Chapter 6
Taken
Heart left the orphanage glowing with happiness. When her mother left, she felt like her world had ended and that she would never find happiness in Ponyville. She had been proven wrong, despite school being her biggest weakness. She was meeting Lil Mac at the dance, and couldn’t wait to spend the evening with her newfound coltfriend. As she went, she was careful to not ruin her dress or her hair since Rarity was going to be there as well,and she didn’t want to approach her looking ragged.
At last, having made it to town hall, she groaned upon seeing a line, but with no other way in, she stood patiently waiting to get in, Applejack had sent Lil Mac to school with enough bits for the two of them to get in. As much as Heart would’ve liked Lil Mac to escort her to Town Hall, she wanted to see his expression when he saw her. While waiting in line, a well dressed brown unicorn stallion with red eyes stood behind her; he was looking at her with intense curiosity.
She looked back at him and he looked back up to the ticket booth, “How long will this line take?” he asked a bit irritated.
“I’m sure it won’t be long.”
He groaned. “It’d better not, or my date is not going to be happy.”
Heart looked up at him. “She can’t be mad at you for that.”
“Try telling her that.”
There was a small silence and the line moved a few steps then the stallion spoke again, “I’ve seen you around town a few times, what is your name?”
“Heart’s Desire…”
“Such a pretty name.” he grinned.
Inside, he was groaning, Of course, she had to have a name representing some sort of purity...we’ll have to fix that
Heart then looked at him curiously, knowing she had never seen this stallion in Ponyville before, something told her that there was something off about this stallion, and turned her head away not wanting to converse with him further.
Meanwhile, he inconspicuously performed a spell to see where her magical surges were at. He then saw the amount of magic surrounding her like a golden halo seeping out of her, this was very powerful magic and one that he knew he could easily corrupt if she cooperated. If she didn’t, he had ways to make her and force her to believe whatever he told her without question. Heart kept her eyes forward, the little voice in her head telling her to avoid contact with this stallion for the rest of the night. Heart then began to feel a bit scared and freaked out by this stallion behind her, she quickly looked back at him and her eyes sparkled the way they always did when she felt strong and powerful emotions.
The stallion looked at her curiously, peeking his interest, “What was that?”
Heart quickly looked away, “N-nothing!”
‘Come on line! Move faster!’
“Only those with powerful magic in them can do that…”
Heart turned her head towards him in surprise, “Powerful magic?”
He nodded, “Yes, and I think you may need help learning to harness it…”
“Well, Princess Twilight lives in Ponyville, maybe I could ask for her help?”
“Maybe, but sometimes your tutors come to you…”
Heart flinched, then turned back around, she wanted this line to go faster, she was officially ready to be away from this stallion. To her relief, the line moved, she paid for her ticket then moved to the entrance to the event and gave it to the stallion standing there. He then put her ticket in his pocket and let her in with a grin. She entered and looked around at all the nicely dressed adults and foals, she then looked around for Lil Mac, hoping he was here.
“Hey Heart! You made it!” she heard Lil Mac’s voice call out.
She looked to the side and saw him in his little tux made to fit him, “Sorry I took so long, got stuck in line.”
“No problem! As long as you made it!”
She then saw the stallion that was in line behind her come through the entrance, he didn’t look at her as he passed by, which Heart was thankful for. She just focused on the colt in front of her, he offered his hoof as he blushed, she smiled at him blushing as well and gently took it.
He then led her down to the dance floor, she caught a glimpse of his Dad and he looked at the two of them warmly, he looked happy for them and this assured Heart that she was welcomed by him. Her hoof was then released and Lil Mac was standing in front of her as a slow song played, Heart tensed and saw Mac do the same. He looked over to his Dad nervously, who was standing off to the side of the dance floor and urging him with gestures to make a move. Lil Mac gulped and gently took her hoof again and pulled her close and began dancing with her, both were nervous and it showed in their dance movements. But they soon got the hang of it and they started shedding their nervousness and began enjoying their evening.
“You look great by the way,” Lil Mac commented to Heart.
Heart giggled, feeling herself turning even redder, “Thanks...Rarity helped me make it…”
“You two did a great job! You look beautiful!”
Heart looked shyly to the side while smiling, “Thank you...”
She looked nervously over at Big Macintosh, who seemed to be taking a break from live singing and let Vinyl Scratch do her job. Heart tensed at the sight of the mountainous stallion, his presence made her tremble.
