"Twilight!" Applejack yelled. She lurched sideways, shoved
Twilight Sparkle bodily around, and pointed at the huge metal
beam tumbling from the ceiling toward the crowd filling the Day
Palace's throne room. "Lift it! Now!
Leaping forward, she heard Twilight gasp, but Applejack
couldn't do anything except trust her friend would do what she
could. "Clear the floor!" She pitched her voice like she was
calling Big Mackintosh in from the back forty. "Y'all can exit
to each side and at the back! Nice and orderly, now, but move!"
Rainbow Dash burst into the air and streaked to hover above
the center of the crowd. "Folks on my left through that door,
folks on my right through that one, and folks behind me out the
back! Let's go!" She jabbed her hoofs at the nearest three
pegasi in golden armor standing along the walls. "You, you, and
you! Help 'em out!
The soldiers jumped, their wings unfurling to sail them
over the crowd, and that was apparently the first time anypony
in the audience looked up, the first time they saw what was
glowing and hovering in the air above Rainbow Dash. Applejack
heard gasps and shrieks, spared just enough of a glance to see
the beam was holding steady halfway between the ceiling and the
floor, the thing big as the windmill back home but solid metal
and weighing who knew how much! Long as it kept floating,
though--
"Ev'rything's under control, folks!" she called, sprinting
into the crowd to nudge some ponies gently to the right and
others to the left. "We just needs to clear the floor so we's
got somewhere to set the dang thing down!" Another glance back
at the throne showed her Twilight standing wide-eyed, her horn
glowing fitfully--and Princess Luna beside her, the light from
her horn so bright, Applejack had to look away. The anger hard
and plain on the princess's face wasn't too pleasant to look at,
either...
Whether it was the early hour or that the Canterlot folks
were just naturally tractable, Applejack was happy to find she
didn't have herself a stampede to deal with. Everypony moved
quick and easy toward the exits, the other soldiers stirring
themselves to help out, and in not too many minutes, they'd
cleared the area underneath the beam. "Look like it'll fit,
Dash?" Applejack called to her friend.
Dash looked up, looked down, looked up again, then nodded.
"Lower away!"
"You're certain?" came Princess Luna's voice, and Applejack
couldn't help folding her ears at the fury behind her words. "I
could vaporize the thing easily enough..."
Which made her ears fold even further. "Really wish you
wouldn't, ma'am! I've a mind to give it a little lookin' over,
if'n it's all the same to you!"
"As you wish, Minister," the princess said, and Applejack
started to wonder who she was speaking to, but Princess Luna was
going on: "Gently, now, Minister Sparkle."
"I'll take your lead, your Highness." Twilight sounded
more than a little shaky, but when she looked up at the beam, it
was gliding down light as a feather to settle on the floor of
the Day Palace between the foot of the throne and the desks
along the walls.
Up close, the thing made Applejack sweat even more: a
fluted cylinder a little bigger around than an apple barrel,
probably more decorative than structural, but solid and shiny
and one hundred percent spun steel, she figured, so long, its
ends would've stuck out the front and back doors of the barn
back home. If this thing had fallen into the crowd--
"Yow." Rainbow Dash glided to a stop on the other side of
the beam. "Not what I'd call up to code."
"Indeed, Miss Dash," said somepony Applejack had never
heard before, and looking over, she watched an amber and orange
pegasus land beside Rainbow Dash, his white and gold uniform
jacket a lot like her blue one, his cutie mark a couple crossed
swords. "Well done with the crowd, by the way."
Dash's eyes went wider than Applejack had ever seen. "Oh
my gosh! Captain Destrier! You...you remember me??"
"Of course." The stallion nodded with a slight smile.
"We'd be honored if you'd stop by the Citadel while you're in
town to discuss your Sonic Rainboom techniques with us."
"Oh my gosh!"
Applejack cleared her throat. "You in charge 'round here,
captain?"
"He is." Princess Luna strode up, Twilight right behind
her, and Applejack had to force herself not to shy away, a
little too much Nightmare Moon in the princess's face. "For
now."
A little gasp from Dash, but Applejack couldn't look away
from Princess Luna, the slightly larger pony's eyes dark and
fixed on hers. "I will have answers, Minister Applejack."
Swallowing, Applejack could only shrug. "All I gots is
questions, ma'am. F'rinstance--" She trotted toward the
narrowest end of the beam. "Anypony else see this thing flash
'fore it started to fall?"
"Flash?" Frowning, Twilight moved into step alongside her.
"I...I wasn't looking at the ceiling, I guess."
No one else answered, though Applejack could hear hoofs
clattering behind her despite the rising mutter of the crowd
around the exits, the soldiers forming a rough perimeter to keep
folks away. "Well," she said, coming around the end of the
beam, "maybe you can tell me how powerful a unicorn'd hafta be
to melt through a whole messa metal as thick as this?"
"A unicorn?" The shock in Twilight's voice made Applejack
sigh. "Why do you think--?"
"Somepony had to--" But she stopped, the actual end of the
beam rough and scratched. "Huh." Raising her head, she found
Princess Luna standing with Dash and Captain Destrier, Pinkie,
Fluttershy, and Rarity just behind them; continuing to tip her
head back, she focused on the domed ceiling above them. "Who
cleans that dome up there?"
