Second Movement: Part 13- Hopeful Tune
Hopeful Tune
Twilight Sparkle glared at the book sitting silent upon the cushion before her. She squinted, forcing a spark from her horn. The spark drifted down to the open book; the page twitched as if in a breeze. Her tongue stuck out of her mouth and she closed her eyes.
“Easy, Twilight,” Shining Armor said. “Let it happen. Don’t push it yet.”
Twilight nodded even as she glared at the page. Her horn sparked again, lit by her concentration. She was rewarded with the sound of the page flopping over. “Ha! That’s it! I turned a page!”
Shining clapped his hooves together. “Great job, Twilie! You’ll be tossing ursa majors again in no time!”
They shared a smile in the confines of the train car. The Friendship Express from the Crystal Empire to Manehatten rattled down icy tracks, a great white landscape rushing past. The ponies within were warm, heedless of the winter wonderland around them.
Shining Armor cast a glance upon the outdoors. “I woulda thought we’d see some grass by now, we’re almost to the city.”
“It’s the windigos, sir,” a nearby crystal pony stated. He held a spear loosely in his forelegs. “They’ve just about taken over the northern part of Equestria, or so the reports say.”
Shining grimaced as he peered through the train’s windows. “No exaggeration on their part, I’d say.”
Lyra looked up from fiddling with her lyre. “Hay, um, are we in danger or anything?” she asked the guard.
The crystal pony nodded. “Every moment.”
“Thanks,” Lyra said. “Now I’ll never get to sleep.”
The pony shrugged and went back to standing alert.
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes became lidded as she prodded her book, and her mouth turned down in a decisive frown.
“Hay, Twilie.” Shining placed a hoof on her shoulder. “You’re gonna get better. You’re already getting there, really.”
Twilight gave him a smirk. “I know, if only because my big galoot of a brother will never let me forget it!”
A sharp bark of laughter issued from him. “Fine, I’ll lay off.”
“You don’t…” Twilight shook her head. “You don’t have to.”
Shining Armor’s smile lasted until he looked out the window again. “We’re there.”
The city came into view. The enormous skyscrapers of Manehatten rose high into the air, only to have their peaks obscured by the rolling cumulonimbi of Cloudsdale. Ponies could be seen flitting all over the place, mere colorful specks against the enormity of it all.
Shining stood. “Well, Twilight, I’d say it’s about time you and your friends were reunited.”
The train slowly came to a stop beside a platform filled to the brim with guards. Blueblood stood at the head, his armor glinting in the station’s overhead lights. He bowed his head as the train’s doors opened, and Twilight Sparkle stepped forth. “My Lady, I am pleased to report that Maneh—”
“Twilight!” The purple form of Spike rushed past Blueblood and leapt upon Twilight. She gasped and returned the embrace she was given. “I missed you so much! I shoulda gone with you, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“Spike! Spike, easy!” she said. “It’s alright. I’m alright.” She set him down on the platform and looked him over. “See? I’m fine. I’m just fine.”
“B-but, your head!” He pointed with a claw. “If I was there…” He sighed. “If I had gone with you, none of this would have happened.”
Twilight Sparkle watched him closely as his eyes fell to the floor. The sound of hooves against stone alerted her to the presence of other ponies. “Rarity! Pinkie Pie! Applejack! You made it!”
“Sure as shootin’ we did,” Applejack said with a tip of her hat. “I wish we coulda all been here, but…” She shrugged. “Well, we can explain it later.”
Pinkie wrapped Twilight in a hug. “How’s your head, silly? Can you do magic yet?”
Twilight smiled. “A little, but—”
“Oh, darling, just look at you!” Rarity produced a brush from her saddlebags and went to work on Twilight’s mane. “It’s been ages since you really took a moment for yourself, hasn’t it?”
A red shade spread across Twilight’s cheeks. “Guys, everypony’s looking at us.”
They turned as one to find themselves the object of every single royal guard’s attention. Blueblood cleared his throat. “Perhaps if we could save the pleasantries until after the briefing…”
“Let them have their fun,” Shining Armor said. “It’s been a hard couple of months.”
