, I somehow managed to kick a few more changelings despite trying to recover myself. Must be because of my bloodline. “Impressive,” the robotic voice congratulated. “Get the key.” I quickly scanned the room and saw a golden stick which I quickly picked up and ran for the black door. I insert it in a keyhole and stared at the television. There were some letters on a black screen. What is the name of the changeling queen? A. Queen Chrysalis B. Queen Kahill C. Bug Queen With caution, I poked the screen. The whole screen went white then returned to the text selection. I played around, poking and making the screen white until I got bored and clicked A. The screen flashed green and immediately saw that the room was collapsing. I made a jump to the next room and saw three doors left. “I guess I’ll need to do this too, huh.” I looked at the yellow door. “Might as well… do the Ekat way!” I entered the room to find a very organized library. My brain immediately gave me two thoughts. One, find a Daring Do book. Two, find the next key and get out of the maze. I picked the second one and flew towards the next door and waited for the television. To my surprise, it was located right along the fiction section where thousands of awesome stuff were located. I smiled as the television came. Find the key and take it here, Find a book where Daring takes dare. It’s not under public’s care But Fluttershy owns a copy for a fare. I slammed a book into my head as I remember that Ekats are geniuses and are mostly made up of unicorns and earth ponies. That, and Cloudsdale is a unicorn pony invention for the pegasi. As I began to search, a part of me wants to stop. Another part of me wanted to destroy the door. Another part of me…somehow wants me to do this right for the cause. Anyways, after a whole shelf later, I find the book where the key was hidden. I stared at the title read it, “Daring Do and the Secret Stronghold. What a nice…oh.” I looked at the back and saw seven figures. I feel that recognize three of them. Might keep this book for more information. After I inserted the key, the television flashed a message for me. “Not all that reads books are eggheads, Dashie! I read books all the time!” “That sounds like something…” I stop and realized who said it once, particularly the day I discovered Daring Do. “Pinkie. Pinkie’s an Ekat.” I take the time and walked out of the next door to find two doors left. “Me and Applejack are Tomas, Pinkie’s an Ekat, Fluttershy’s… I still have no idea, and probably the most obvious of all about Rarity is that she’s a Janus. So it does make sense…but how…" A memory flashes and my eyes widen. It was somepony stealing something from my room back in Cloudsdale, a Tomas city. I quickly shrug it off and headed towards the next door, the red one. Normal POV (Lyra Heartstring’s Labyrinth Entrance/Secret Basement/Ponyville Madrigal Stronghold) Lyra, Fluttershy, and Bon Bon watched as Rainbow Dash passed the challenges with flying colors. Fluttershy giggled all of a sudden. “What’s funny?” Bon Bon asked to her Madrigal friend. Fluttershy faced Bon Bon and pulled out a small letter and gave it to Bon Bon. The earth pony make scanned and much to her shock, she dropped the letter and stared right at Fluttershy who had another letter for Rainbow Dash ready. “Are you mad?” Bon Bon asked. “You’re going out and spill all the secrets to her?” “I still remember crossing my heart not to tell anypony about humans,” Lyra chimed in. The two looked at the unicorn. “I’m not going to be chopped liver here, you know.” “Whatever Lyra,” Bon Bon countered. “Woah, Rainbow Dash is fast.” “Just like her dad,” Fluttershy added. “The only difference is that his dad was certified in Cloudsdale, and she’s gonna—” The door behind them gets unlocked and they watch as a cyan pegasus stumbled into Fluttershy and raising a hoof. Lyra chuckles while the others take her into a bed and left the room. A few hours later, Rainbow Dash woke up and looked to her left to find Fluttershy and Lyra Heartstrings staring at her while what seemed to be chess was laid in between them. Instinctively she sat, and asked how long she had been out. “Five hours,” Fluttershy replied. Rainbow began to panic. “Don’t worry, we got a changeling for your activities.” “Changelings?” Dash looked around and saw a few buzzing changelings. “I’m just for the food,” one of the changelings said. “That, and we’re just here to make sure that you’re fine.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash talked as they went towards Twilight’s castle, talking about virtually everything they could talk about from friendships to the egghead stuff Dash usually avoided. As they approached the castle doorway, Fluttershy took Rainbow Dash’s communicator and her own and threw it towards a small bin Bon Bon had. As they entered Rainbow remembered not to tell anypony or else she’ll be an outcast and Fluttershy will be forced to…drop her out. As they arrived in the throne room, the first thing they saw in the Cutie Map was the Cahill coat of arms and the four coat of arms of the Cahill branches. They also saw their other friends glaring at each other. “I hope this isn’t what I hoped would be,” Fluttershy whispered. “I hope,” Rainbow Dash answered with nervousness on her voice. “Let’s get to our seats quickly.” The two quickly went into their respective thrones and stared at the others. Twilight stomped a hoof on the cutie map and the five coat of arms vanished. She slumped in her chair afterwards. “Why didn’t you girls tell me?” she whispered loud enough. Fluttershy gulped, she wasn’t sure how to react at this point. “Tell what, egghead?