Night in Crystal City

I could smell something mildly aromatic with a hint of smoke, something like incense. "Luna?" I breathed inadvertently, already knowing that my time with her was over. My body was sore and my bleary eyes focused in and out in pulses like a heartbeat.

I could hear the soft trill of night time insects drifting through a tipped open window. My surroundings were dark save for the dim flicker of a lantern. The flame's frenetic dance made strange shadows tremble on the wall, bringing the room to life. Weird faces and bushels of dried herbs seemed to animate in the light. It was nice that I'd survived but where the hell was I?

Somewhat worried, I sat up, ignoring my body's protests and lit up my horn for a better look. The simple fact that my spell worked at all was a considerable relief to me. Waking up clamped was a constant fear of mine now. I scanned over the rustic interior of the cottage. Masks on the walls, potions and vials on crowded shelves, an array of dried leaves and flowers hung meticulously over a cold black cauldron sitting upon a fire pit in the middle of the room. It didn't look like your average pony's house.

When I got to my far left, I saw a hammock stretched between the wall and a robust upright support beam. A zebra laid inside visoring her sleepy eyes from my light with one hoof.

"Who are you?" I croaked groggily before lowering my light to save her eyes.

"My name is Zecora. You're in the Everfree. No guards come in. No need to worry."

I raised an eyebrow at her oddly metered response, wondering if it was purposeful or just a weird accident. I guess I made it. I was supposedly right where I wanted to be but I needed details. I couldn't just canvas the whole Everfree Forest. I had to find local police and do reconnaissance for a more pointed lead.

"Everfree Forest?" I muttered. "That's Ponyville adjacent, right?"

"Indeed it is. Is that where you're going? Lay back down. Your wound is showing." She pointed to my side where a shell of soft gray mud had cracked and sloughed off of me, revealing a shallow but large scrape in my skin.

"Oh," I groaned, laying carefully back down. It wasn't until that moment that I realized that I was probably stealing her bed.

Suddenly she was at my side, pushing me softly with two hooves. "Lay on your right and I'll put more on. By break of day, the scrape should be gone."

"Thank you," I sighed, settling into the prescribed position. I flinched as she poured cold mud on my wound and began spreading it like frosting on a cake.

"I found you like this on the river bank. Lucky for you you never sank. Your book and things are hung up and drying… Why come out here and risk dying?"

I turned my head slightly to look up at her. "It's a long story but I'm looking for my sister, Twilight Sparkle. Last I heard, Crystal Empire officers were searching for her in the forest. Have you seen her at all or heard anything?"

Something sparked in the zebra's eyes. "You are her brother?" she laughed. "That is a surprise. It's been years since I saw Twilight with my own eyes."

I grumbled in my throat even knowing my hope of getting directions or just tripping over Twili's doorstep was unrealistic. "So you know her but you haven't seen her since the takeover? You're probably the only two living out here. If I was hiding out in the Everfree Forest and I knew someone there, I'd probably go to them."

The zebra shook her head. "Avoiding guards means avoiding town. That's the state I'm in. I am independent as I've always been. In times like these, when you're over a barrel, friends can help you up or put you in peril. If Twilight wishes to stay unknown, she may be better off alone."

"That is also true," I agreed, watching a moth kiss the light of the lamp. She does have a big target on her head."

Zecora put the mud jar away and got back in her hammock, giving it a soft swing before tucking her last leg into the net. "If you want to find the sister you lack, try asking Fluttershy and Applejack."

"I know them. They're still in Ponyville?"

"Hard to say; it's been a while. Without them it might be a trial. They were on the outskirts of town. I'll give you a map. Now go back to sleep and finish your nap."

Despite waking up in the middle of the night, lost in a strange place, sleep came back to me easily.

In the morning my body groaned like a rusty gate. Falling off a bridge into shallow water does that, I guess. Zecora gave me a potion for sore muscles and a map to Ponyville with the two last known locations of Fluttershy and Applejack marked. She even gave me body paint to fix my cutie mark.

My scrape was miraculously all but gone and despite getting wet, my book and forged paperwork survived well enough.

I tried to give her money before setting out but somewhat to the relief of my coin purse, Zecora just shook her head and reminded me that she never leaves the forest or sees anyone so I just settled on giving her my thanks and an IOU to be redeemed at that mythical joyous occasion where we all sit around a bonfire, laughing and singing.