Blueblood placed his mouth next to Shining’s ear and whispered forcefully. “May I remind you that every second we waste here is another second for Sombra and the windigos have to wreak havoc?”
“May I remind you,” Shining whispered back, “that our most powerful weapon relies on these mares maintaining their friendship?”
Blueblood huffed, but remained silent.
Twilight turned back to Spike and took him up in a warm hug. “I missed you, too, Spike.” She drew him back and got a good look at him. “Say, have you grown taller?”
His eyes widened to roughly the size of dinner plates. “T-taller!? Wh-what makes you say that!? I’m not growing, am I? I mean, not too tall…”
Twilight’s eyes shot to Rarity. She raised an eyebrow.
“It’s…” Rarity placed a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “It’s a long story.”
Lyra filed out of the car next, her saddlebags hanging loosely at her sides. She looked from the guards to the overhanging Cloudsdale and back. Her shoulders slumped. “I’m not gonna get to go back to Ponyville anytime soon, am I?”
Twilight entered the Orange’s house with her minor entourage following close behind. She took a seat in the living room and let out a sigh that seemed to spread across her entire body. Spike curled up beside her with a sigh of his own while his eyelids drooped dangerously low.
She rested against the couch back and allowed a small, elusive smile to cross her lips.
“So,” Applejack said, “Rainbow Dash got herself captured by griffons.”
“Afraid so,” Twilight replied as the smile vanished. “There’s no telling when Cadance can negotiate for her release, either. I don’t even think news of the takeover has reached overseas yet.”
“It’s a particularly sticky wicket, I’d say.” Rarity stirred her tea slowly, staring into its depths. “We’ll most undoubtedly need her to set things right, when all is said and done.”
Twilight sat up. “Maybe, but maybe not. I might have another solution besides the Elements.”
“Shoot,” Pinkie said, speaking the first words she had said for the entire conversation. Her eyebrows leveled as she waited for Twilight’s response.
“Starswirl’s personal journal.” Twilight lifted The Collected Works of Starswirl the Bearded with her forelegs. “Luna contacted me in a dream that to understand Sombra’s crystal heart, I should ‘look to the Stars.’ Lyra surmised that she probably meant Starswirl.”
“I totally did.” Lyra smirked. “Kinda.”
“If we look through the journal, his own personal account of his life, there will no doubt be something there that will tell us what we need to know about the original Crystal Heart.” Twilight sat back, her brows lowered. “We’ll find that journal in the Royal Canterlot Library.”
“What?” Applejack sputtered. “Wait, now. Just wait a moment. You’re gonna go chargin’ into the library. In the middle of the castle. In the middle of Sombra’s castle!?”
“No, I’m going to sneak in.” Twilight looked each of her friends in the eye, one by one. “I’m not sure how, but there’s gotta be something Sombra’s overlooked. Something he won’t be expecting. I might even be able to get in and out without being discovered.”
“B-but you just got back!” Spike gasped. “You’re still hurt! You can’t go in there alone!”
“I won’t be alone. Shining Armor will come with me.” Twilight placed a hoof on his back. “The longer we wait, the harder it’ll be to fight Sombra.”
“Darling Twilight,” Rarity sighed, “you really didn’t expect us to let you go alone, did you?”
“Why, shoot!” Applejack stood and held a hoof up. “We’re standin’ by yer side, through thick and thin!”
“But…” Twilight shook her head slowly. “I can’t ask you girls to do that.”
“You didn’t ask, silly,” Pinkie said with a chuckle. “We’re offering! It’s what friends do! Dive into the pit of evil to help each other out!” She looked down at the floor with a note of introspection. “At least, that’s what all my friends do.”
“I-I’m coming, too.” Spike snuggled up closer to Twilight’s side. “I-I’m not letting you out of my sight for a good long while.”
Twilight’s smile trembled as she looked at each pony, and dragon, in turn. “I don’t even know what to say… Have I mentioned I love you guys?”
