Author's Note

Since the last chapter was very unexpected and seemed a little pointless, I thought I'd explain everything. This will hopefully clear up any questions for the last chapter or any other previous chapters.

VII: The Conspiracy

Nothing made sense. Everyone was dying so quickly. It might never end. Why did Fluttershy go so mad? I thought Applejack had a very strong mind. She was one of the elements, after all. That just goes to show how fragile the mind is. It made me shiver just thinking about it.

Something told me deep down inside that there was a far more sinister reason to these deaths.

Ten hours in the burning rays of Celestia's sun weren't the best thing for us. Rarity had dressed us up so much you could barely recognise us. At least there was one less thing to worry about. At this point I couldn't tell how close to Manehatten we even were. We had already gone through half of our water, and of course one certain mare was very picky about food, even in this situation.

I couldn't take this. None of us could. But we had to keep walking. It was the only way we could save Twilight, and turning ourselves in would be cowardly. I also wanted to save her, she was a dear friend of mine, and the others too.

"LOOK!" Dash shouted, pointing her hoof in another direction. It was a cabin. A rotten old cabin. It looked like it could fall at any moment. I was surprised it was still standing considering the wind in this area.

"What? You want me to go in there?" Rarity cried.

"Well, yes. We may not have a CHOICE!" Dash cried back. Rarity stayed quiet.

We looked around for anything that could possibly be useful to us. Pinkie found a few bottles of water and Rarity found a broken compass. Luckily it was only cracked and still slightly readable. It was at that moment that we realised how dark it was outside. We would have to stay at the cabin.

We sorted out rooms. Rarity, Dash and Pinkie would sleep in the living room, whilst us three stallions would sleep in the bedroom. It wasn't exactly fair, and we did have a little quarrel about it, but we finally decided that it didn't matter much anyway. I walked into the bedroom to find Big Mac writing in his diary. I assumed it was about his sister. He glanced at me and slid it behind his back.

"You can't fool me, you know." I said jokingly. He smirked, and then proceeded to leave the room, still holding the diary. Suddenly Pinkie crashed into him. He dropped the diary. I looked at it. I wasn't one to invade other ponies' privacy, but something didn't seem right.

I swept it up and threw it behind me. He got up, brushing himself off, and then looked at the floor.

"Goddammit. Where'd it go?" He sighed as he scanned the floor. I slowly trotted backwards. I grabbed the diary and flipped to the first page. It was basic diary stuff. Embarrassing secrets and basic daily life. I actually smiled. He had a fun life, unlike me. My childhood was full of abuse and underage drinking. Then I flipped to the last page. My heart stopped.

Dear Diary,

I'm starting to think I should give this up. It's stupidly dangerous. Of course I'm not talking about the adventure here. I've been deceiving my friends. I am a proud member of the ESF, and always will be. I don't want Tango to get in that facility. That's why I lied about the location. I slipped up at one point, but he didn't seem to notice much. At least I don't think so. It's also why I got Shining Armour to mind control those two dumb mares. One of them was my sister, but I don't care. Praise be the ESF.

Big Mac

I couldn't bloody believe it. Those bastards. They tricked me. They tricked everyone. Big Mac had lied to me. He killed Fluttershy, and even his own sister! I couldn't believe Shining Armour would even assist him! That's when I realised Big Mac was looking right at me.

"That's not yours to look at Tango." He said, trotting over to me, malice in his eyes.

"You son of a bitch. Both of you." I said.

"Oh. I guess you read the last page. Well, you see, I can't let you win. The ESF are very important you see, and we can't let simpletons like you in our facility."

I got mad. Very mad. "I'VE BEEN IN THAT FACILITY MULTIPLE TIMES!" I yelled.

"Then why couldn't you remember where it was? I had to tell you, and you believed me." Big Mac stated. I froze. He was right. I didn't remember where it was. But it didn't make what he was doing right.

"I won't let you or Shining Armour get away with this... this... conspiracy!" I yelled, tearing up slightly. The others cowered in the corner in shock and terror. "YOU KILLED YOUR OWN SISTER BECAUSE OF SCIENCE!"

"No, Shining killed her. Isn't that right?" He looked over to Shining, who was beginning to sweat heavily.

"Yes. Yes, I did. But that doesn't make things any b-" Big Mac bucked him right in the face. A tooth skipped across the floorboards. He clattered to the ground, almost breaking the floorboards underneath his limp body.

"Shut up. Peasant. As for you, Tango." He pounced on me. Surely enough, he tackled me to the floor, splinters from the floorboards sinking into my flesh. He bucked my chest. Then he trotted over to the other ponies. He dealt them all blows to the head, and the last thing I saw was his blood soaked hoof approaching my muzzle, before everything went black.

This was clearly a bigger deal than I ever imagined. I just found out one of the most mute stallions in Equestria is actually a mad stallion hellbent of preventing my plans to save Twilight. Little did I know that this rabbit hole of conspiracies went much, much deeper. Deeper than ever before. Deeper than any mind could ever imagine.