Lessons in quirks

by Mike84

Chapter LXIII

"Frankie?" Pinkie Pie rushed towards the spot where the colt had collapsed. But Twilight quickly held her back with a spell.
"Careful, Pinkie! He could be... not he", she cast a look around. "How did you— do you know what that thing was?"
"Ah think Frank knows", Applejack said and carefully approached the colt, keeping her eyes fixed on him. "But he's been mighty tight-lipped about it. Said something about an 'alicorn kind of changeling' to Princess Luna and that seemed good enough to her but—"
"Princess Luna is here?"
"She is back at the edge of the forest along with Fluttershy to protect Ponyville. I do hope they are alright, but what about you, darling? You look terrible!" Rarity asked eyeing Twilight with great concern.

Given Rarity's usual standards of looks, Twilight could have said the same about her, but Rarity's concern was grave and this was no the time for any playful banter.
"I'm okay", she calmed her. "I cannot fly at the moment. I had kind of a rough landing."
"We are so gonna practice that one, Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said. "But what about Frank now? AJ, the yellow light, what was that about?"
Instead of answering, Applejack asked Twilight: "What happened? We all saw the end of it, but what was going on here?"
Twilight shook her head: "Later. We got to get away from here! Everypony, stand back, we don't really know if this is Frank, if he is alright or if whatever it is is controlling him. I will try to wake him up!"

Twilight cast a quick look at Pinkie Pie. Her knees weren't twitching nor did she give any other signs of any warning calls from her Pinkie Sense, but still Twilight wanted to be cautious. She took aim with her horn and something that looked like a light blue vapor drifted towards the colt lying on the ground. Twilight made a movement with a hoof and the blue vapor seemed to nudge Frank like an expansion of Twilight's hoof. There was some unintelligible muttering, but he didn't open his eyes.
"Frank?" Twilight made some more pushy movements with her hoof and so did the blue vapor.
Frank cast his eyes open. They were neither green, nor black, nor in any way misty or unusual, apart from the fact that they were flickering around spacily as if to take in as much as they could as fast as they could.
"Frank, how are you?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Frank stared at her.
"A quill!" he said.
"What?"
"A quill! I need a quill! Something to write!"
"Egghead all the way! I think that's him alright", Rainbow Dash said in a perplexed tone.
"For the mercy of Celestia!" Frank cried and began to scrape the ground with his forehooves. For a moment Twilight thought it was some kind of fit until she realized that he was trying to write or draw something into the dirt.
"Please, I must have something to write!"

His outcry sounded so desperate as if his very life depended on it. "It's all fading!"
Spike jumped from Rarity's back and cast a short look at Twilight who nodded. The little dragon ran over to Frank, produced a quill, an inkwell and a sheet of paper from the pouch he was wearing and held both out to Frank who snatched them and began to scribble frantically.
"What are you—?" Rainbow Dash began, but Frank just shook his head and scribbled on in an almost manic manner.
"We must go on", Applejack said to Twilight, looking at the ominous glow in the forest behind her. "Can't stay here. The fire will be here any minute."
Twilight nodded. "Right you are. We can't run and hope to just outrun the fire forever. I was heading for the castle ruins—"
"That's what we thought you would do", Rainbow Dash said. "I'm coming right from there and—"
"...the bridge is cut!"
It was Frank who had spoken, without looking up from his frantic scribbling.
"What? How do you know?" Rainbow Dash asked surprised, but Frank didn't seem to hear her and gave no sign he was even aware he had spoken.
Rainbow Dash's was just one out of more questions than Twilight could count, but Applejack was right; they couldn't stay here. Already the smoke of the approaching fire was dense enough to sting in the nostrils.
"Come on, let's go!" she ordered. "We may have more time at the castle."

