MLP: The Second Chapter

Meanwhile, Midnight Mare continued trekking across Equestria, building her forces. In town after town, her message to the poorest ponies was that the rich ponies were out to get them and the only way to stop them was to overthrow them. Her message to the dumbest of ponies was that the ponies who retained most of the intellect in Equestria were out to do the same thing. Her solution? Why, beat them with mindless violence, of course. She preached of a glorious future where everypony got their fair share. Soon, many towns were abuzz with this new foal, Ponita, and her message of getting even with the ponies they saw as oppressive. Foals were joining her by the hundreds, and older ponies as well.

Soon, her army numbered well towards 1,000 ponies. But, she kept every one of her branches a secret from the other in order to minimize their presence in the land and thus avoid capture. But, the secrets would all be revealed in due time. Soon, she would gather them all in a centralized location and march on Ponyville, to kill her parents. After that, the fires of friendship would be forever snuffed and she could use her terrific magical ability to bring forth a hell that Equestria had never witnessed before.

On this journey of hers, she had been honing her craft. She had picked up some dark magic from a pony witch outside of Baltimare, and combined it with her ability to control the very heavens. She would make it rain on ponies she didn't care for, just to watch them run around in bewilderment. She would sit back on her tiny haunches and laugh uproariously at the sight. Oh, how stupid my own species is, she would think maliciously, to think that they don't even bother investigating the origins of such a cloud. They must think Cloudsdale has it in for them!

Speaking of Cloudsdale, she was quickly building a large corps of Pegasi within her ranks. After finishing the recruiting, or as she referred to it, the "soft enslavement," of a town named Maneford, she looked up and noticed that she was only a few miles away from the floating town that was responsible for all of Equestria's weather. So, she turned to the five Pegasi foals that she had just recruited and pointed up to Cloudsdale. They nodded and zoomed towards the clouds. She followed suit, beating her small wings just enough to keep her airborne, but not enough to get there in a great hurry. She wanted her new Pegasi soldiers to do the job for her.

When she arrived a couple of hours later, they reported to her with great gusto and showed her the work they had accomplished. She was thrilled that in such a short amount of time, they had managed to recruit 7 new foals and 3 new adults to join their cause. Perfect, she said to herself, these idiots really will believe anything, even from the mouths of the smallest among them. Such gullible pieces of pony garbage.

Externally, she worked her Ponita disguise and innocently conveyed her message. She made it seem like the only way to rectify the apparent "unfairness" in the land was to hurt or kill all of the richest or smartest ponies. The dimwitted Pegasi that stood before her swallowed her message hook, line, and sinker. They had all been drop outs of the School of Flight in Cloudsdale, because they could neither fly nor study, and they hated Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts for their success. When they heard how Ponita had a "grand plan" for destroying that particular organization, they jumped on board immediately.

As Midnight Mare continued blazing a fiery, yet secretive trail across the land, Starlight Glimmer hopped on a train and began looking for clues. She had told Twilight and Flash about her self-imposed mission, and received a heaping helping of praise and thanks from the frightened and upset parents. Her plan was simple: if nopony knew where Midnight was, then she must have been able to use magic to get her where she needed to go. How she did this, Starlight wasn't quite sure, but she would search every town in Equestria if she needed to.

Her first stop was the train's first stop, a small village just north of Ponyville named Hoofington. Not too many ponies lived there, but the town did contain a few small stores and cottages that dotted the countryside. Most of the ponies there were Earth ponies, farmers who tilled the land and raised their crops in peace. Still, Midnight's message of violent vengeance had managed to reach the ears of the farmers thanks to her conversations on the train and they were split on things. Some of them agreed with it, and some of them didn't.

Starlight got off the train and wandered the main street of the small town, looking for any sign that Midnight might have stopped there. In her distracted wandering, she got tangled up with one of the farmers and both of them went tumbling to the dusty ground. "Hey!" The farmer said indignantly, "watch where yer steppin' there, little lady!" He had a thick country accent, and it reminded her of Applejack.

"So sorry, sir," she said apologetically, "but I'm in a bit of a rush. Have you seen this filly?" She produced a drawing of Midnight that she had acquired before she left Ponyville. The farmer shook his head. "Sorry, miss," he said, "but I reckon I ain't never seen hide nor hair of no pony like that."

"Well, has anypony come through here and said anything vengeful or cold hearted?" Starlight asked. She had checked Midnight's room before she left Ponyville, to see if the young filly had left any clues as to where she might go. Luckily for her, she found Midnight's small manifesto and it preached horrible things about violence towards the parental figures of Equestria and killing all the big foals. She had been so shocked at the outrage that poured forth from the pages that she nearly second guessed her journey. But she knew that she had to try and Midnight and the prophecy.

