//------------------------------// // Two: Emerald // Story: Stereoheart // by FimFan14 //------------------------------// The gold-plated chariot soared through the air, its destination obvious - Canterlot. Being only just out of the city made that so. As it descended and came to a stop at one of the royal landing platforms, the violet-colored mare Twilight Sparkled emerged. Awaiting her was none other than the princess of the night herself. "With all due respect," Twilight began, "I hope you have a really good explination for why you did this." "We have done many things," Luna said, most definately not oblivious to the small amount of anger she stirred in the mare beside her with that comment. "All of which we shall explain to thee." Twilight calmed herself. A reasonable explination was to be given. Finally. "Well, first of all, I'm curious to know..." "Child, thy cannot expect us to disclose matters of royal security in broad night-light!" Luna said, cutting off Twilight. "We shall adjourn to our quarters, were we shall explain everything to thee. Until the, we are to 'act natural.'" Twilight stifled a giggle, amused at the night princess' attempts at modern speech. "Act natural?" "Yes, act natural. So we do not... arouse suspicion." "Okay then..." Twilight began. "How is your integration into Equestrian society coming along?" "Oh, we find it difficult at times," Luna sighed. "But, lonely existance as ours is, we enjoy our task of painting the sky; a task we could continue doing for the rest of eternity." The two mares approached a tower, the doors of which were telekinetically opened by Luna. "And your other royal duties?" Twilight asked, as they began to climb a spiral staircase. "We cannot divulge our royal duties at this time," Luna said quickly. "Why not?" Twilight asked. "I'm fully qualified and trusted by Princess Celestia to know about all royal happenings. I even got to sit on her throne once when I was little!" "We cannot tell thee because... because... because we have arrived at our quarters!" "What?" Twilight said. "There must be another four hundred st... WOAH!" In a flash of light, both mares were standing in front of a wooden door, plain and bare, despite being the entrance to a princesses bedroom. "See, we told thee that we had arrived," Luna said. Teleporting two ponies, just so she didn't have to tell me about her royal duties, Twilight thought. She's hiding something... "Twilight Sparkle, I would like to begin by explaining my actions as a whole," Luna said. "Go on..." "Everything that we have done, from the moment we detected the distressed Stereoheart and Frisky, has been part of our carefully orchestrated plan," Luna began. "It is a delicate balance, and I must refrain from telling you too much." "But why?" "Because the slightest disturbance to our plan could end in tragedy." "Your plan could be the tragedy!" Twilight yelled. "That foal could have died, because you made that spell for Stereo to use! I was a fool for trusting you, and giving it straight to him!" "And if thou didn't," Luna said calmly, "thou would have read the scroll, given it to Stereoheart, then sat down with a cup of tea, and thought about it. Then you would realise the danger, attempt to interrupt them, and then been the cause of death." Twilight sat back on her haunches, with a confused look on her face. "But... but how?" "The spell was detailed and precise enough that there was no chance of him killing his friend, unless his concentration was broken. Let this be a lesson to you, Twilight Sparkle; always follow the directions of those who know best, even the unimportant seeming details." "Thank you, I'll take this lesson to heart," Twilight said truthfully, "but why don"t you just tell him the way to solve everything, before he gets turned into an earth pony?" "He must, and will, solve the problem by himself," Luna said. "His problems will be solved either way, but he'll make friends and change lives by doing it the hard way. Think about it, if he did it the easy way and let me solve his problems, he never would have been in in that park with you, and never would have met his best friend." "I - I think I see now!" Twilight said. "I understand, Princess. Thankyou." "What for, Twilight Sparkle?" "For knowing best." Stereo stood nervously at the entrance to Ponyville's sole school. "C'mon, Stereo!" Aqua called from inside the gate. "We're gonna be late!" "But what about Spoon and Tiara?" Stereo said