Applejack picked up Spike and put him on her back. Everypony turned and got ready to move, everypony that was but Frank who persisted in scribbling like there was to be no tomorrow.
"Now, Frank!" Twilight shouted. She probably understood more than anypony how much one could be caught up in writing and with all that she had seen tonight, she didn't doubt there was some very good reason for the colt's obsession with what he was writing, but no matter how important, the priorities were dictated by the approaching flames.
"I must put this down!" Frank shouted without looking up and continuing with his writing frenzy. "It is all fading already! I won't remember later on!"
"And nopony will if you and those notes stay here to burn! Get moving!"
It was the Princess Twilight Sparkle talking and too direct was the order to defy or negotiate it. Frank got up, holding the scribbled sheet of paper between his teeth, pocketing the quill and the inkwell and muttering something unintelligible to himself from the corner of his mouth. As they all set in motion, he continued to mutter and it seemed like a mantra he was repeating to himself.

It didn't take them long until they reached a point where they could make out the outlines of the castle ruins. "Rainbow, please fly ahead and fix the bridge so we can cross when we get there!" Twilight asked as they ran on. Rainbow Dash took off and gave a quick salute, but before she could fly away, Frank said: "You cannot."
He snatched the sheet of paper which had slipped out between his teeth and stuffed it into the pocket of his shirt where the quill and the inkwell already rested. "She didn't just cut the bridge but removed so much of the rope that it cannot just be tied back together."
"Who did?" Rarity asked. "And how do you know? And what do you know? And what in Equestria is all this about?"
"The attacker...", Frank began, "...she cut the bridge beyond repair. I saw her memory. I must take more notes, I am remembering ever less of it."
"Just a little further", Twilight said. "When we are at the castle... Rainbow, fly ahead and check out the bridge anyway. If it cannot be fixed we'll get down to the Tree. There's not much that could burn down there and I'm sure its magic will protect us too."
Rainbow Dash nodded and flew ahead.
"The tree?" Frank asked confused.
"You'll see", Twilight said.

They arrived at the chasm little more than a minute later to find that Frank's prediction was correct. Rainbow Dash was hovering above the chasm, holding the loose end of the bridge, but a sizable part of it was missing so it was way too short to be attached on the other side of the chasm. As they approached, Frank suddenly began to lag behind until Applejack stopped and turned her head to him. "You coming?"
Frank nodded, but his gait was very hesitant. They had gained a little distance from the fire but there wasn't much time to loose. Frank didn't seem to be nearly as worried about the fire behind as about what was lying ahead.

"Down we go", Pinkie Pie chirped as if there was no concern in the world as she jumped down the first steps of the stairs leading down to the bottom of the chasm.
Frank gasped, almost shrieked and backed several steps away from the chasm.
"What is your problem?" Rainbow Dash asked, dropping the loose end of the bridge.
Frank had turned very pale and squinted sideways so almost only the white was visible in his eyes, he was trembling and appeared scared to death.
"Frank, what is it?" Applejack asked half confused, half alarmed.
"Not that way!" Frank stammered. "I'll better go there..." He pointed with his head in a direction away from the chasm back towards the burning forest.
"Are you crazy?" Rainbow Dash shouted. "There's no time for such silly filly games!"
"I can't go there!" Frank shouted, backing another step away and making every impression of being just a straw's breadth away from freaking out beyond control.

Applejack felt that Frank had a lot of explaining to do on much of what had been going on tonight, but she was sensitive enough to recognize a pony beside himself with fear. Frank's state reminded her of Fluttershy when confronted with her worst fears and Applejack half wished for Fluttershy to be here, feeling that the Element of kindness was probably best suited to calm a pony in such distress. Barring that, she felt it was up to her to talk some sense into that pony but in a way that would not provide that last straw to make him snap.
"What is it, Frank?" she asked as calm and encouraging as she could. "What are you scared of?"
"The dark abyss! These gloomy clouds at the bottom! If I go down there, everything will!" Frank's face was an expression of sheer terror.
"Gloomy clouds?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking at the utterly unclouded chasm. "What in the name of Celestia are you talking about?"
"Name of Celestia!" echoed Frank and it sounded like a cry for help.