The farmer nodded, "yep! Some brown filly came through town just a few days ago. Said somethin' about beatin' up rich and smart ponies. I didn't believe a word of it! Bunch of poppycock and drivel, if ya ask me. By the way, why are you so dang interested in findin' this partic'lar filly?"

"Because if I don't find her, Equestria is doomed! You'll all lose your farms!"

"Oh, great," the grouchy farmer muttered, "another politician pony."

"No! I'm no politician! I'm the guidance counselor at Twilight's School of Friendship, Starlight Glimmer, and this is insanely urgent! Please, where did this brown filly go?"

"I 'spect she got back on that thar train and ran north to Manehattan. But, while you're here, maybe you can help us out."

"Help you with what?"

"Well, that brown filly's message tore a hole in our town somethin' powerful. We could really use somepony like you to help us fix stuff."

"Oh, alright, but I don't have time to dawdle! I need to find this filly! It's incredibly important!"

"Alright, alright! Don't get yer tail in a twist! Cinnamon Spice?!" He suddenly called out. A pretty young mare, with a coat the color of cinnamon and eyes to match, came out of one of the small shops and trotted over to where they were. "Yes, what is it, Apple Core?"

"Wait a minute…Apple Core?" Starlight asked. The grizzled farmer nodded. "Are you, by any chance, a relative of Applejack?"

"Applejack?! Shoot, that's my niece! She's one of the greatest little farmers Equestria's ever seen! She done our family mighty proud with that apple farm o' hers. Just a darn shame her parents aren't 'round to see it. Her daddy was my big brother."

The older pony stopped and wiped a tear from his eye. "I'm sorry for your loss," Starlight said genuinely. She didn't want to make the other pony's hurt seem irrelevant, but she was in a hurry. He turned and smiled at her. "Thanks. It's just somethin' I've learned to live with. But, anyway, Cinnamon, could you explain to this here mare what kinda trouble we've been havin'?"

Cinnamon turned to Starlight, "well, it all started when this small brown filly…"

"Yeah, I know about the small brown filly. I think it's actually this one." She pulled out the picture and showed it to Cinnamon. She examined it. "I don't think so," she said, "this other one was brown and that one looks like a mixture of black and white."

"I believe she might be using magic to dupe ponies into thinking she's somepony that she's not."

"Well, that makes sense. Anyway, this filly came through town spreadin' her message of hate and vengeance and whatnot, and then suddenly, half of our farmers went to protestin' like Nightmare Moon was on their hooves! The other half attacked them, and before we knew it, we had a full blown farmer's war on our hooves!"

"Can I see the leader of one of the factions? Maybe I can talk some sense into 'em."

"Well, one's standin' right behind ya."

She turned and saw Apple Core. "Wait…he's a leader of one of the factions?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The farmer responded proudly, "I lead the side that's right! The side that didn't believe nothin' that foolish foal was spoutin'! Ain't nothin' gonna keep me from tendin' to my apple crops and raisin' my family in peace."

"So…you attacked the protestors because you want to live in peace? Isn't that kind of contradictory?"

"Well, we didn't actually attack 'em with violence…"

"Then what did you attack them with?"

"Insults," he said, "we told 'em all that their mothers were timber wolves and their fathers were great worms from deep underground. That woulda fixed 'em, but the darn whippersnappers just kept comin' back for more!"

Starlight sighed and smacked her face with a hoof. "Can't you ponies just learn to get along? Everything Midnight told you was a lie!"

"HA! I KNEW IT! I KNEW…"

"Just a minute," Starlight said, "that doesn't mean I support your side, either. Hurling petty insults at somepony is no way to resolve a conflict. There's this thing called compromise. It's what friends do."

"Compromisin', huh?" The grizzled one said as he stroked his chin with a hoof, "I guess we could try that. But if Biscuit won't listen to reason…"

"Biscuit?"

"Biscuit Square," Cinnamon said, "the name of the pony who leads the half of the farmers who side with that small brown filly."

Starlight sighed, "look, I wish I could stay and help you out more, but I have to find Midnight! For now, here's my advice. Meet and talk it over. See if you can't hash things out between you. I have faith that you can. You're all strong and intelligent ponies. Heck, you know way more about farming than the average pony does! So why don't you use those brains of yours and work out a solution to this problem? When you do, write to me or visit me in Ponyville. I'd love to hear about your progress!"

She finished and smiled. Apple Core and Cinnamon smiled back at her. "Yeah, I guess we could try that, now couldn't we?" Apple Core said, "maybe Biscuit will be willin' to listen."

"Maybe, but it sure beats hearin' you two hurl insults at each other all day!"

The two ponies gave their thanks to Starlight, and Cinnamon told her that she had witnessed Midnight hopping back on the train headed for Manehattan. Starlight thanked them and hurried back to catch the next train to the biggest city in Equestria. She was incredibly concerned about the safety of the ponies there. If Midnight's in Manehattan, she thought, there's no telling what kind of trouble she'll cause.