Lil Mac noticed this and said, “Don’t worry about my Dad, he likes you...Plus he’s a gentle giant. It’s when he has a reason to use his strength to stick up for ponies that you should be worried.”
She nervously nodded. “Noted…”
Little Mac smiled and rubbed Heat’s shoulder. “Trust me, he would help and stick up for you in a heartbeat if it came down to it.”
Heart relaxed, “Okay, that makes me feel better…”
The mysterious stallion watched from afar, and felt a sharp pain in his head, he shook it off probably from his disguise wearing off. But then, he heard a familiar voice say faintly in his head, “I will be released, and you will pay for what you’ve done…”
He was angered by this and locked the voice away deep in his mind like he always did. He then left the dance and went to the Everfree Forest to wait until the dance was over and for Heart to go to bed. He would stay there until midnight, that would give her time to go to sleep and for him to remove her from this town and take her to the Crystal Mountains. He left in a huff and nearly knocked a few ponies over.
Heart saw this from the mysterious stallion, and shrugged it off, figuring his date must’ve stood him up. Instead, she leaned back into Mc’s soft fur until he stopped dancing and tensed up.
“Mac?” Heart asked, pulling away. “ Is everything ok?”
Mac didn’t even respond, he was looking directly at a pegasus colt from their class named Ocean Breeze. The colt that Lil Angel was supposed to be coming with, but Angel was nowhere to be found.
“Mac?”
“He stood her up didn’t he?” He growled. “He was supposed to pick her up an hour ago!”
Heart looked at Mac with surprise, then back at Ocean, heart beating, blood boiling, she began to squeeze on Mac’s hoof as she glared at the colt. She had just been talking with Lil Angel about how excited her friend was to be going on her first date all week. All week at school, the only thing Angle would talk about was her excitement for the dance and how many favors, pleading, and begging she had to do with her father just to go. She had even twisting Big Mac’s arm and promised to clean the pigpens just to go with this colt. All that excitement and hope was shattered for Lil Angel,
Heart’s eyes sparkled with her anger and before she could move towards Ocean and his friends, which included Itazura and two other colts Heart didn’t quite know yet, Lil Mac trudged angrily towards them. Heart followed behind him and when he reached them, he began yelling at them, “Ocean Breeze! Where is my sister?!”
Ocean’s face went pale, he knew he was busted. “Hey, hey Lil Mac, look...she’s just not my type ya know? Plus, I never asked her out in the first place!”
Little Mac sarcastically chuckled. “Oh yeah? Then why was she talking about going out to this dance with you all week?” With each word Mac spoke, the tone and anger grew only louder. “She had to beg my dad for days, promise to do more chores than any of you lazy bones will do in a lifetime, and you, stood, her, UP?!“
“Whoa, chill,” Ocean mumbled, starting to shrink back. “I… I mean, I didn’t think she’d have that big a—
“Oh, don’t even!” Mac spat. “You knew she had a crush on you. Every, single, filly, in class, knew she had a crush on you!”
To Heart’s horror, Ocean began to laugh. and not in a worried kind of way, but as if he found what Little Mac was saying to be amusing.“And so do almost all the fillies in our class, man. Your sister is just another one of them!”
Heart noticed that Zura’s expression towards Ocean was only of pure rage, “You...you stood her up didn’t you?”
“Shut up Zura! This doesn’t involve you!” Ocean yelled at him.
Mac noticed the same thing Heart did, both had never seen this side of Zura before, it was if he actually cared about Lil Angel.
Ocean Breeze huffed. “Whatever. Besides, she isn’t as pretty as everyone in town is praising her to be...so I could really care less about her.”
With that, Lil Mac pounced with a wild cry of fury. He then pinned Ocean down and began slapping him and throwing punches, “You filthy, spoiled, rotten, BRAT!!!”
Heart then heard Ocean crying as blood began flowing from his nose. She turned around and realized they had gained an audience, and Mac’s father was moving quickly through the crowd towards them, Heart looked fearfully up at him, thinking that she was in trouble as well. He only looked at her softly and gently nudged her to the side saying, “Excuse me, Heart, thank ya.”
He then turned his direction to the two colts still fighting, he then began peeling his son off of Ocean, “Mac! Son! That’s enough! He’s had enough!”
Lil Mac, however was not ready to back down so easily, “NO! DAD! HE STOOD HER UP! HE STOOD UP LIL ANGEL, AND I’M NOT LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!”