Floating the map out in front of my face gave me a powerful flashback from out of the deep. Once upon another lifetime, I went through basic and had to spend a week surviving alone in the Everfree Forest with just what I had in a saddle bag. Everypony had a turn to traipse across the widest part of the forest through a maze of checkpoints. This was going to be much easier. For one, I was significantly closer to the rendezvous point this time.

The Forest exuded a pristine primordial creepiness from every gnarled old growth tree, the ones that seem to posture threateningly, lie in wait and move when you look away. Even in broad daylight, the thick canopy choked out much of the sun's rays.

I found my first landmark, a little stream. I followed its lazy serpentine bank for quite a while before jumping off. I kept my ears up not just for dangerous animals but possible guards searching the area. Hopefully Pinkie's intel was good on this and it wasn't all just a wild goose chase. No. If I could get something, anything out of Twilight's old friends, it would be worth the trip. What was I going to do with myself anyway?

It was thankfully an uneventful little walk. My watch said I was coming up on an hour when I broke the treeline of the forest and plunged into unfiltered golden daylight. There, still some distance away, was a little cottage I had the haziest of recollections seeing once before in better days. The sound of barking dogs swelled in my ears as I got closer. I saw chain link fencing around a battery of big kennels. I walked curiously along the side of the enclosure where Dobermans and Canterlotian Watchers tried to climb the walls barking threats at my presence. How weird, I thought. This part was all new to me.

I rounded the corner and came upon the exact mare I was looking for. The yellow pegasus sat with her back to me next to a blue unicorn and a large dog leashed to a stake in the ground. He stood rigid at attention with a revving growl. His attention was on a confused looking gray mare several paces away in the open field. She wore a helmet on her head while the rest of her body bulged with padded armor.

"Sweetie, sit," ordered Fluttershy. "Sweetie… Sit," she repeated clearly when the dog didn't immediately obey the command. He sat stiffly on his haunches with the fur on his back sticking up and his eyes trained on the target.

"Good boy," she affirmed, wary of the dog's ominous body language despite his apparent compliance. Slowly she placed a hoof on the clasp on Sweetie's collar. "Sweetie, stay," she commanded in an airy but stern voice. Click. The moment Fluttershy unsnapped the leash, the dog jumped snarling to his paws and rocketed across the field.

Fluttershy gasped in alarm. "Sweetie, cuasti! Cuasti!"

The armored mare turned to run but her pursuer was on her in seconds. The dog, nearly as big as a pony, clamped it's jaws around her hind leg, sending her sprawling to the turf. The powerful beast dragged her backward, its head thrashing side to side, trying to rip the flesh from her bone.

Fluttershy tried in vain to call him off one last time. "Lyra, stop him!" she cried.

The blue unicorn grabbed Sweetie in her aura and levitated him still snarling and writhing back to his nearby crate where she shut him inside.

Fluttershy exhaled.

"I don't think Sweetie's ready for primetime," declared Lyra with a dour face.

"No," agreed Fluttershy. "But he passed his obedience," she argued.

The gray mare flailed inertly behind them on her side.

"Are you okay, Derpy?" called Fluttershy.

"I can't get up," she moaned, rolling on her back and waggling her fatly padded limbs in all directions.

"I think that's enough for today," sighed Fluttershy. "Thank you."

I just stood there at the corner watching everyone pack up, unsure of when was a safe and appropriate time to approach. By the time I made up my mind, Fluttershy was skulking alone back to her cottage door.

"Um, excuse me," I called. "Fluttershy?"

The pegasus turned back to me with tears in her eyes. "Y-yes," she whimpered.

I froze in surprise. "I'm sorry; is this a bad time?"

"Every time is a bad time," she sniffed.

"I definitely feel that but listen…" I looked around, making sure no one else was nearby. "It's me, Shining Armor, Twilight's brother."

Her eyes grew wide and she shook her head in disbelief. "What? How?"

I ignored her invitation to venture off into the weeds and got straight to the point. "I came to see if you could help me."

Her eyes made a paranoid scan of the area. "Um…" She chewed her bottom lip. "O-okay. Come inside." She held the door open for me but quickly shut it once I was in.