"The Tree!" Twilight shouted. "I know what is keeping Frank! Celestia told me the magic of the Tree protects it against anyone not related to the Elements or powerful enough to defy this protection. It will conjure up ever worse fears in the minds of everyone else the closer he or she gets!"
"But... but I?" Spike began.
"Maybe it works differently for dragons. But I think you could get down there because we trusted you completely. It was loyalty to me that brought you here the first time. At one point I had even tried to make you wear the Element of Loyalty."
"Yeah, that didn't work out", Rainbow Dash commented sourly.
"Not helping, Rainbow!" Twilight said sternly. "And it surely wasn't because of Spike that it didn't."

There was a snorting sound and Twilight cast an irritated look around to see who else was being unhelpful, but everybody was looking around just as confused as her and she put the sound off to some hissing or cracking of the fire that was getting closer.
"In any case it was good enough for the Tree." Twilight said.
"Darling, this is very fascinating but...", Rarity began, looking in the direction of the fire.
Twilight nodded and went to Frank who was looking as confused as fearful by now.
"Come along, Frank!" she said in the most soothing voice she could muster. "The clouds you see are not there. They will not hurt you."
His eyes focused a little more.
"Come, we must go!"

He took several steps forward until he stood at the uppermost step of the stairs where Pinkie Pie was waiting, apparently a bit at a loss about whether or not the extreme fear on the face of the colt was something that could be laughed away. He was staring at the stairs and the chasm and his expression left no doubt that he wasn't seeing what Twilight or any of the others were seeing when looking at the same spot. He swallowed.
"What is down there, Princess Twilight?" he whispered as if in fear that too much noise would wake up something that should better remain asleep.
"The Elements of Harmony are down there, Frank."
"Harmony! What are the Elements doing in such a place?" Frank shouted, staring at what was just a chasm to everyone else.

Twilight gave him a nudge towards the stairs. He twitched and for a brief moment it appeared like he was going to attempt to escape, but then he swallowed, closed his eyes, opened them again, realizing that walking down stairs with closed eyes wasn't going to help and began to descend. Twilight had hoped for the Tree's effect on Frank to wear off after a few steps, but the effects seemed to get even worse. After a couple of steps he was hyperventilating, halfway down he tripped and would have fallen but for a levitating spell from Twilight and for the rest of the stairs it was more like her levitating him while he appeared to be struggling just to maintain consciousness.
"Goodness!" mumbled Rarity. "I had no idea the Tree of Harmony had such an effect on ponies!"
"We've never seen anypony but the princesses anywhere near it", Applejack reminded her.

It was only after he left the final step and set hoof on the bottom of the chasm that most of the fear and anguish seemed to leave Frank. His look was that of someone awaking from a bad dream and uncertain on whether or not it had really been just a dream. He was looking up towards the night sky which reflected the reddish shine of the nearby fire, took a few uncertain steps forward and then his look fell on the Tree of Harmony in the cavern of the chasm's wall. His jaw dropped as he stared at the Tree for several moments, his gaze wandering along the Elements of Harmony in the shape of their wearers' cutie marks, along the trunk bearing the marks of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and to the Tree's crown prominently featuring the mark, the original of which drew the transfixed look of Frank Blanket next.
"The marks..." he mumbled stunned.
"I thought that you would find this interesting", Princess Twilight Sparkle said with a serenity that was in stark contrast to the obvious shock of Frank.
"Well, Frank...", Applejack said after several more moments in which the colt goggled at the Tree, "...we are here and not going anywhere. Don't ya think that it's time to spill the beans about what all this is about, who exactly that attacker is and—"

Frank twitched and as if by reflex reached for the sheet of paper, the quill and the inkwell he had stuffed into his pocket before. In one swift motion he stuffed the quill through the loop in his horseshoe, dipped it into the ink and put the point of the quill onto the paper. But he didn't write anything while he looked like he was desperately trying to focus on something.
"I... I don't remember anymore", he wailed.
"Remember what, Frank?" Twilight asked.
"I saw her mind. When she tried to take over mine. Before she was repelled and torn away. I saw her thoughts, her memories and plans—"
"Wait, that smokey stuff was a she?" Rainbow Dash asked surprised.
"Sure looked so before becoming smokey stuff", Rarity commented.

