Desires

by Skylight77

Chapter 8: Clash in Hoofington

4 days ago:

Carousel tore through the skies in a fury. Wind pressure was not an obstacle to her. She continued flying through the air at rough speeds, one destination in mind. Thanks to that unicorn she never caught the name of from earlier, she remembered all too well what she was doing before. She had completed putting together an amulet, but a griffon had stolen it from her soon after she had her treasure.

There was nothing else on Carousel’s mind. All her attention was grabbed by that single griffon. Her emotions burned with fury, ignoring everything she caught sight of as she flew. Her eye kept twitching, she kept her teeth grinding, and you could hear a violent buzz coming from her wings as she flapped them so roughly and quickly. The only thing she wanted to see was that town. That was where the griffon was. Which meant that was where her amulet was.

The town soon came into her view, but she did not slow down her flying. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the image that she saw earlier. How that unicorn had managed to give her such directions, she didn’t care. All that mattered to her was getting that amulet back. Afterwards, she would re-visit that unicorn.

The images were directing her to a rather large building that looked to be about four stories high. The location seemed to be around the center north edge of the town from her direction.

Carousel opened her eyes to scan the area. Everything was void to her. Only the building that matched the description she received, mattered to her. The building at the center north edge was the only thing that wasn’t voided out in her eyes.

Carousel set her flight path directly towards one of the windows on the fourth floor. She crashed right through it, expecting it to break, but it instead flipped.

Carousel landed her hooves hard inside the building’s floors, causing it to crack. The ponies inside were all startled by the entrance. The window behind her was flipping violently thanks to her force. She lifted up her head, blowing steam out of her nose. The ponies inside were gasping in surprise.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be in here!” one of the ponies shouted, causing two ponies to approach closer.

Before they could grab her, Carousel shoved them out of the way and started up her wings again, dashing straight towards the stairs heading to the third floor.

The fourth floor of the building appeared to hold many work rooms, using glass as a way to see each working pony. Carousel’s violent flying caused a lot of papers to get blown off randomly. As soon as she reached the doorway to the stairs, she shut the doors behind her, stopping any possible pursuers.

Carousel used this moment to take a little breather. She used her hoof to shift around the neck collar she wore, taking a deep breath as she pushed it up and down.

“Let the hunt, begin!” Carousel said in a low but dark tone. She turned her collar around. “You are here somewhere… and when I find you…” Her body shivered in anticipation. She breathed silently, but audibly.

Carousel hovered in the air as a way to descend down the stairs, heading to the third floor. Upon reaching the door that lead to whatever was on the third floor, Carousel placed her ear against it, listening in on what might have been inside.

But that was impossible, because it sounded like it was quite noisy in there. It sounded like a lot of chatter, but most of it sounded like activities going on, such as items being moved, machines running, and something that sounded like an argument going on.

Carousel carefully opened the door, slipping inside without causing much notice. Scanning the area, it appeared to be a department store, despite what the fourth floor looked like. There were multiple shopping areas selling different types of items.

Carousel carefully treaded across the floor, keeping her position low so as to keep herself hidden among the crowd. A few ponies laid eyes on her as she traversed the area. If she was trying to sneak around undetected, she was doing a terrible job at it.

But that didn’t matter to Carousel. It didn’t matter how many ponies saw her. All that mattered was if a certain griffon noticed her. That griffon was somewhere around here, there was no doubt in her mind about that.

Carousel treaded closer to a section involving accessories. She heard the arguing going on over there. She braced her back against a wall, standing on her hind legs, and sidled along it for closer viewing and hearing.

“You were trying to steal this from me weren’t you?!” Carousel heard voices.

“N-no, I…”

“I saw your grubby little hooves touching it! Don’t play dumb with me!”

Carousel peeked her head around the edge of the wall. She saw a few ponies backing away from the scene that was going on in the shop. A pony and a griffon were their center of attention. It looked like the griffon was the one angry, for the pony was being grabbed by the neck thanks to the claws of the griffon.

