Author's Note

I have not actually watched Marks and Recreation. So as my attempts at writing usually go, my characterisation is most likely complately off. Just an early warning.

Manehattan Attack - Thunderlane

It was a chilly November evening when Rumble and i were soaring above the skies of Ponyville. Despite the season, the weather was scheduled to be clear, so the temperature had fallen quickly since the sunset two hours or so ago. But being pegasi, the cold had little effect on us. Luna’s moon illuminated our path as we continued to fly silently around the town.

The reason for our being outside at this hour was the recent stress i had noticed on my not-so-little brother. He had dismissed my concerns when i confronted him about it earlier, but still he accepted when i proposed getting some relaxing flight around the town.

The silence was finally broken by Rumble ten minutes or so later. “Thank you, Brother,” he said, turning to look at me. “I really needed this.” There were some remnants of stress visible on his face, but he looked way better than earlier in the day.

“Good to see you better, Rumble,” i responded with a smile. We took a turn westwards as we reached the southern edges of the town. Still, this was a temporary solution, so i asked, “Really, though. What has been eating you?”

He seemed thoughtful for a second and i expected another dismissal of anything serious. But he answered, “The referendum, i guess,” with a shrug.

“The Thestral Referendum?” i asked in my surprise, as if there was another referendum going on. I was aware that Rumble, along with some other young ponies of Ponyville, was involved in the campaign in support of Princess Luna, giving out pamphlets, putting up posters and writing articles in Foal Free Press. Rumble had once come home with a bunch of those pamphlets that he later distributed in Cloudsdale. But it was not at the top of my list of ideas on what might've been the cause of Rumble’s stress. Perhaps i had underestimated their involvement in the process.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “You are voting ‘Yes’, right?” he asked in a serious tone.

It wasn't the first time we discussed this. And he was pretty convincing last time, the same day i saw the aforementioned pamphlets. So, i quickly responded in confirmation with an “Of course.”

Personally, i had little experience with the bat ponies, but i trusted my brother and Princess Luna as well. Princess Celestia was mostly silent on the matter, but as an elder sibling myself, i could see that she was trying to make her sister figure it out herself and she was in fact in support of the bill as well.

After a small pause, i added, “I’m sure it’ll pass,” in an attempt to ease his worries.

“I hope so,” he said, a small smile forming on his face, which made me smile too. We flew a few flaps further in silence like that.

But then he suddenly gave a piercing scream, holding his head. He lost control of his fight and began to quickly descend. “Rumble!” i screamed and spent no time before flying after him. I quickly caught after him and held him with my hooves to stop his fall. He stared at me with a horrified look and was breathing and shaking heavily. “Rumble, are you ok?” i asked but got no response. Moving to look closer into his eyes, i realised he wasn't looking at me but through me. I followed his gaze eastwards but couldn't see anything that might've spooked him.

“Scoots,” he murmured the nickname of his orange coated friend, shortly followed by a “Princess.” But that brought more questions than answers. Princess Luna, if that was who he meant, was currently in Manehattan.

“What about them?” i asked but he continued to ignore me. “Rumble speak to me!” i shouted, shaking him a bit.

His gaze changed its target afterwards, more towards the ground to a place that i could see but give no more meaning to, which was the manor of the Rich family. Then his shaking finally slowed and he started doing a breathing exercise. Closing his eyes, he moved his hoof up and down across his chest, synchronized with deep breaths.

He finally acknowledged me afterwards which seemed to give him another wave of panic at first, but he quickly got over that too. “Rumble, what happened? Are you alright?” i repeated.

“I’m fine,” he responded but i seriously doubted it. “Thanks for catching me,” he added and then got out of my hold to fly on his own wings again. He looked at me for a while, still with some worry apparent, but was hesitant to say more. His gaze slowly moved back east again. “Somepony just tried to kill Princess Luna,” he said, biting his lips.