nervously. "Don't let them scare you," Aqua replied comfortingly. "They're just two bullies, and you can count on the Crusaders to back you up. That's five against two!" "I'm not scared of them!" Stereo said quickly. "I just don't wanna lose control again!" "Okay, but you still have me to calm you down," Aqua said. "And who knows, maybe you scared them off last time?" "And maybe you two should get to class before Miss Cherillee finds you two time wasting!" The two colts turned their heads to greet the sound of the voice. "Oh, hi Sweetie!" Stereo said cheerfully. "Where's Scootalloo and Apple Bloom?" Sweetie started walking towards the school, talking as if she expected the other two to follow. They did. "They walk from the other side of town," Sweetie explained, before opening the door and walking inside. The small classroom had a handful of colts and fillies, all his age. A bright pink mare stood at the front of the room, preparing the day's lesson on the board. Great, he thought. I should be able to do this without being noti... "Miss Cherillee, look!!" Well, screw that idea he thought, before sarcastically adding to himself, Princess Tiara and her loyal Silversmith had to be in this class, didn't they? All heads in the room turned towards him. His cheeks burned red, and his eyes pink. "Ah, you're the new student!" Cherillee said. As she did, the class began to gradually loose interest in him. "I'm Miss Cherillee, your teacher for the next few years here in Ponyville." "Pleased to meet you, Miss Cherillee," Stereo said. "I just need to verify a few things," Cherillee said. "First of all, are you the brother of the unicorn 'Frisky' who is newly enrolled here?" "Yes ma'am." And who is currently your legal guardian?" "Rainbow Dash, ma'am." Silence. As Cherillee wrote with her mouth, she failed to notice all of the stares given to Stereo by the other foals in the class. Stereo could have braced himself for what came next, had he known that this classroom held the majority of the 'Rainbow Dash Fan Club' members within its walls. "You're Rainbow Dash's son!?" "What's it like living with her?" "Can I come over today?" "What does she smell like?" "Does she take you flying?" Cherillee looked up at her disorganized class. Only a few of her students remained at their seats: Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, another new colt, Aqua, Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon. She understood the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the latter four, Sweetie and the other new colt could get shy, but Scootaloo... In theory, she should be the loudest of all! Cherillee thought. She is after all the founder and president of the Rainbow Dash Fan Club... Cherillee snapped out of her reverie, attending her class once more. "Children!" she cried. "I will not have you treating your new classmate like this! You all have detention at recess!" A collective groan was raised out of the class, who solemnly returned to their seats. "Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom, Aqua Flow, Lightning, Sweetie Belle, and... Scootaloo, you all get gold star points for holding back and not joining the crowd," she said, before turning to Stereo and smiling. "You can choose any seat in my class," Cherillee said. Stereo didn't need long to think. "The seat in between Aqua and Sweetie Belle, please." "Such nice manners, Stereo!" she said, before leading him to his seat and returning to the blackboard. This doesn't seem so bad! Stereo thought. Why was I dreading this so much? "Now today, class, I'll be teaching you how to factorize quadratic trinomials." Then he remembered why. It was lunch time. Stereo remembered what Mr. Snow had said the day before about his son being lonely. He wasn't that hard to find, sitting alone under a tree. It made him wonder if everypony really had been that mean... even the crusaders. "Hey," he said, sitting down next to the colt. He was similar to Stereo in some ways; white coat, and a green on black mane that was a bit wilder than Stereo's. His eyes were a dark but bold emerald green. He had no cutie mark. Also, he just looked sad, his body hunched over and his eyes dulled. "What do you want?" The colt said coldly. Stereo already knew that he was taking a gamble sitting here. "I... you just looked real lonely is all." "Oh yeah?" the colt replied. "Do you know why that is?" Stereo feigned ignorance, remembering what Mr. Snow said about mentioning