Carousel zipped from one cover spot to another, allowing her to get closer to her target.

“I-I was just trying to examine it, l-like you asked me to…”

“Lies!” *Smack* “You took that amulet right from my claws so that you could keep it for yourself!”

There was a large commotion of gasps when it sounded like the griffon punched the pony. They all seemed to be afraid of what was going on.

“B-but…”

“Save your breath, I have witnesses!” The griffon turned to the crowd, who all had fear in their eyes. “Isn’t that right you losers?”

Carousel was away from the crowd, hidden behind shelves with items blocking most of the view. They were arranged in ways that provided very minimal view, so she could see the griffon just fine, but it would make it nearly impossible for the griffon to see her.

Carousel crept along the aisle. She could see the amulet in the griffon’s claws. It was clearly the same one she had before, yellow, and in the shape of a clock. Carousel could feel the images of the incident being beaten in her mind. She could feel her head thumping violently just looking at it. Her rage grew more. She was giving a low growl as she continued treading carefully.

“Now, unless you want more trouble coming your way, you will do EXACTLY as I say!”

“Urk…”

“You will be paying for the damage you did to my amulet…”

Carousel approached closer to the scene.

“You will be paying for that damage you did to me…”

“B-but, I didn’t… ack!” The griffon gripped the pony harder.

Carousel came within range. She lunged at the perfect opportunity.

“And For Attempting To Steal My Amulet, YOU, WILL, AGHUG!!!” Carousel halted the griffon’s speech by shoving the griffon aside with the weight of her body. The pony was released while Carousel held the griffon against the wall.

“GIVE THAT BACK TO ME!” Carousel said like she was finishing the griffon’s speech. She attempted to grab the amulet back, but the griffon showed resistant. The crowd of ponies gave more gasps at the situation.

Carousel was shoved away by the griffon, causing her to fly back, but Carousel retaliated by pushing herself against the shelves that she was shoved to. The shelves of items spilled and shattered as a result, but she used the force of that push to lunge at the griffon again, using both forehooves to retaliate an attack.

The force impacted the griffon, causing them to break through the wall. The griffon retaliated after impacting the ground by shoving Carousel up and over. Carousel slid along the ground before she could halt herself, keeping her sights on the griffon. The griffon stood back up, giving a menacing look back at Carousel.

“Oho, you do not want to mess with me you loser!” the griffon challenged, punching one of her claws with her other claw.

The clash had just begun.

Carousel exhaled a visible steam of breath through her snout, twice. She whipped her tail around and spread her wings into a fighting stance. She eyed the griffon carefully, scraping a hoof along the ground. Her goal was to get back that amulet, which she could see being held by the tail of her griffon opponent.

The griffon charged for Carousel, throwing a claw strike directly at the pegasus. Carousel retaliated by striking with a hoof. The claw and the hoof connected, canceling out each other’s strikes. A volley of strikes came from both pegasus and griffon, both being blocked, or both connecting.

Carousel was backing off while the griffon continued striking. Any passerby ponies were either being shoved away from the fight, or avoiding it. Their fighting led them into what appeared to be a kitchen area before it started changing up.

*Smack* Carousel threw another punch in the middle of the fight, connecting with the griffon’s head.

“Grr! Rah!” The griffon attacked back, striking a claw at Carousel’s face, thrusting her away. Carousel impacted on one of the stoves with her back, causing some of the cooking pots to spill on the ground. The griffon pulled out what appeared to be a chainsaw, which was probably somewhere in the stash of items in the area.

“I told you, you do not want to mess with me! Now You’ll Pay!” The griffon started up the chainsaw and aimed it at Carousel. Carousel stopped the griffon by gripping her hooves on the chainsaw’s handles before it touched her. The chainsaw was getting close to her neck.

“Nngh!” Carousel struggled to push the chainsaw away while the griffon pushed back. Thinking quickly, Carousel moved her tail to wrap around the handle of one of the nearby cooking pots. Since it was recently used, it was still piping hot, despite its spilled contents. Carousel threw the pot in the air using her tail. She then used a free hoof to slam it directly on the griffon’s head when the pot came within range.

