Book Code (side story by ScipioSmith)
"Hey, Twilight, are you almost done with that alarm?" Rainbow asked, as she crouched behind the trashcan outside Tukson's Book Trade.
She was dressed all in ninja black, with even her ears hidden under her balaclava; in fact, there wasn't a single inch of skin visible anywhere on her right now, with even her eyes being concealed behind a pair of red goggles that did all kinds of cool and awesome things but which, right now, where in night vision mode so that Rainbow could see in the dark like one of those cat or wolf faunuses who had lucked out that way.
Of course, being dressed all in black and concealed wouldn't help her very much if she stepped out into the moonlight, which was why Rainbow Dash was hiding in the alley by the side of the store, crouched behind the bin for extra concealment, while she waited for Twilight to finish disabling the alarm so that she could break into the bookshop.
Admittedly, their last attempt to find out any useful information by breaking into some place to access records hadn't exactly gone according to plan, but things were going to be different this time around. The target tonight wasn't in the middle of Beacon, and for another it was easier to tell if there was somebody around to spot them before they actually went in. That was why Applejack was on the roof across the street, and why Twilight didn't start hacking the alarm until Spurs had confirmed that the guy had gone to bed and all the lights were off on the upper storey of the store.
This time around things were going to be different.
"Does anyone else thing that this might be kind of a reach?" Flash asked, his voice echoing into Rainbow's ear over her comm-piece.
"No," Rainbow said quietly. "The records office was kind of a stretch, I'll give you that…maybe, but I followed Weiss into this bookshop today."
"Maybe she was just buying books," Twilight suggested.
"Maybe," Applejack admitted. "But we gotta check it out anyway."
"Do we?" Twilight said. "You remember that we're supposed to be trying to investigate what Weiss found out, not Weiss herself."
"At this point, seeing as how we can't exactly go to Park Place ourselves to see what she saw, I think our best chance is to try and follow her footsteps and hope to find out some kind of trail she left behind," Applejack said. "How are we doing, Twi?"
"Almost there," Twilight said. "You know, I really think we ought to tell the rest of my team about this."
"You know why we can't do that, Sugarcube," Applejack said. "It's just too risky."
"And at some point it's going to become too difficult finding excuses for what I'm doing,"
"Tell them…tell them you're practicing," Rainbow said.
"Practicing?"
"For the dance," Rainbow said. "I hear they're going to have live music."
There was a moment of silence on the line. "You want me to tell my team that I'm practicing to perform with you at the school dance?"
"Yeah," Rainbow said.
"No," Twilight said. "No, I am not telling them that."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want them to hate me," Twilight said. "If I'm performing with the Rainbooms while they're right here they'll think…they'll think I'm a traitor."
"You ain't no traitor, Twilight," Applejack said. "What you're doing is for their own good."
"Considering how much I hate that," Twilight said quietly. "I can't imagine they'll like it much better." Rainbow could hear her sighing. "Can we talk about something else? I really have almost got it, but…can we talk about something else in the meantime?"
"Sure," Rainbow said. "Where do we think Cinder Fall fits into all this?"
"What makes you think she fits anywhere in this?" Flash replied.
"Why wouldn't she?" Rainbow replied.
"What's the connection between a Haven student who turned out to be up to no good and shady stuff going on back home?" Flash asked.
"Shady stuff is the connection," Rainbow said, as though it were obvious. "It'd be a pretty big coincidence if we had two sets of bad guys doing their thing at the same time, don't you think? Twilight, Applejack, any ideas?"
"I'd like to think you were right about us all having only one big problem rather than two of 'em," Applejack said. "But darned if I can think how she comes into this either."
"Maybe…" Twilight began, and then trailed off.
"Twilight?"
"I…I don't really know."
"Come on, Twilight, spill it for us," Applejack urged.
"What if…what if Cinder was doing the same thing that we are," Twilight said. "What if Cinder was trying to find out the truth, digging for answers, on behalf of Mistral or Headmaster Lionheart or something; or maybe simply because she caught a scent of these mysteries and decided to find out the truth. Then someone found out she was asking questions-"
"And she decided that she'd better run before they shut her up," Applejack murmured. She whistled. "I can see it. I don't like it, but I can't pretend as how I don't see it."
"You'll have to spell it out for me a little more," Rainbow said. "The way I heard it, Professor Ozpin-" she got it, or rather it hit like her one of Shadow's punches. "Oh, come on." Because if Twilight's theory was right then it meant that Beacon was in on this, or Professor Ozpin was, allied with rogue elements in the Atlesian military.
"No wonder General Ironwood has to be so circumspect about all this," Twilight murmured.
"He doesn't know who he can trust," Rainbow said.
"And if we're right, then that means that Weiss isn't reporting to Professor Ozpin," Twilight said. "She's investigating him. And he could have arranged the death of Blake Belladonna as a warning."
"Why not just kill her?" Rainbow said.
"The death of the heiress to the SDC would lead to more questions," Twilight replied. "And perhaps her team-"
"Hang on, now," Applejack said. "How about we rein it in and not get ahead of ourselves too much. I can believe what you say about Cinder, but that ain't no cause to go planting trees on clouds. Let's see what Rainbow Dash finds inside the store, first."
"Unless any of you want to back out," Twilight said.
"Back out?" Rainbow said. "Come on, Twilight, I got dressed up and everything."