Caneighda. "Why?" "It's because of where I'm from." "That's just stupid," Stereo said seriously. "You're still a pony, and still need friends." Stereo then took a gamble, trying to get the colt to open up more. "Where are you from?" The colt paused for a moment. "I guess I have nothing to loose," he said. I'm from Torontoat... Caneighda." Stereo tried to play it cool, and acted like he didn't already know. "Caneighda, eh?" The colt's eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth. "Are you making fun of me?" he growled, making himself as big as possible. "Wha... I don't know what you mean!" "'Caneighda, eh,'" the colt said, mimicking Stereo. He then grabbed Stereo by the shoulders in a threatening manner. "Don't play stupid!" he yelled. "I know you were making fun of me!" "I still don't get it!" Stereo cried, with a bit of fear in his voice. "I'm sorry, what did I do?" "Ugh!" the colt grunted angrily, pushing Stereo against a wall. "I'm tired of ponies like you ruining my life!" He cried. "Are you gonna beat me up too? Maybe spread a few stories, or..." Stereo zoned out, seeing only the anger in his classmate's eyes. Still not understanding what he had done wrong, a thought ran through his mind: Is he going to hurt me? The colt's intentions were clear - he had snapped, and was fighting back. A few tears sprang from Stereo's eyes as he saw the enraged look on the colts face, who pulled back an arm as if ready to punch him. He wondered what had happened to his fire, his ability to strike down anypony in a blind rage that dared to cross him or his brother. He just couldn't get the will to defend himself, not against this kid. The colt sweat a puddle, before his expression softened to one of realization, then regret as Stereo began balling freely. "Oh my go... you were telling the truth?" The colt cried. "I'm... I... I'm sorry, but I was really scared that you were gonna hurt me first..." He dropped Stereo, before falling onto his own haunches. The anger in his eyes were instantly turned back into sadness. The danger over, Stereo stopped up the waterworks. Unaware of why he had such a drastic reaction, he simply replied by saying: "that's okay... somepony told me how Caneighdians are treated around these parts. Mind explaining what I did wrong, though?" "Some ponies in Caneighda make it a habit to put 'eh' at the end of, like, every sentence." The colt replied dismissively. "Then there are some like me, who rarely do, and some that never do. I thought you were taking a stab at me when you used it." "Oh..." Stereo said in comprehension. "Makes sense. But why did you get angry so quickly?" "Hey, that's none of your business!" He said angrily, before calming quickly. "I'm sorry, but you said it yourself - I'm treated badly around here." The way he snapped at me... something's going on here, Stereo thought. And he looks so sad... "Anyway, my name's Stereo," he said, putting on his best friendly smile and extending his hoof. "Lighting," the colt said softly. "Just Lighting." "Okay, Lighting," Stereo said, "When did you move here?" "Day before yesterday," Lighting said nonchalantly. "From Caneighda, to Manehatten for a few months, back to Torontoat, and now here." "Wow..." Stereo said. "You're lucky to get to do so much traveling." "You think I'm lucky!?" Lighting shouted, causing Stereo to cringe. "UGH! WHY CAN'T I CONTROL IT!?" "C-c-control what?" Stereo shakily asked. "N-n-n-nothing!" Lighting said in a panicked tone, backing away from Stereo. "It... It's none of your business, anyway!" "But.. but maybe I can help!" Stereo replied. "I got here not even a week ago, and I went through tartarus beforehoof!" "You can't fight it! I can't fight it!" Lighting cried. "But maybe somepony can!" Stereo replied. "Just tell me!" Lightning began to cry. "NO!" Stereo was struck on the side of his face, before Cherillee walked over. How she noticed the fight only now would remain forever a mystery, considering that they had made a lot of noise. "Lighting, breathe!" She said firmly. "Bu-" "Breathe, think, then talk," Cherillee interupted. Lightning complied, before nodding. "Okay, now tell me what happened." Lightning took a deep breath. "Stereo here was just telling me about how lucky I was to travel." "And then, I presume 'it' happened?" Cherillee asked. "Yeah, I feel pretty unlucky with all of you Equestrians here messing with me!" Lightning growled. "Keep breathing, Lightning," Cherillee said sternly. "Don't