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Ah rather step back…” Applejack told her. “Cousin.” “Oh, sh–" Fluttershy quickly plugged her mouth with her hoof. Everypony looked at Fluttershy who threw a neutralizing magic crystal into the center of the map. Before Twilight could’ve reacted, the crystal activates, knocking her out. Fluttershy immediately ran outside to be followed by Rainbow Dash who was chased by Pinkie Pie who was being chased by Applejack. “Hey Fluttershy,” Dash called as she caught up. “What’s the plan?” “Remove all traces!” Fluttershy commanded as they made a sharp turn. “And make sure we are still together.” “Why?” Rainbow Dash asked as they flew over a makeshift barricade and entered Lyra’s house through the back door. “Is it because Cahill ponies can’t reunite properly?” Fluttershy locked the door and paused. “Yes,” she admitted. “During the pre-pony times, it was said that some Human Madrigal Cahill united the whole family.” “Then why can't a PMC do the same?” Rainbow Dash questioned. Fluttershy looked at her. “Pony Madrigal Cahill.” Fluttershy thought for a few minutes before she answered. “Because of magic. It was always told that history repeats itself; apparently the clue hunt was that history that always repeated. I just hope the next of us doesn’t have to be the ones…” “Hey Flutters,” called the house owner. “I just found the remaining thirty eight clues.” “Where?” Rainbow Dash asked for Fluttershy. “Rarity’s house, I’m afraid.” The three looked at Bon Bon who looked different. Looked…older. Much older than the others. “I always knew that she had them, but I never knew that she’d also put my best friend’s efforts into waste by stealing it from the Madrigal vault which is now the ruins of the Everfree controlled by Tomas.” “Uh…” Lyra looked at the others before to Bon Bon and lit her horn. “Why do you look like that?” “This is how I look like Lyra,” she confessed. “I’m sorry about this. I hope you’ll understand that.” “Well, you are my best friend,” Lyra answered. “Right?” Fluttershy stared at Rainbow Dash as Bon Bon nodded yes. She is actually really freaked out by the events aside, and she just wanted to hide under her bed. The Next Day... Twilight Sparkle woke up with no memories of yesterday’s event. Applejack and Pinkie Pie both woke up laughing about the “dream" they just had. Rarity woke up and quickly started work even if most of Ponyville was just waking up. Rainbow Dash woke up facing a cloud statue of herself which fell to her face soon after. Fluttershy… was not home. She was supposed to handle a tea party with their friends but they couldn’t find a trace of her especially Rainbow Dash who had kept her dark memories. She felt like something was wrong. After the others had left, Rainbow headed to her bedroom and pulled out Daring Do and The Secret Stronghold and began to read it. As soon as she hit page five, she recognized a very familiar handwriting from a best friend. I’m sorry. Find me at the cave where the dragon once slept. -FS and BSBD Rainbow Dash closed the book and stared at a window pointed at The Mountain of Dragon Cavern… … And saw her friend practicing karate as a brown belt with a black belter. Dash blinked. Fluttershy had a brown belt? When did she got this belt? As soon as she stepped closer to investigate, the black belt pony stopped and Fluttershy immediately ran inside the cave. The black belt pony walked slowly towards Rainbow Dash blinked and slapped her. “What was that for?” she asked towards the mare who turned out to be… Bon Bon!? “How did you– what– holy scootz.” “That’s a welcoming towards the Madrigal compound,” Bon Bon replied and slapped again. “And that’s for trying to keep Madrigals a secret.” “Ow” was Rainbow Dash’s only answer as she dodge the third slap. “Stop that, please.” Bon Bon nodded. “I guess the name ‘BSBD’ tick anything of your head?” “Uh…not a clue,” Rainbow answered. “Unless…” Her answer was interrupted by a very familiar manly voice. “BON SWEETIE BON DROPS! GET YOUR CRAZY MADRIGAL EQUIPMENT OFF MY DAMN ROOM!And I hope you have an explanation why you used that name in most of your letters...”
Intel - Letter 1Author's Note INCOMING TRANSMISSION THE LETTER WAS SENT TO FLUTTERSHY BY MADRIGALS. H.I.S.A. O.C.A.L. Intel - Letter 1 A Day Prior... Fluttershy looked at a parchment that was on her table and smiled. She remembered the time this letter arrived on her doorstep when she was just a filly in Canterlot, how her parents looked at the letter and gave it to her, and went with her towards the said location which was soon to be her future house. To whoever received this letter, If you have received this that means you are a Cahill, no matter how you are named. If you are not to believe me, then you can safely ignore this letter. I cannot say much to your life however. This family, the Cahill family, started long before the reign of Discord, during the time of the mythical two-legged creatures. A time which I simply call the pre-pony times. Through this, the Cahills controlled and shaped the world as it is today. You might wonder how this family existed long before our species came. I will tell you personally, but one thing I could say to you through this letter. It was not a coincidence how you ended up with this. You will know soon enough why. I know what you might be thinking. Is the Princesses Cahills? Is the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony Cahills? Is Starswirl the Bearded a Cahill? Is the writer of this letter a Cahill? All of those answers are simply yes. I am much of a Cahill as much as you. You might be also asking yourself how much the Cahills shaped Equestria. Almost all of it. From the layouts of the houses to the technology we use both in military and our regular lives. To how we made furniture. Cloudsdale, one of my favorite things the Cahills gave to all of us! And you can contribute something for the future. If you know what the Cahills are. Take note however, that there are groups that want power and control. Those groups are never to be trusted. Especially Madrigals. Those mysterious ponies who claim themselves Cahills... I am afraid I have been stalling. Meet me in Ponyville, at a cave hidden in plain sight. You know what cave it is. -BSBD