"I'm serious," Twilight said. "If I'm right then Cinder had to flee in fear of her life just for looking into this and-"
"Twi," Rainbow said. "Do you want to back out?"
Twilight was silent for a moment. "No."
"Then neither are we," Rainbow said. "Right, Spurs."
"Till the end of the line," Applejack said.
"But we're not telling Pinkie about this," Maud interjected.
"Oh, hey, Maud, I'd forgotten you were there," Rainbow said. "Yeah, we're not telling Pinkie or Rarity or Fluttershy about any of this. They don't need to know."
"No, they don't," Twilight said. "But you need to know that all the alarms are now disabled. You're good to go, Boomer."
"Great job, Twilight," Rainbow said as she stood up. "Is the camera working?"
"Yes. I can everything that you see."
"Awesome," Rainbow said, as she slipped out of the alley and swiftly but silently approached the door to Tukson's Book Trade. She glanced around furtively for anyone who might see her. "Applejack, we're all clear?"
"No lights on up here," Applejack said.
"Cool," Rainbow muttered, as she reached the door and took out her lock pick.
"Do I want to know how you know how to do that," Twilight said.
"I grew up in Mantle," Rainbow said, as though that explained everything. It didn't, but – and Rainbow admitted that this was why it was of a jerk move to answer like that, but it wasn't something that she really wanted to talk about with Twilight or any of her other friends – Twilight felt guilty enough about the fact that she was so much better off than the rest of them that she wouldn't push it.
"You realise that ain't an answer right?" Of course, Applejack was not from a rich Atlesian family but from a farming village out west, so had no hesitation in calling Rainbow out at times like this.
"No," Rainbow admitted. "But it's the only answer you're going to get." It was bad enough that they knew that she knew how to pick a lock without her telling them about how she knew or what she'd done with the knowledge.
She hadn't always been the best person before she'd met her friends at Canterlot; she could say that she hadn't always had the opportunities to be the best person but that would have been an excuse; but she was better now, and she'd put all the rest of that behind her.
Except for when she really needed it, like now.
She jimmied the lock and opened the door. Luckily there wasn't a bell or anything that rang when the door opened, although she could see that there was one on the counter near the second set of doors.
Rainbow made her way straight to those doors, it wasn't likely that there'd be anything interesting out here in the store where anybody could see it. If this Tukson guy was hiding anything then it would be in the back office somewhere.
"I didn't know this place existed," Twilight murmured. "I should come down here and see what kind of selection they have."
Rainbow stifled a snort. "Focus, Magic."
"Right, sorry."
She vaulted over the counter – avoiding the bell – and pushed open the doors into the back, where she found mostly…more books, only they were stacked up in piles reaching to the ceiling instead of on shelves where people could get at them easily. Rainbow picked her way around them, wondering if the answers they wanted where hidden amidst that pile – it would be a convenient place to hide them – and if so how she was supposed to get at them.
Her foot bumped something with a quiet thump. Rainbow froze, her ears – all four of them – pricking to see if it was enough to wake up the owner upstairs. She wasn't scared – she could handle a bookstore owner – but it would be better if he didn't report to the police that a ninja had broken into his store. That was the kind of thing that might get people's attention.
There was no sound. He wasn't that light of a sleeper, it seemed.
Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief, but she also looked down at her feet to see what it was that she had bumped into.
It was a shoe box, one that looked like that wasn't supposed to be there but had been left there and forgotten about. The lid was open, or Rainbow had dislodged it, and she could see that it wasn't shoes inside.
"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight said. "What is it?"
"I'll let you know," Rainbow whispered. She lifted the lid off the box the rest of the way to reveal that it was stacked with pamphlets.
Her eyes widened behind her scarlet goggles.
"What is this, G?"
"This is the truth, Dash; you need to open your eyes."
Rainbow grabbed a fistful of the pamphlets and hastily shoved them into a pouch at her belt as she stood up. "I'm leaving."
"What?" Twilight said. "But we haven't found anything yet!"
"Yes, we did," Rainbow said. She didn't say another word as she left the room, left the store, and sprinted across the street – but not sprinting quite fast enough to start leaving her rainbow streak behind her, because that would have really messed up her stealth mode - where she leapt up towards the roof where Applejack was waiting. She scrambled up the drainpipe the rest of the way and pulled herself over the edge, taking cover behind the same low brick wall behind which Applejack was crouched.
"Rainbow Dash," Applejack said. "What in tarnation? You look like a cat that's just walked all over a hot oven."
"He's White Fang," Rainbow said.
"Who? The bookstore owner?"
"Yeah," Rainbow said. "He had White Fang recruiting pamphlets in his store."
"How do you-" Twilight began.
"I know," Rainbow said. "I'm not going to tell you how I know, Twilight, but trust me when I say that I know what White Fang recruiting stuff looks like and he's got it."
"But that's illegal!" Flash protested.
"Some of it is," Twilight said. "And even then, only if you distribute it."
"Not that you care if you're White Fang," Rainbow said.
"I know that it looks bad but he can't actually be White Fang," Twilight said. "Why would the White Fang be working with a Schnee? Why would a Schnee work with the White Fang?"
"I don't exactly know," Applejack said. "But it's too much of a coincidence to say that she was just in there to buy books."
The implications spiralled in their minds as the silence lengthened.
"This," Rainbow said. "Just got a lot more complicated."