let it happen again so soon." "...Fine," Lightning said, "but let me finish! I started screaming about how I couldn't control it, and he asked what 'it' is, and then 'it' happened." "So I presume 'it' is you getting angry?" Stereo asked, before immediately regretting his decision. This kid is emotionally unstable, Stereo thought. I don't wanna make him crack now! "Yeah, no kidding," Lightning growled. "And thanks to you," he continued, now addressing his teacher, "the whole of Ponyville is gonna know by tomorrow!" "I won't tell, I promise!" Stereo cried. "Oh yeah?" Lightning said. "Tell me something to balance it out, something that I can tell everypony if you tell them my secret." Think of something, Stereo! He thought. Something that I've done that I don't care about... "C'mon, spill the beans!" Lighting said. Funnily enough, Cherillee seemed completely okay with the arrangement. "Fine," Stereo finally said. "When somepony crosses my brother the wrong way, I lose control and teach them a lesson. Luckily, I've never really hurt anypony." "Okay then, we both know each others secrets," Lightning said. "Remember, I'll tell everypony about you if you breathe a word... then I'll come and meet you personally. Capiche?" "Yeah, fine," Stereo said. "I understand." "Good, now that you're both friends, my work is done!" Cherillee said as she walked off. Both of the colts just laughed hysterically. "Lazy, much?" Lighting said. "Yeah, she looks like she couldn't care less," Stereo said in concurrence. "Or maybe she has more important stuff to worry about." "Yeah, she totally has more to worry about than two students out to kill each other," Lightning said. "Sounds silly now, eh?" "At any rate, how about we give it a chance?" Stereo asked. "After all, It's why I came to see you in the first place." Lightning thought for a while. "Sure, I got nothing to loose," he said. "And you seem pretty cool, anyway. But I wasn't kidding when I said that I'd spread your secret - I don't trust you and won't forgive you just yet." "Fair enough," Stereo said. "I have to earn it; makes sense." He gave a sigh of relief. Rainbow, Twilight, Rarity, Aqua... their trust was too easy, Stereo thought. This will be fun. "So, who is he?" His friend's question surprised Stereo as they walked home from school in the warm sun. Summer was approaching, his least favorite season. "Who's who?" Stereo asked innocently. "You know," Aqua said, "the kid that took you for all of recess." "Oh, his name's Lightning," Stereo replied. "He just moved here from Caneighda" "Ooo..." Aqua said. "Ouch." "What?" "Him being from Caneighda," Aqua explained. "He must get loads of trouble from Tiara and Spoon... and just about every other pony in Ponyville." "Why is everypony in this town so racist!?" Stereo cried. "Ponies are like that everywhere," Aqua said, sighing as he continued to explain rudimentary world knowledge to his friend. "Some aren't, but loads are. I might have been, but I'm too shy to try... that, and my Mum told me never to be mean to ponies." "Anyway, I wouldn't recommend trying to befriend him alone, Stereo said cautiously. "He's... a bit of a hooffull." "Oh, okay," Aqua said. "I've gotta go another way, so I'll see you tommorrow." "Okay, bye!" As Stereo crossed a bridge over the Ponyville River, he began to think about Lightning. What if he tells? he thought. That wouldn't be too bad. So what, I love my brother... It was then another thought struck him: When did I last spend time with Frisky? Stereo knew that he loved his brother, and realized just how much he missed him. They had been inseparable... yet had been separated since coming to Ponyville. That's it! Stereo resolved. Tonight, we are gonna hang out, and we are gonna like it! "You can't hang out tonight." "What?" Stereo asked his guardian. "Why not, Rainbow Dash? We'll just go talk in my room, but I really need some time alone with Frisky tonight!" "I'm leaving for a few days," Rainbow said. "Luna wants me in Canterlot to finalize those adoption papers. Applejack and Rarity are coming with me as witnesses, and Fluttershy is looking after the Crusaders." "Oh..." Stereo said. "What about me?" "Since Twilight is busy... studying," Rainbow said with a shudder, "You're gonna have to stay with Lyra to tonight." "So I get to stay at Aqua's?" "Yeah, but on one condition," Rainbow replied. "Do not tell anypony else where I am. The crusaders think that Rarity's making a huge dress order