“What?!” i shouted in confusion. Where the hay did that just came from? Who would attack the Princess? How did Rumble know that?

“A bomb went off while she was giving a speech," he continued. I followed his gaze too and realised this time that he was looking towards Manehattan. “Scoots, Bloom and Sweetie…” he began but he cut himself off. His mood changed quickly again, with another wave of panic and this time anger as well. “Nightmare Moon!” he swore. “We need to find Rainbow Dash,” he said and darted off towards where the mentioned mare’s house was.

I flew after him, quickly catching up. “Rumble, what the hay is going on? How do you know this?” i asked, trying to get an understanding of the situation.

“Long story,” he cut short as we reached Rainbow’s cloud house in no time. Rumble knocked on the door heavily. “I hope she is home.”

“Can’t you shorten it?” i asked as he continued to knock on the door.

A groggy, “I’m coming, i’m coming,” came from the inside, along with some hoofsteps on the hardened cloud. Rainbow opened the door shortly after, leaving Rumble no time to answer my question.

I was the one who got her attention first, and he was about to rebuke me on the loud knocking but Rumble was faster. “Dash, Nightmare Moon is back!” he shouted, which quickly put any sign of exhaustion out of Rainbow.

“What? When? Where?” the mare rapidly asked.

Rumble was about to respond, but a short laugh escaped his mouth instead. Rainbow got back to an annoyed look, “Is this supposed to be a prank?” she asked.

“No, no, no!” Rumble quickly exclaimed to fix the misunderstanding. “Babs just made Nightmare punch herself in the face. That's it.” To Rainbow’s dumbfounded look, he said “Long story,” and continued to address Rainbow’s previous questions. “‘Stop punching yourself’ gag will only hold her for so long. She is in Manehattan right now. Someone bombed Princess Luna’s speech; We think it was the Chiropterrans. Now Nightmare Moon is back. We need the Elements there asap. Rarity is already there and other bearers are being notified. Don't ask how i know this; long story. Go!”

Rainbow looked at me, still confused, and i couldn't do anything but shrug. “I’m as lost as you are. But i don't see any reason not to trust him,” i said. Rainbow nodded in response and took off, leaving the door open behind her.

I looked at Rumble expectantly, now that the emergency seemed to be out of the way. He flinched from another apparent pain and started rubbing his forehead with his wing, but stopped abruptly as if realising he was doing something stupid. He looked inside the building. “I don't think Dash will mind if we stay here a bit, i need to focus on this,” he said as he entered the cloud house. “I’ll try to explain,” he added in a response to me. I followed him in, closing the door behind. We moved to the living room and sat down on one of the sofas.

The cloud furniture was quite soft but at the current situation it helped little in relaxation. “Well?” i said, prompting him to start.

He was sitting quite still, eyes closed, head pointed downwards and seemed to be in deep thought. Despite that he started his explanation, “Remember when i went to the Cutie Mark Camp that Scootaloo and her friends set up?”

It felt like a random thing to mention, but things weren't making any sense to me so far, so i didn't question it. “Yes,” i responded, along with a nod that he couldn't see. “You were quite opposed to the idea of getting a cutie mark back then. But you had said they managed to change your mind quite quickly.”

“They did,” he chuckled. “It helps a lot when you can read each other's minds.”

“Huh?” i asked, having no idea what he meant. If he was going to be cryptic about this, it was going to take me a while to understand what was going on.

“You must’ve heard some of the rumors about the Camp,” he said. His muzzle was the only thing moving as he talked.

“Of course,” i responded, not liking where this was going. There had indeed been many rumors about the place after the first year. Was one of them correct? “But the camp has Princess Luna’s approval, right? That's why i agreed to send you there.”

“Indeed, and she worked hard to keep the rumours down,” continued Rumble. “But none of them figured out the reality anyway. Well some did, but we ended up recruiting them too before the info got out.”

“And the reality is…” i inquired again, hoping to get the real answer finally.