“RRAAAAAAGHH!!!” The sizzling of the griffon being burned was loud. This retaliation caused the griffon to drop the chainsaw. The chainsaw was still running, sawing through the floor on its own.

Carousel used this moment to grab the griffon. She shoved the griffon to the stove.

*Slam, slam, slam…* Carousel repeatedly slammed the griffon’s pot wearing head directly on the stove’s surface. The pot shattered due to its abuse.

Suddenly, the large wings of the griffon spread, knocking Carousel off balance. The griffon grabbed Carousel, taking her into the air, shortly, and then throwing her towards a damaged part of the ground due to the chainsaw.

______________________________________________________________________________

A single pony was sitting at a desk, finishing a file of papers concerning his job. He gave a grunted sigh as he set the files down.

*Crack!* The ceiling above said pony had just been torn down. Landing in front of him was a brown pegasus, followed by some falling debris from the destroyed ceiling. The pegasus’s face was directed toward the stallion in a painful manner.

“Can I help you?” the stallion said in a casual tone and look.

*Crash!* Suddenly a griffon swooped down and attacked the pegasus. Their ruckus caused them to hit a ton of objects in the work place. Papers were being flung off, tools were crashing to the ground, and the desk got destroyed.

Their battle directed them away from the work area, leaving a dazed stallion just staring at his destroyed work. His eye twitched as he looked at the destruction. The only thing still intact was the files that he just finished.

“I QUIT!” he said as he smacked the files away. The floor under him gave away due to a chainsaw still running, causing a hole in the ground. *Crash*

______________________________________________________________________________

*Crash!* “AAIIEEE!!!” A bunch of ponies started screaming and running when the appearance of a pegasus and a griffon’s duel came apparent out of another wall they crashed and broke through.

Carousel threw the griffon towards a set of machines. The machine cracked and started spurring out electricity.

*Boom!* The machine exploded, causing the griffon to get blasted away. The griffon used this momentum to charge at Carousel. Carousel didn’t expect that and got slammed hard by the griffon’s body.

The two fighters rolled and crashed through many objects, causing more destruction. A set of lights fell from the ceiling due to their ruckus, creating fire within their wake.

“AAIIEEE!!!” Many ponies scrambled and screamed at the sight of fire.

Carousel was currently being shoved by the griffon through more objects, breaking right through. She tried to stop the griffon, but was unable to. The griffon held her by the head, targeting straight for a wall that led out of the building.

*Crash!* The two fighters broke right out of the building, both losing control of themselves. They were on the second floor when they crashed through. The building had sustained a lot of damage due to their fighting that it was now collapsing behind them.

Carousel and the griffon separated in mid-air, tumbling towards the ground. They impacted the ground, rolling outside of town, landing near a forest. It didn’t take long for them to come to a stop.

The griffon had recovered first, leaving Carousel on the ground. Both of them had received lots of bruise marks due to their battle, but it looked like the griffon was winning. The griffon glared at the downed pegasus with a menacing smirk.

“*Pant, pant* Give it up dude, *pant* I eat ponies like you for breakfast. *Pant, pant*,” The griffon’s wings spread into a taunting pose. “You’re out of your league trying to take me on.”

That last impact dealt quite a blow to Carousel’s head. Her mind had scrambled some more as a result. She hesitantly picked herself up as her mind focused on that griffon.

Things were suddenly much clearer to Carousel. The description for this griffon became apparent to her. This was a female griffon. The fur around her face was white while the rest of the fur on her body was brown.

Carousel managed to stand back up, using a hoof to rub her forehead. She then turned her red neck collar around again, flashing a smile as she stared at her griffon opponent.

“What are you smiling about, pal?” the griffon asked.

“You’re not the same griffon I encountered many years ago,” Carousel stated. “Who are you?”

The griffon gave off a confused look. “Who am I? Why should I tell you?”

