//------------------------------// // 16. Confrontations // Story: Cheated Dreams // by Kodeake //------------------------------// Cheated Dreams Chapter 16 Confrontations The flight to Canterlot had been uneventful and filled with the sound of wind rushing past them rather than talking. Twilight's nervousness at the beginning of the flight had been completely dispelled, allowing her to simply enjoy the feeling of flying and admire the admittedly breathtaking sights from high up in the sky. It was a sight she'd seen before from the safety of her balloon, but out in the open with nothing but the landscape itself to block her view it was a completely different scene. True to her word, Rainbow had the pair in Canterlot in just under an hour as she landed on a neatly-carved stone road in Canterlot. From the look of determination on Twilight's face as she clambered off the pegasus, she had held up her end of the bargain as well. “So, where are they?” Rainbow asked, following Twilight as she promptly set off through the relatively-quiet streets. The lunch crowd had come and gone, already back at their work or homes. The occasional pony could be seen – most of the time a unicorn – doing whatever it was they had to do that particular day, but the city seemed rather boring when it wasn't being attacked by something. “We're about to find out,” Twilight muttered, turning down a street she recognized as she brought them closer to their destination. Throughout the trip she'd been focusing on forming a plan to confront this unicorn, and while she wasn't exactly comfortable with the answer she'd devised, it was probably the only way she was going to get any information out of somepony who would purposely frame Rainbow Dash. Rainbow followed quietly, a little surprised at Twilight's sudden determination towards their cause. It was clear the unicorn had a solid plan, but Rainbow didn't have the slightest idea what it could be. “Where are we going?” She asked curiously, having to increase her pace to a light trot just to keep up with the mare leading them. “Here,” Twilight answered simply, motioning to a small cafe on the corner of the street. It was a small place, not at all the elegance one would expect from Canterlot. Large glass windows looked out upon a small outdoor seating area with tables and chairs. Inside a few ponies could be seen buying and eating late lunches. “And we're here because...?” Rainbow trailed off, eyeing the unassuming shop suspiciously. “They have tables,” Twilight shrugged, approaching one of said tables and magically opening her saddlebags. In a glow of magic she extracted a map of Canterlot and the aura sphere. She spread the map out across the table, smoothing all the wrinkles she could find out of the enchanted paper as she placed the aura beside it. Rainbow watched in silent admiration as Twilight once again performed her scrying spell. Though she preferred flying, magic had always fascinated the pegasus. Watching a unicorn perform a spell high-level spell such as this was almost as awesome to her as watching a Wonderbolt competition. Almost. A few seconds later Twilight finished the spell, the point of light marking the map. She withdrew a quill and vial of ink from her saddlebags, quickly wetting the quill and marking the location of the mysterious enchanter. She ended the spell, and the light faded from the enchanted paper. In a flash of magic and a display of excellent multitasking, Twilight packed away everything she'd taken out of her saddlebags, recapped the ink well, dried her quill, and lifted the map up for inspection. “Good, they're not too far. Let's go,” Twilight announced, spinning on her hooves and marching off in another direction. Rainbow Dash once again found herself being dragged through Canterlot at a near-gallop. Twilight was on a mission, and it seemed nothing would stop her. In another twenty minutes or so, Rainbow Dash found herself standing in a lower-income part of town, where the working-class ponies lived. The houses, while still elegant, were much smaller and all carbon-copies of each other. In front of them was a small two-level house with a yard that could barely be called a patch of grass. There was nothing spectacular about the house; it was the exact same as every other one on the street. Without hesitation Twilight stormed up the path to the front door, barely waiting for Rainbow to catch up. She stopped at the door, taking a moment to compose herself, before pounding harshly on the door. When a couple seconds of silence had passed, she sent another set of loud thuds ringing through the small house. She relaxed her tense glare into a neutral expression when she heard “I'm coming!” called from the inside. A couple seconds later the door was opened by a tall, skinny, grey-coated unicorn stallion with a slicked-back black mane and a short, straight tale. His cutie mark was an emerald-encrusted golden brooch wrapped in a magical glow. “Can I help you?” He asked, sounding somewhat annoyed as he stared at the lavender unicorn on his doorstep. “Or would you rather continuing trying to break down my door?” “Actually, you can help me,” Twilight smiled kindly, stepping to the side to reveal the pegasus that had been standing just out of sight of the unicorn. Rainbow was not as good at hiding her death-glare as Twilight. When the grey unicorn saw Rainbow Dash, his pupils shrunk and his eyes widened. He swallowed nervously, glancing out around the street before stepping back. “I-I'm sorry,” he said, closing the door, “I think you have the wrong house.” Just as the door was about to close, Twilight grabbed it in her much stronger magic, holding it open just enough for her glare to be seen clearly through the crack. “I think you can,” she said, sending a wave of magic up to her horn and forcing the door wide open. “And I think you will.” The stallion once again swallowed thickly, stepping to the side. “Would... would you like to come in?” He asked shakily, to which Twilight smiled brightly – tauntingly – as she accepted his offer. Rainbow followed, but never once took her eyes off the unicorn. Part of her wanted to jump him then and there, but Twilight had a plan, and she wasn't going to risk it by doing anything rash. Instead, she kept her venomous gaze locked on the stallion as they followed him through a short hallway into a meagre living room, where he motioned for them to sit on a couch. Neither of them accepted the offer. Twilight removed her saddlebags, setting them gently on a small table. “So, let's talk about this,” Twilight said, gently removing Rainbow's necklace with her magic and holding it in front of the unicorn. The stallion shifted nervously on his hooves, purposely avoiding looking at the necklace. When he didn't say anything, Twilight grunted in annoyance and dropped the silver bolt back around Rainbow's neck. She stormed up to him, closing the small space between them and shoving her face right up against his. “What do you know about it?” Twilight growled darkly. Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise at how... hostile her usually calm and collected friend was being. She was honestly a little scared for whoever Twilight's icy glare was set upon. “I-I don't know anything!” The grey stallion cried frantically, taking a step back from the imposing lavender unicorn. “Then I suppose this isn't your aura?” Twilight asked menacingly, extracting aforementioned aura from her bags and holding it in front of the stallion. He stared numbly at it for a second before asking, “W-where did you get that?” Twilight didn't answer, instead she simply put the sphere of swirling mist back in her bags and sat down on her haunches, forcing her face back into a neutral line. “Look, Mr...” Twilight trailed off, suddenly realizing she didn't even know this unicorn's name. “S-shadow... Shadow Charm,” he supplied quickly. “Look, Mr. Charm, why don't we cut past the part where I convince you to explain how and why you enchanted this necklace, and just get to the explaining?” Twilight asked almost innocently. Sweat could be seen forming on the stallion's brow as he desperately tried to think of a way out of this situation. “I didn't enchant anything...” When Shadow trailed off, Twilight once again adopted her threatening snarl. “Really? Because I think you did. Unless you want to deal with Celestia's personal student when she's angry, I recommend you start talking.” Rainbow Dash was now completely stunned by her unicorn friend. Pulling out the Celestia' Student card was something she'd never heard Twilight do, and she was positive she never wanted to be the one Twilight was pulling it on. “I can't tell you anything about it!” Shadow Charm protested weakly, shrinking away from Twilight as she glowered down at him. With a stifled sigh, Twilight closed her eyes. “Guess we're doing it this way,” she muttered under her breath, lighting her horn. An ethereal wind began blowing through the house, swirling around the unicorn in the center of the room. The wind, starting as a gentle breeze, began growing stronger and stronger, until a veritable hurricane was blowing through the room, knocking pictures from the wall and throwing paper around in the air. Books fell off shelves and furniture shook as the magical wind blew. Twilight began slowly lifting off the ground, her horn growing brighter and brighter as her mane fanned out wildly, blown out of her face by the wind. Her entire body started glowing faintly, feeding from her magic as she opened her eyes, now glowing a bright white. Floating a few feet in the air, her head just below the roof, Twilight looked down upon the grey stallion, who had resorted to cowering in a corner. “Shadow Charm,” she boomed, her voice loud and thunderous, shaking the very foundations the house was built upon. Had anypony within three blocks been taking a nap, they were no long asleep. Rainbow Dash was pretty sure the entirety of Canterlot had felt the ground shake. “You will give me the information I need, or you will regret it,” Twilight continued, undeterred by the stallion's look of utter terror. “A-alright!” He shouted above the wind blowing through the room, “I'll tell you!” Rainbow Dash watched in awe as Twilight once again closed her eyes, the light fading from her horn as the wind died down. She'd never seen the unicorn do that before, and she never wanted to see it again. As much as she would deny it, that scared even her, and she wasn't the one on the receiving end of it. She knew Twilight was powerful, but that? That was beyond immense. The very air felt saturated with magic after the display, and Twilight didn't even seem tired as she opened her eyes, once again their normal purple. Though Rainbow also noticed something else as Twilight walked up to the cowering stallion; the unicorn had never once touched him. Not even a gentle shove. She had no real intentions of doing anything to him; it was all for show. Although, it was admittedly quite the show. “Excellent choice, Mr. Charm,” Twilight chirped happily, helping the stallion off the floor. “Perhaps we could sit down while we talked?” She offered kindly, motioning for the couch int he middle of the room. Still shaking, Shadow Charm hesitantly took her offer, walking over and collapsing down on the couch. “Now, why don't we start from the beginning. How did you get the necklace?” Twilight asked, sitting on a chair opposite the couch, the seats divided by a small coffee table. “A p-pegasus brought it to me,” he explained shakily after a moment of hesitation. He briefly glanced up at Twilight, before quickly looking away. “S-she asked me t-to place a f-flight enhancer on it... I didn't know why, but she paid me a large sum of money to do it. At the price she was paying, I didn't ask any question. Not even her name. I didn't know why she wanted it... but, when I saw the article about Rainbow Dash getting thrown out of the Wonderbolts for having an enchanted necklace... I had a pretty good idea.” “When was this?” Rainbow asked, catching the stallion off guard. He'd been so scared of Twilight he hadn't even remembered there was another pony in his house. “Uh... about three and a half weeks ago,” he answered slowly. Rainbow glanced over at a calendar, looking back through the days. When she reached the rough day he was referring to, a smile split across her muzzle. Twilight smiled too, having already calculated in her head when that would be. It was well after Rainbow had competed in the competition. “Alright so you don't know the pegasus' name... can you at least describe her to me?” Twilight asked, letting Rainbow have her moment of joy as she continued questioning Shadow Charm. “Umm... well she had a dark red coat, pretty tall, she had a deep blue mane with red highlights... oh, and her cutie mark was a-” “A black lightning bolt with a red outline?” Rainbow asked knowingly. The stallion nodded. “I know who it was, Twi.”