"Captain?" The way Princess Luna growled the word sent a
shiver down Applejack back.
The captain sounded nothing but uncomfortable. "Why, the
maintenance staff, I assume."
"They earth ponies?"
"Unicorns, I should think." The puzzled glance he gave the
ceiling made Applejack wonder if he'd ever even looked at it
before. "Possibly pegasi, though, as I imagine only magic or
wings could get a pony up among those girders."
"Yeah." Applejack gestured with a hoof. "I'da thought
that, too, but I sees a whole mess of catwalks and crawlways up
there 'less'n my eyes're goin'." She brought the hoof down and
aimed it at the end of the beam. "And the scratches here tell
me somepony took a hacksaw to it. Cut through 'bout three-
quarters of the way, I reckon, then left their unicorn
accomplice to give it that last little push."
"A hacksaw?" Captain Destrier was blinking.
Applejack shrugged. "'Swhat made me thinka earth ponies.
Begging y'all's pardon, but I ain't never met a pegasus nor a
unicorn as could handle any real sorta construction work." She
frowned at the jagged end of the beam. "Or destruction work, I
s'pose. Oh, and ma'am?" She looked up at the scowling Princess
Luna and shook her head so her pony tail flopped over her
shoulder, tapped the ribbon there. "Might be you wanna remember
a few things."
Princess Luna's eyes widened and rolled to her own ribbon,
still tied at the base of her horn. "Yes, I..." She closed her
eyes, took a breath, swallowed, and when she opened her eyes
again, they were about half as scary as they'd been the last
several minutes. "Thank you, Minister. And see? You do have
some answers after all." She turned a strained smile toward
Captain Destrier. "Captain, I'll ask you and the guard to give
Minister Applejack your full cooperation." She tapped the beam
with a front hoof. "Will you be needing this object any longer,
Minister?"
Applejack's ears still twitched at the title, but it looked
like the princess had gotten fond of it all of a sudden.
"Yes'm, if you don't mind. Any saws we find, we can check their
marks to these."
"Very well." Dark energy flowed from her horn, wrapped
around the beam, and with a shimmer, it vanished, the muttering
from the onlookers pausing for a moment, then getting even
louder. "I've sent it to one of the empty rooms upstairs at the
Night Palace; if you have need of it, let me or Minister Sparkle
know. But for now, we've the business of the day to get on
with." She nodded to Captain Destrier. "The Day Ministers may
return to their places, captain."
Bowing his head, he touched a hoof to his chest and gave a
trilling sort of whistle. The guard ponies all perked their
ears, stomped a front hoof in unison, and marched to retake
their positions along the walls. Princess Luna cocked her right
front foreleg and took a stance, her mane almost flowing the way
Princess Celestia's did, and her voice took on the same depths
it had earlier. "All those with appointments for today, I shall
be keeping Sister Celestia's usual schedule, and I thank
Canterlot--I think all of Equestria--for giving me this chance
to redeem myself."
More muttering from the ponies at the doors, some stepping
back inside, their gazes darting upwards as they settled at
their desks, but most heading away into the rest of the city in
groups small and large; Applejack couldn't help scowling at
that, knowing one of those ponies had triggered this whole
thing, but, well, nothing she could do about that here and now.
What she could do, though-- She turned to Captain Destrier. "I
reckon y'all can search out any hacksaw in the palace, captain?"
He nodded, gave a different sort of whistle, and two pegasi
winged over, a uniformed unicorn flashing in beside them as they
landed. "Commanders?" he said to the three. "We'll need a top
to bottom search of--"
"Forget it." Rainbow Dash's voice; Applejack turned to see
her shaking her head. "Whoever did this planned it real
careful. They wouldn'ta left that saw anywhere near here." She
shrugged. "At least, I wouldn'ta if it'd been me."
Applejack blew out a breath. "Reckon you're right, but we
still gotta look." She pointed her snout at the four guard
ponies. "If'n you was a earth pony wantin' to lay low in this
town, where would you go?"
"Ground Town," one of the pegasi said so quickly, it was
out before Captain Destrier's scowl could make her clench her
mouth tight as a fist.
"Ground Town?" Applejack asked.
The captain's scowl softened into a look of regular
annoyance. "There are agricultural fields carved on the
flatlands in the middle of Canterlot, Minister. Most of the
laborers there are, of course, earth ponies."
She nodded and turned to Dash. "You got any plans fer the
next couple hours?"
Dash gave a wicked grin. "Can't say as how I do."
Applejack felt a tingle of excitement. "Then how 'bout you
an' me head on out to this Ground Town and--"
Princess Luna clearing her throat made Applejack stop. "If
you would, Minister, might I ask that you coordinate the
investigation from here?" She lowered her head to Applejack's
ear. "Please. I...I'd feel much better if my Minister of
Honesty was nearby when ponies start lying to me about what
happened here today."
Minister of Honesty? Applejack squinted down at her
Element of Harmony necklace, blew out a breath, and nodded.
"Well, I reckon I can go over the lista whoever was here this
mornin' with Twilight and Captain Destrier, see if'n any names
jump out as a suspect for our inside pony." She looked at
Rainbow Dash. "Guess yer on yer own with that saw, gal."
"Naw." Rainbow Dash laughed, then called out, "Hey,
Pinkie! You wanna take a walk?"
Chapter 7
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