"Do you want anything?" she asked, drifting into the kitchen. "I was just going to make tea."

"Yeah, that's fine. Whatever you're having. Thanks." I took the liberty of sitting myself on a chair in her living room. All around me were quilts, doilies and sentimental knickknacks. Quite a contrast with what was outside.

I scratched the back of my head. "Didn't you used to run some kind of… I don't know, halfway house for random animals or something?"

Fluttershy reappeared after putting on a kettle. "Yes, I did but the government said it wasn't, um… useful. So now I train police dogs." She sat on the sofa across from me. "It's not as fun and rewarding as I thought it would be. It's actually kind of… traumatic. Anyway, I don't know what kind of help you need but I probably can't-"

"I'm trying to find Twilight," I interrupted.

Fluttershy seemed to deflate even more if that were at all possible. "She disappeared a couple of years ago. After…" Her eyes dropped to the floor and she paused as if gathering enough strength to continue. "After what they did to Rainbow Dash, Twilight was the only one of the remaining five to refuse to renounce her elemental duties and allegiance to Celestia. That's why she had to hide. That's why she's still hiding. I'm sorry. I don't know where she is. I don't know that anyone does."

I sighed in despair. "Do you know where Pinkie Pie's family might be?"

Fluttershy screwed up her face in confusion at the out of the blue question. "Rockville," she replied simply.

I shook my head. "They disappeared from their farm a while back and neither Pinkie or her sister Limestone know where they went."

"The Apples might know," she suggested hopefully. "They're possibly cousins or something to the Pies. They voluntarily joined a collective so there's no government personnel on their farm if you're worried about that… Why do you want to find Pinkie's family?"

I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling. "Well, I'm sure you already know that Rarity lives in Crystal City but Pinkie Pie is trapped there as well and I promised I'd try to find her family if I ever left."

"So you've been living in Crystal City this whole time?" she said agast.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Why? It's probably the worst place in Equestria now."

Again I resisted the call to try to untangle the horrid knot that was my story and instead pared down my thoughts to a succinct but adequate sentence fragment. "Unfinished business."

At first she looked perplexed at my response and opened her mouth for a moment but no words came out. "Oh," she finally said with a certain timid understanding.

The teapot whistled and Fluttershy left to retrieve it.

Having avoided Ponyville proper thus far, I set off down a dusty road flanked by flourishing apple trees. It was a comforting site. This place looked mostly normal, at least. The road opened up to a barren turnaround where sat a big barn, the old farmhouse and a squeaky windmill.

The sound of soft clucking met my ears as I rounded a worn fence coated in peeling white paint.

I glanced away from the front door and winced when I saw a red stallion with an eye patch and an open sack of chicken feed clenched in his teeth watching me intently over the top of the fence.

"Oh, uh, hello…" I fumbled in surprise.

Applejack's brother. I'd seen him before, a long time ago but I couldn't come up with his name. I didn't remember him having an eye patch either for that matter.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle's brother," I began, trying to find some compromise between sounding trustworthy and divulging too much information.

He dropped the sack on the ground and seemed to tremble as he took a step back.

Not really knowing how to read his odd reaction, I continued. "Um… is Applejack around?"

He slowly bowed his head to rescue the feed sack from the gaggle of frenzied chickens. Then he just kept staring at me without uttering a syllable, his head and ears lowered submissively.

"I'll just go check if that's okay," I said, pointing at the door. He didn't seem talkative when I first met him but I didn't think he was mute.

The steps groaned as I approached the door. I rapped on the screen and exhaled the rest of my hope.

"Whaddya want," came a muffled but angry voice from inside. "We already paid our dues fer the month and gave the apples."

"I'm not here on business," I replied, trying to sound genial. "I need help."

The door cracked open and the hazy form of Applejack squinted suspiciously at me through the still closed screen. "Who are ya?"

"Shining Armor."

Her eyes bulged as she smashed her face into the screen to get a better look at me. "No," she shook her head. "That- that can't be. Ya died. You're cutie mark-"

"Is fake," I supplied.

"What about Cadance and-"

"Still dead," I breathed. "It's just me."

Applejack swallowed and stood frozen, unable to process any of what I'd just throw at her.

"Can I come in? I don't wanna talk out h-"

"O-oh, yeah, sure." She lurched back to life and pushed the screen open.

