Chapter VIII: Mistrust
Dr. Hooves
"You don't understand Vlad will ruin everything," the girl pleads with me as I push them towards the door. She says that I have to listen to them as they were sent by Clockwork. I told them that I simply acknowledged the existence of Chronos Clockwork and made no indication I would help them.
"I don't know why you're wasting time," the boy demanded to know. I smiled finally we're agreeing on something- we're wasting time. He demands that I help them or else this Vlad and Trixie will take over. They must be from afar if they don't know what an absolute joke Ms. Lulamoon is. She never even got accepted into Celestia's school. "Come on Dani, it's obvious we're beating on a dead horse," the boy reaches for the door when it starts to knock.
"Excuse me I am needed," I open it and find Twilight Sparkle and her friends on the other side. "Twilight what can I do...," another human walks into the room.
"Sam?" the boy asks as the two embrace, "what are you doing here," Sam explains that she escaped from the castle with Spike.
"Time Turner, we think something happened in Canterlot," Ms. Sparkle says looking through the books. "The princesses are gone and somehow Trixie has taken over," the boy looks to me as if to say 'I told you so.' She asks me if I could help rescue them before it's too late.
Tucker
"Sextum solidos et addere illud Mercuri scobis Aqua regia aurum liquatum," reading the Latin very carefully I mixed the chemicals slowly. "What does Clockwork plan to do with this anyway?" carefully I poured the amalgam into the nitric acid. The chemicals fizzled and produced powerful fumes. I went to stir the concoction when I heard something in another room.
"Will you stop messing around we have work to do," a voice with a Yiddish accent complained. It was Vlad's vultures. He must have found out what I am doing, but how. A moment later they phase in the room. "Okay kind hand over the book and we won't mess you up," the leader said swooping at me but I managed to dodge them.
"I'll turn you three into Thanksgiving dinner," I threatened looking for something to fight with. The birds laugh but I kicked them in the stomach and sent them into the wall. I see a phial on the table. "Not another step or I will blow this place sky high," picking up the tube and showing it to them.
They talk to each other in Yiddish before looking at me. "You don't have the guts to do it. Besides we're already dead," I tell them Danny would not be pleased if anything happened to me. He would hunt them down one by one. "We're not...," I throw it in the air causing them to scatter and retreat.
"Mr. Foley are you all right?" I hear Clockwork's voice through the Fenton phones. I tell him I am fine just a slight ghost problem. "That figures, look, Vlad has moved the targets to the Amity Museum of Art." I ask him what this is all for, "you will find out when you arrive there," that's his answer for everything. I mention about Sam gone missing, "she's safe," he says before cutting off communication. I wish I knew everything like him.
Sweetie Belle
"Why do you think Twilight and the others are going to see Dr. Hooves?" I ask Scootaloo as we arrived at our clubhouse. She says it must be important and that Princess Celestia ordered it. I gave out a sneeze as we climbed the ladder. Apple Bloom looked at me worriedly, "I'm fine now the medicine Applejack gave me worked like a charm."
"Look at the sky," Scootaloo exclaimed as we gazed up and saw the largest swarm of changelings ever. "I bet this is something to with Twilight's mission and that creature with her." She picks up a rock and hurls it one of the changelings. "Take...," before she can run it swoops down and grabs her. "Sweetie Belle! Apple Bloom! HELP!" the orange filly cries out as she is carried away.
"How are we going to stop those things? There are millions of them and two of us?" Apple Bloom asks as we try to figure something out. "The only one who would know anything is Twilight and she is at Dr. Hooves' place." a smile crept on her face, "it looks we're going to see the doctor," we race to his place hoping we can rescue our friend.
Clockwork
"Well here we go," Foley said as he crawled into a broken window at the museum. It had been closed for a few months thanks to Vlad's plan to turn into the next Louvre but his security wasn't it as air tight as he thought. "I hope you know what you're doing Clocky." I was about to give him his instructions when an Observant phased into the room.
"Chronos! The council is not pleased with this plan of yours," I roll my eyes. When are they ever pleased with anything? "You used the crossing pool without our permission and sent the two ghost children into another dimension without thinking about the chrono-spatial ramifications." I asked him if there was a reason behind this tirade. "You could have destroyed the universe."
"I thought you that's what you wanted. The total annihilation of creation, the ultimate goal of fatalism," his eye grew wide and that remark. He was trying to find an answer to that question. "If you have no other business I suggest you observe the door and use it," I pointed to the way out as he disappeared. Thank the gods he's gone.
Twilight Sparkle
"So you three know each other?" I asked Sam as they embraced. She nodded saying Danny and Danielle are some of her best friends. Time Turner muttered something about 'more humans,' as he organized his books.
"Look Doc we need to sneak into Canterlot," Rainbow tells him. "There is something weird going on and we need to stop it," the brown pony asked her what kind of 'something weird' was happening. "Well to start someone is magically controlling the weather. We tried to fly there but we were struck by lightning," she explains as the doctor starts to write it down.
"Now do you believe us?" Danielle asked as the time pony sighed saying that could mean anything. She stared at him dumbfounded by his stubbornness. "Look we don't have much time Vlad and...," he stamped his hoof on the floor.
"I have had it with it this 'Vlad and Trixie' nonsense. Trixie Lulamoon is a nobody," Spike hands him the notes he wrote. "Trixie has taken over the palace...," he puts on a pair of glasses. Before he can say anything Applejack mentions the creature she and Dash fought on the mountain.
"What creature?" Danny asks, she describes as a huge bipedal metal monster with a glowing green mane like fire and a skeletal face. "Did he mention anything about turning you into pelts?" AJ nods as Danny slams the table. "Skulker!"
"How do you know about this creature?" Rainbow demands to know. Danny explains that this Skulker is a hunter and a sure sign that Vlad is here. Dash was about to ask if they were working with this Vlad and Skulker but Fluttershy pulls her back, "let me go Fluttershy! Don't you see what's going on- they are working for them."
An angry expression crossed Danielle's face as she raced out of the room with tears in her eyes. I glare at Rainbow Dash as I tell Fluttershy to go out and talk to Dani hoping to calm her down.
"You got it Twi," the pegasus says galloping out the door.
Dani
"WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN?" I shouted looking for some place to hide. All I wanted to do was help and they accuse of being Vlad's pet. "It's just like when I first came to Amity." I am not sure how long I was flying when I found myself in a forest.
I fly down to the ground and land behind a large tree. My heart was beating wildly as I tried to calm down. A squirrel came out and handed me nut as if to say 'It will be okay.' I smile and thank him for the gift. "Squirrelly always knows how to cheer me up when I'm down," a voice says as Fluttershy lands in front of me.
She always comes here when she needs some time alone. She placed a hoof on my hand and told me it will be all right. "Everyone thinks that because of my past I am Vlad's little crony spying on them."
"No pony thinks that Danielle. Dashie shouldn't have taken out her anger on you." I look at her curiously. Fluttershy explains that she had a bad experience on that mountain. "That Skull-Ker thing injured her pretty badly. That sounds like Skulker all right. She says had she not rushed to the hospital who knows what could have happened.
She helped me up and wiped my tears. She says we should get back to the doctor's "What about him? He seemed set that he wouldn't help us." She says not to worry about him as Twilight will set him straight. She's good at doing that.
"So how about we head back," she asked as I took a breath and followed her back to Hooves' place.