“Hmph, you may not be the same one, but you might as well be,” Carousel responded, looking slightly away. “Even so, I still want that amulet back.”

“Oh, you mean this?” The griffon motioned her tail towards Carousel, showing her the amulet. “Sorry dude, but this is mine!”

“Oh is it? Then I ask, what does it-“

“Dude! Stop Talking!” The griffon interrupted. “Your voice is really creeping me out!”

“Well, I’m sorry if you hate it, but I have to ask, NNGH-“

The griffon charged and struck at Carousel in fury, slamming her into a tree in the nearby forest.

“I Said, Be Quiet!” the griffon roared.

Carousel grunted before responding. She wasn’t putting up any resistance. “Urgh… can I please get a-“

*RAAAWWWRR!!!* The griffon gave a wild loud roar in rage, blowing roughly against Carousel’s face. The griffon punched Carousel in the face with her claws in an attempt to silence the annoying pegasus. The griffon continuously struck at Carousel’s face with its claws, all the while, Carousel didn’t try resisting, but endured each blow.

“*Smack* I told you to stop talking you lame-o pony! *Smack* I don’t care what your weak excuse is, but I know you can hear me just fine! *Smack* When I Tell You To Stop Talking, You Stop-“ *Crash*

Before the griffon could land that last strike, Carousel quickly moved her head out of the way, causing the griffon to pierce her claws directly inside the trunk of the tree.

“Grr… Nngh!” the griffon grunted, trying to remove her claw out of the trunk. While she was busy attempting that, Carousel slipped away from the griffon’s grip.

“If you want me to listen to you then why won’t you listen to me!?” Carousel retaliated all that abuse putting a bit of distance from the griffon before charging at her in the air, slamming the griffon with a powerful kick against the tree.

“RAAAHH!” the griffon shrieked out in pain. That attack caused the tree trunk to start cracking.

“There Is Only One Thing That I Want From You!” Carousel shoved the griffon’s head against the tree, causing her beak to pierce inside the trunk as well.

“Mmph!” Now the griffon’s claw and beak were stuck to the tree.

“All I Want Is The Amulet That You Took From Me!” With the griffon helpless to defend herself, Carousel snatched the amulet back.

“And Then You’ll Never Have To Hear From Me Again!” Carousel flew a few distances back again, now with the amulet in her hooves.

“IS IT REALLY SO HARD FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND THAT!!!?” She charged directly towards the upper part of the tree, kicking it with a force powerful enough for the damaged lower section to snap.

*…Pant, pant…* Carousel gave very low pants as she watched that tree start rolling downhill, deeper into the forest. That griffon was unable to release herself from its grasp. The griffon was helplessly being taken deeper inside the forest as a result.

Carousel looked over to her retrieved amulet. She saw herself in its reflection. She started… chuckling for some reason.

“…Heheheheh…” Her chuckling was getting stronger slowly. For some reason, she felt so good. She started flying away from the scene to suppress her chuckling. But her chuckling kept growing.

Soon it became a laugh. Carousel flew faster, no destination in mind. Her laughter couldn’t be contained.

“Ahahaha, ahaha… *gasp* Nnngh!” Carousel’s laughter ceased when she felt a burning pain coming directly from her mind. She clutched her head desperately as she continued flying. Images were being beaten in her mind.

Carousel was suddenly starting to feel so much pain. All of the damage her body sustained became apparent to her in a much greater scale. She started seeing images of every mark and scratch that were on her body. Then the images were shifting back to the building where that clash took place.

Carousel was seeing the images of the many ponies that had been injured due to that battle. She felt their pain. Their appearances were so focused. One of them was pink with two shades of yellow hair, one of them was light blue with a darker blue hair, one of them was white with dark purple hair, and one… was just a light blue filly with two shades of white hair.

The sounds of their agonizing pain burned through Carousel’s mind. Her flying slowed down as the pain became apparent. She was… whimpering mid-flight. Tears started escaping her eyes.