“Sweetie Belle created a spell, quite by accident, on the day of Nightmare Moon's first return,” he started, from what i assumed was the beginning. “The spell creates a strong mental connection between different ponies, and she ended up casting it on Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. We call the result a Hive-Mind.”

“Hive-Mind?”, i repeated, trying to make sense of the alien concept.

“Yes,” he continued. “It is an ability that was wrongly attributed to Changelings in the past, when there was little known about them.”

“And you are a part of this hive-mind?” i asked rather rhetorically. I was starting to understand the situation a bit, and was pretty sure the answer was ‘Yes’.

“Almost everypony who attended the cutie mark camp is,” he answered. “Princess Luna learned about the Hive early on, when it was still just Sweetie, Bloom and Scoots and swore to keep it a secret. When Bloom’s cousin Babs Seed wanted to join the CMC, Sweetie and Princess Luna worked on reproducing the spell. After the original trio got their marks in helping others with their marks, they formed the camp. The Hive was the special talent-finding method that they advertised about. Ponies quickly got their marks, and the Hive has grown in years. That is Our secret.”

I just stared at him for a while trying to process his words. It was a big revelation, and a concerning one too. “And the Princesses allow this?” i asked.

He chuckled at my question. “Princess Luna herself is a part of the Hive, joined a few months after me,” he said, revealing another major piece of information. “Other Princesses know something is up, but have agreed not to pry.

“Princess Luna being a member of the Hive is also how we are clowning the Nightmare right now with a 100-versus-1 on controlling Princess’ body,” he continued, bringing us back to the current situation. “Still, she is an Alicorn. We need the Elements there soon, or we'll tire out long before her.”

The exact abilities of the Hive was still unknown to me. I could tell that they were at least capable of seeing and even feeling what others do, as Rumble had felt the pain from the explosion. And it was pretty hard to imagine such a thing with a scale of over a hundred ponies. The ability to control the body of another member seemed to have come to their advantage at the moment, but it felt really exploitable to me.

“I’m more so worried about Scoots, Sweetie and Bloom though,” he further said, as i was musing on Hive’s abilities. “They were close to the explosion too. Deep Breath and Rarity managed to stabilize them with a spell of Princess Luna’s, but they still need proper medical attention.”

I winced at the thought of the others at the scene. I really hoped no one had died. “I’m sure they'll be fine, they are strong ponies,” i offered my best, thinking of all the misadventures the trio used to have around Ponyville.

I decided to keep my further questioning for later, having been informed of the mental war that was currently going on. Yet, one last question kept itself on my mind to be asked. “Are you happy with it?,” i asked. “Being a part of the Hive, i mean.”

“Current situation notwithstanding, yes.”, he responded, signs of struggle audible on his voice.

With that confirmation, things fell silent for several long minutes. Rumble occasionally twitched or gave a grunt of pain, still focused on the fight. Meanwhile i tried to process all the new information.

After something around ten or fifteen minutes, he suddenly collapsed forwards. Despite the unexpected movement, i managed to catch him before he fell onto the ground. He was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. I moved him back up to lay him on the sofa with his head on my lap. Despite his state, he had a large smile on his face. Before i could ask if he was ok, he murmured, “We won, Thunderlane.” After taking some breath he continued, “I really need a sleep now, though.” The ordeal had clearly tired him out.

I considered taking him back home on my back but i was feeling rather tired myself as well and Rumble was not a little colt anymore. “It is alright, you can sleep here,” i said. He fell asleep quickly after that. I absently stroked his mane as i thought over the past. Rumble had said he was a part of this Hive since his time at the cutie mark camp. And other than a change in his look towards cutie marks, for he bore one on his flank afterwards, i hadn't noticed any change in his behaviour. I tried to review the past few years trying to remember things i might've missed, but the weight of the evening eventually caught on to me as well and i laid back and slept next to Rumble as well.