"Smokey Stuff!" Pinkie Pie repeated gleefully, having at last found a way to laugh at the attacker that had given her the creepiest signals her Pinkie Sense provided.
Twilight however ignored the others as Frank's words had awakened her interest. "You saw the attacker's mind? And the attacker was female? Frank, are you certain? He said something to me—"
Frank shook his head while he still stared at the piece of paper and very slowly drew something more on it.
"She", he said. "I still remember that. But everything else... it is like waking up from a dream. The more you try to remember something, the more blurry and vague it gets."
It was a relief for Twilight that what Frank said contradicted her absurd suspicion about a direct link between the attacker and her hero of old, Star Swirl the Bearded, but she couldn't get the final words of the mysterious attacker out of her head:
"The one who unleashed changeling kind upon the world of ponies?"

Twilight cast a look at the sheet of paper which Frank was staring at and was surprised not to find any letters or words on it at all. Instead the page was full of different symbols, a few of which she believed to recognize as cutie marks, while others didn't make any sense to her at all.
"Frank, Applejack is right. A lot has happened tonight and there is an awful lot we don't understand. Why don't you start telling us what you do know from the beginning? Who was that attacker and why was she after you in Town Hall?"
Frank starred at the quill at his left hoof as if he hoped for it to somehow produce more words, letters or symbols by itself, but finally he nodded slowly.
"Yes... yes, I should. First of all, thank you... so much happened indeed and it is only sinking in. Up there in the town hall... I thought I was done for... would have been, had you not turned up. Thanks to all of you, everyone", Frank said and let his look wander along everyone assembled.
Applejack raised her eyebrows mildly surprised. Compared to how Frank had appeared ever since he had run into them near the town hall, he seemed very meek and much more like he had before the events since his arrest.

"I want to tell you what I found out that made her attack me."
"Uhm, Twilight?" Spike piped up, plucking her mane slightly. "I want to know as much as any of you, but are you sure you are all safe here?" He cast a look up to the edge of the chasm. The fire had reached the trees near the edge of the cliff. "I mean it doesn't bother me much, but as for you, maybe it is time to at least send a short letter to—"

There was a loud rumbling sound that let the rocky walls of the chasm tremble in its foundations. The night sky seemed to become darker, blocking out the silver light of moon and stars and reflecting some of the ominous red glow of the nearby fire.
"What in tarnation...?" Applejack began as everyone was looking up.
A bright white lightning flashed up and illuminated the scene for a short moment before a deafening, rolling thunder sounded out through the night. As it gradually faded away, it was Rainbow Dash's enthusiastic laughter that sounded in everybody's ears as she pointed up at some indistinct figures on the sky that had turned overcast above the chasm in the last few seconds. "Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash shouted and the next moment the first raindrops fell and turned into a veritable downpour in a matter of seconds.

"Yeehaw!" shouted Applejack, rearing up on her hind legs. Rainbow Dash spread her wings to take to the air, but before she could take off, there was a bright white light between the rain curtains now coming down.
Though she descended through the densest rain, it seemed like not a single droplet touched her pearl white coat or her flowing mane which seemed to eradiate rather than reflect light in the darkness of the night. Very relieved she appeared and yet sublime as her look fell on the ponies and the dragon who all took a bow; caring yet majestic, Princess Celestia the Undimmed, Princess of the solar orb and ruler over the realm of Equestria, had arrived.

Author's Note:

During the final edits of this chapter I had to get rid of a few sentences for the sake of coherence. Frank had already been told (in Chapter LIV) that the timely arrival of Twilight in Town Hall was due to the Pinkie Sense. Therefore the underlined passages in this sentence didn't make much sense and were removed:

"Yes... yes, I should. First of all, thank you... so much happened indeed and it is only sinking in. Up there in the town hall... I thought I was done for... would have been, had you not turned up. Just how did you know what was happening?"
"From me", Pinkie Pie said with a broad smile. "My Pinkie Sense told me that something was awfully wrong and then that this Luna guard wanted to kill you and I told Twilight and Rainbow."
"Thanks to all of you, everyone", Frank said and let his look wander along everyone assembled.

Last edited on December 17th 2015.