because everypony's afraid that Scootaloo'l get jealous of you suddenly showing up and getting all of my attention." "Really?" "Yeah, It's that bad," Rainbow said. "So we decided to try and sort everything out and break it to her while finding myself time to spend with all three of you." "Okay, got it," Stereo said. "Do you have the time to fly me to Aqua's house?" "Sure, but one more thing," Rainbow said. "Twilight said to go straight to her if you run into trouble... whatever that means." "Got it," Stereo replied. "Let's go!" "Hop on and hold on tight!" Rainbow said. Stereo complied, hanging on for dear life as Rainbow soared out of the window. Flying always felt so natural to him, from when he had to ride around to some places on his fathers... no, on Autumn Breeze's back. The wind whipping past him, the dizzying height and the gut-wrenching speed would make the average unicorn more than a little queazy, and while Stereo was no adrenaline junkie, he loved it. Rainbow was on autopilot, knowing their destination. This gave Stereo the chance to fully relax and enjoy himself, as well as giving him some time to reflect on the past weeks. Stereo knew that a few days apart from his brother hardly warranted a broken relationship, but the though of another day without him pulled at his heartstrings, pulling them out and tearing them to pieces. As he thought about this, Rainbow touched down in front of Aqua's house. After knocking, he was granted access and led by Lyra to Aqua's room. "Stereo?" Aqua said. "What're you doing here?" "I have to stay for a few days," Stereo replied. "Rainbow needs to finalize my adoption in Canterlot." "Why doesn't she just do it at the town hall?" Aqua asked. "I dunno," Stereo said truthfully. "All I know is that Luna called them herself." "Princess Luna!?" Aqua cried. "Actually, she prefers just Luna." "You must be pretty important," Aqua said. "Well, my parents are in maximum-security prison several floors below the surface," Stereo explained. "That, and the fact that she seems to be really interested in fixing my life back up again." "Wait," Aqua said. "You met her?" "Yeah, she's a friend of mine," Stereo said. "So she says. "I haven't heard much from her since arriving to Ponyville." "Boys, Dinner!" Lyra called from the stair base. "Coming, Mrs Heartstrings," Stereo cried, before they made their way to the dining room. Lyra had made mac and cheese - so simple, yet perfect; because what twelve year old boy didn't love mac and cheese. "Mrs Heartstrings, this is great!" Stereo praised. "I've never had this before." "Never?" Aqua and Lyra said in unison. "How come?" Aqua continued. "Every colt has mac and cheese, what happened that you couldn't?" "Well, did I ever tell you about my parents?" Stereo said. "No," Aqua replied. "I did wonder, though. "Well, they were kinda mean. Actually, they broke my leg a few weeks back," Stereo began, noticing Lyra's gasp and Aqua's wince. "Frisk' and I had to work for them - cook, clean, everything! Turns out they kidnapped us. We still don't know who our parents are." "Oh..." Aqua said. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." "It's not your fault," Stereo reassured him. "And you never asked. Besides, I've thought about it and can live with it." "It's pretty horrible," Lyra said. "If Rainbow didn't beat me and have her... reasons for protecting you, I would've adopted you myself." Stereo raised an eyebrow. Does she know about Rainbows childhood? he thought, before talking. "Thanks, that's kinda reassuring, knowing that lots of ponies want to adopt me." He wasn't quite certain weather he was being sarcastic or not "And what's with the necklace?" Aqua asked, before adding, "that is, if there's no sad story for you to remember." "It's a mystery," Stereo said. "It just can't come off, not with magic or force!" "Yeah, Twilight told me about that," Lyra said. "It's so strange, the way she described it, it sounded like it was as much a part of your body as a tail or horn." "What did you just say?" Stereo said curiously. "I said it's like a tail or a horn on you, a part of your body," Lyra said. "A tail or a horn!" Stereo cried. "That's it! I've got it, Mrs Heartstrings!" "Got what?" she asked. "I don't understand." "No time to explain!" Stereo said. "We need to get to Twilight's house!" Stereo's little horn glowed, and after a few seconds of intense concentration, he tried to initiate a teleportation. Then everything went black.