Carousel was dropping her altitude, wrapping her hooves around her body. The cries of those injured ponies surrounded her mind. They wouldn’t leave her alone.

Carousel took a hesitant landing in a meadow area near an outskirt of a different town, dropping her amulet nearby. The tears stayed with her eyes, but the whimpering was clearly present. She curled into a ball, attempting to drown out the sound of those cries.

*Rustle…* A new sound made it to Carousel’s ears. It sounded like hoof steps. The cries in her mind were slowly drowning out as it came closer.

“*Gasp* Oh my…” Carousel heard voices now. It sounded like two ponies were heading her way. “I did hear crying… excuse me ma’am, are you alright?”

The sounds of the new voices were calming her down. Those voices drowned out the cries of pain that were attacking her mind. She looked away from the ground and looked up to the pair of ponies that had found her.

“*Gasp!*” But then fear struck Carousel when she saw them. She tried backing away.

“Whoa, hey… don’t worry, we don’t want to hurt you.” There were two unicorn ponies in front of Carousel. One was an adult mare while the other one was just a little filly.

The sight of the filly unicorn brought fear to Carousel’s mind. The images of that injured filly were about to attack her mind again. But then, the unicorn filly in front of her walked closer to her, with something in her mouth. The filly set it down in front of her.

“Here, I think you dropped,” the filly said. It was the yellow amulet that she had just recently gotten back. Carousel carefully placed a hoof on it. The painful images came to a complete stop. She gave a deep sigh of relief seeing that the pain had been relieved.

“I’m sorry, my name is, Amethyst Star,” the older unicorn said. “But, you may call me Sparkler. And this is my little sister, Dinky.”

“Hello!” the little filly responded.

“You look like you’re hurt, we can take you to the hospital if you’d like.”

Carousel picked the amulet in her hooves and set it close to her. She gave a nod in response to the two unicorns that had offered to help. Their presence had eased her mind somehow. She allowed the two unicorns to aid her up to her hooves, escorting her to whatever destination they had in mind.

______________________________________________________________________________

Current day:

“Oh… my…” Fluttershy was quite taken aback by these events that were stated. She had managed to recover somewhat from her traumatized state earlier, but still held onto Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash however was still being irritated by what Carousel was telling. She obviously wasn’t going to get an answer unless she brought it up.

“Okay Carousel, what is going on?” Rainbow Dash started. She pointed a hoof at her while keeping the other wrapped around Fluttershy. “You’ve been telling us all about how important this amulet is to you, but you’ve never mentioned what it does or what it was for.”

“Um… it’s a flash light?” Fluttershy hesitantly suggested. Rainbow Dash gave Fluttershy an odd look in response. “She said it gave off a light so bright, it blinded her.”

“That amulet is so important to her because it creates light?” Rainbow Dash asked in an exaggerated tone.

“Mmm… m-maybe it’s Equestria’s brightest flash light ever?” Fluttershy said with an embarrassing smile. After all, some ponies would find such precious emotions in the smallest of things, no matter how ridiculous it was.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Carousel for a response. But she didn’t respond. She just dropped her eye lids, scrunching her face.

Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up. She could just barely hear some sort of cranking noise going on, somewhere nearby from where they were. She could just barely feel the entire facility move in an odd way. It was short, but it made her realize something.

This facility must've been floating in the skies.

Rainbow Dash groaned with an irritated sigh. Whatever that amulet was for, either Carousel couldn't remember, or she was purposefully not telling them. The latter seemed to be the more likely one.

“Look, the next day is the day everything starts happening,” Rainbow Dash continued in a softer voice. “We better get some answers as to what is going on, or we’re through with this charade!”

Fluttershy could see the seriousness in Rainbow Dash’s eyes. If things didn’t make sense soon, they were never going to learn what happened.

Fluttershy gave a nervous gulp when the story continued again.

Author's Note:

One of the many battle moments we are gonna be seeing in this fanfic. I hope I captured this right.

Next Chapter: Limits