His Dad could only look at Ocean Breeze with disgust, “Yer lucky Ah can’t give you a beatin’, come near mah daughter again...you will be sorry…”
Ocean breeze nodded still shook up and scared of the sight of Big Macintosh, the mountain of a stallion himself. He then put Lil Mac down and said to him, “Yer gonna take Heart home, then straight home is where yer goin’ as well. When Ah get back, you and Ah are gonna talk about this.”
Little Mac’s jaw dropped. “But Dad!”
“No ‘buts’ about it! Walk!”
Lil Mac groaned, then took Heart’s hoof and led her out, looking disappointed in himself.
He didn’t speak the entire time walking to the orphanage, and Heart began to get a little scared. Once the orphanage was reached, she started heading up the steps a little when she heard him speak for the first time since they left the dance, “Ah’m sorry ya had ta see that...Ah messed up our date…”
Heart turned around and shot him a warm, soft grin, “It’s ok. I forgive you, mac. Besides, you were standing up for your sister...I can’t blame you for that. If anything, if I was a bit braver… I might have joined you.”
Little mac chuckled. “Thanks Heart, and you are brave. Ah just can’t believe that jerk.”
Heart casted him a wicked grin. “Hey, maybe there’s some way we can get him back.” she kicked a nearby pebble. “Well… Maybe if we don’t do anything, we can all get together sometime and ‘imagine’ things to do to Ocean Breeze.”
Little Mac beamed. “Oh yeah, Ah was thinking tying him to a tree in the middle of the everfree.”
Heart stuck out her tongue. “Oh, is that the best you got? I’d say, we cover him in honey, then bang a few pans to make sure he attracts some hydra’s.”
“Yeah, but they say zap apple jam is the best way to attract a manticore.”
The they bursted out laughing, and Mac began to smile a bit, “Thanks Heart...that makes me feel a little better…”
Heart nodded while smiling. “Yeah… but some other time, I should get going.” She turned towards the door, but something in her head told her to turn around and go up to him, she did this and approached him, kissing him on the lips.
Mac’s eyes were wide open in surprise, they were still wide open when she let go. He was frozen as she blushed and turned towards the building and went up the steps. He slowly turned around, and as soon as she was inside and the door was closed, she heard him cry out loud, “YES!!”
Heart giggled and went up to her dorm, still blushing when she entered, and she saw that Sugar Song was dead asleep on the bed with her textbook on her belly. Heart took her dress off and hung it up in the closet. She then turned off the lights off and took the book off of Sugar’s stomach and placed it in her Saddlebag. Sugar then woke up, and said groggily, “Hey, how did it go? What time is it?”
“It’s 9:30 and I came home early, Lil Mac beat the snot out of Ocean Breeze because he stood up Lil Angel.”
Sugar’s eyes widened, “I would’ve loved to see that!”
Heart giggled, “His Dad had him take me home, he went home as well.”
“Well that stinks, but, oh well…” Sugar looked to Heart who was still flushed red and gazing forward dreamily. “Oh… I suppose your walk home ended well?”
Heart’s eyes widen, and she threw herself under the covers. “I’m gonna go to bed, you get some sleep too.”
Sugar shook her head. “Yes mother! But you’re giving me more details in the morning.”
Heart playfully stuck her tongue out at her and the both laughed as Heart took off her glasses and clung Fuzzy Hearts, “Goodnight, Sugar.”
“Nighty, night, Heart.”
Both fillies snuggled under the blankets, slowly falling asleep.
Meanwhile, in the Everfree Forest, Sombra, who was now out of his disguise, he was pacing and wondering where exactly that headache came from and why he was being released. There was something odd about that filly, it seems her magic is able to corrupt him.
“Seems as if there’s a race to corrupt her before she does so to me.”
He looked up and saw that the moon was in the middle of the sky, he turned himself into smoke and quickly maneuvered through Ponyville’s skies like a snake. He then reached the orphanage and located Heart’s room with Sugar Song. He slithered through the window cracks and turned back into himself once he was in, he looked over at the sleeping, butter yellow filly and placed a spell on her to keep her asleep for their trip to the Crystal Mountains. Once the spell was cast, he heard the other filly begin to stir and saw that she had awakened a little, he performed the same spell on her causing her to drift asleep.
When she wakes, she’ll think it was nothing but a nightmare…
He then slowly picked up Heart, who was still clutching her doll and he got her glasses, placing them on her as she still slept. Sombra then turned towards the window, opening it slowly so he wouldn’t wake anyone up again. He dissolved into smoke, still being able to carry Heart and left. The window closing behind the two of them.
And with that…
They were gone.