I shut the wooden door behind me and abruptly a loud hiss came from the open doorway of the kitchen.

"Oh, mah pot," exclaimed Applejack before zipping inside. I caught up with her just as she was moving a pot of boiling water from the burner. It settled quickly and she turned the gas down. "I's just in the middle a cannin' applesauce," she muttered. "Well… I guess I can pause for now," she sighed

I eyed her setup, the dozens of jars, The boiling pots, timers, the raw pulp ready to be seasoned. "No, it's fine," I argued. "I don't need you to entertain me or anything." I took a seat at the kitchen table which was cluttered with both empty and full jars. "I just wanted to ask you some things." I would have immediately dove back into my so far fruitless search but I couldn't stop thinking about the broken stallion I'd just seen outside.

"What happened to your brother?" I blurted.

"Oh, don't mind Big Mac," replied Applejack, moving the big pot back over the flames. "White Caps took his eye months ago when he, uh… made a scene about the state takin' Apple Bloom to the new school. He didn't talk much before then but now ya can hardly beat a word outta him. Really took the piss outta him. Guess that was the point. But the only lesson he ever seems ta learn is about talkin' less." She frowned, busying herself with mashing apples while the jars cooked.

I watched the apple pulp dripping out the bottom of the apple grinder into a glass bowl underneath. "You know what really gets me?" I nodded. "All these ponies were living amongst us for years. I mean, some of them are being mind controlled or manipulated in some way but a lot of them, this is just who they are. The guy who stabs you in the eye for nothing is the same guy who three years ago sold you insurance. The one who orders your horn permanently removed is the one who used to fix your sink. There's something that's just fundamentally wrong with a lot of ponies and the only thing that was keeping them in line was-"

"They all need to be eradicated like the varmints they are," she muttered darkly. "Let Tartarus sort 'em out." She gritted her teeth, still turning the crank which whirled the grinder.

I never thought that Applejack could be a bad influence on me but there we were, spitballing about excising a large group of ponies from the population, semi indiscriminately.

The front door creaked open and latched again. Big Mac entered the kitchen without a word and sat across from me where he began putting labels on jars and then boxing them together. He acknowledged neither of us.

"I came to Ponyville looking for Twilight," I finally said.

Applejack looked up at me from her vengeful fantasies enacted vicariously through the shredding of the apples. "Ain't nobody seen 'er since the elements dissolved… Sorry."

"That's what Fluttershy told me," I groaned. Unfortunately it looked like I was going to need to spy to get anywhere with this. "Where's the Ponyville police station?"

"Twilight's old castle," she replied, fishing a hot jar out of the water with her tongs.

"Disgusting," I mumbled absently. "One other thing. Pinkie Pie is missing her family. Do you have any clue where they are?"

Applejack's eyes rolled back in her head as she thought. "No… wait, yes! Uh… Last year, Maud Pie came into town tryna find Pinkie. She didn't know she'd already left town fer home and never came back so Maud ended up at our door. Her family ran from their farm 'cuz they feared fer their wellbein'. They was all goin' someplace, somethin' bout goin' off the grid in an underground cavern." She clamped her head in her forehooves and grimaced, trying to focus. "It was Red- Red Eye… Somethin'... Shit, Ah can't remember. Big Mac, help me out here," she pleaded, bracing herself on the table and causing the host of jars to rattle. "You were there; I know ya heard it too," she charged desperately.

Big Mac sighed and looked down at the wood.

"Big Mac, please! What was the name of the place where the Pies went?"

He sat vacantly and unresponsive, seemingly locked away in his own little world.

Enraged and on the verge of tears, Applejack threw her hat on the floor and screamed in his ear. "Consarn it, Macintosh! Can't ya see this is important? We're tryin' ta reunite a family!"

Her outburst looked more like a boiling over of her frustration with her brother and everything else than a sense of urgency for helping her friend and for a moment I worried that she might get physical with him.

Applejack rummaged angrily in a drawer and spit a paper and pen down on the table in front of him. "If ya can't say it, then write it!"

Big Mac looked up at her, then back down at the paper. He opened his mouth slowly and took the pen.
I craned my neck forward in breathless anticipation. Did he actually know? Was he really going to tell us? When he dropped the pen, there were three little black words on the page: Red Tail Crossing.