Applejack placed her forehead against Twilight’s. “We love you, too, sugarcube.” She looked up and grinned at Rarity and Pinkie. “Well, what’re y’all waitin’ fer? Don’t yah know an opportunity for a group hug when yah see one?”
The five friends shared an all-too-brief moment of affection, their smiles brightening a room darkened by Cloudsdale’s shadow. Lyra gave them a lopsided smile from her chair. The mint mare turned to the window, imagining for a brief moment that she could see her home on the horizon.
“Were you always this stupid, or has staring at gemstones all day dulled you senses!?”
Prince Blueblood and Prince Shining Armor stood across from each other around the strategy room’s table. Blueblood’s white face grew red as he roared at his fellow soldier. “You want to send one of, no, the most powerful unicorn I know of—a bearer of an Element of Harmony, no less—into enemy territory that I wouldn’t trust Princess Celestia herself to come back from! It is preposterous! It is asinine! It is downright idiotic!”
Shining Armor stood at sharp attention. “You should mind your tone, your highness.”
“No, you should mind my tone, your highness!” Blueblood sneered at the blue-maned unicorn. “I shall not condone such a blatant waste of resources in this desperate bid for an easy solution!”
“I would rather you not refer to my sister as a ‘resource,’” Shining said.
“Oh, well, then I shall not condone the waste of such an important pony as Twilight Sparkle!” Blueblood growled.
Philomena the phoenix flapped through the air on fiery wings and came to rest on Blueblood’s back. “We shall either track down the other two element bearers,” the prince said, “or we shall fight Sombra the old-fashioned way.”
Shining sighed. “All-out war, you mean.”
“It may come to that,” Blueblood said quietly. He nuzzled Philomena and passed her a treat. “Glory help us all if it comes to that.” He lowered his eyebrows at Shining. “It shall not be a pretty thing, but we cannot allow Sombra to continue... to continue.”
Shining Armor let out a slow breath. “Twilight believes this could work, and I believe in Twilight.”
Blueblood shook his head. “Your idealism is going to get you killed someday.”
“My idealism led me to volunteer for this job,” Shining retorted. “It’s led me straight so far.”
“Be that as it may,” Blueblood snorted, “I cannot condone this.”
“I don’t need your permission,” Shining said.
“But you need my troops.” Blueblood strode around the table to face Shining. “You need my intelligence, my weapons, my—”
“We can do without that just fine.” Shining Armor turned to the map laid out on the table. He noted the route from Manehatten to Canterlot. “I just wanted you to be duly informed.”
Blueblood’s bottom lip flapped as Shining Armor trotted out of the strategy room. He sniffed at Philomena. “These new royals are getting uppity, aren’t they?”
Philomena responded with a painful peck to his ear.
Rarity sat on the front steps of the apartment complex, doodling the hours away on her notepad. It was an odd sort of inspiration that she had received from her recent trials, but inspiration could not be ignored. She could hear Twilight’s snores coming from a widow overhead as the purple unicorn allowed her body to heal further.
A dress formed slowly on the paper, details coming into focus once the rough outline was complete. Purple, rounded sheets of fabric lay atop each other like shingles on a roof. A majestic set of green peacock feathers sat arrayed on a headdress. She brought the eraser up to her lips as she contemplated her next line.
“Oh, that looks simply fabulous!” Steven Magnet said from his position in a narrow alleyway. “Please tell me that you plan to craft it once you get the chance.”
“But of course,” Rarity replied. “It would be a crime against fashion itself to let such a design limp away into obscurity.”
She carried on drawing for some time, before she let loose an aside. “I didn’t appreciate the advice you gave Spike the other night.”
Steven blinked, his bushy eyebrows wafting in the breeze. “I beg your pardon?”
“You claim that he shall one day outgrow us. So to speak.” She filled in the color around the hem of the dress. “I find that an entirely painful and mean spirited thing to say to the poor dear.”
Steven blew a slow gout of steam out of his nose, his whiskers drooping. “The truth often hurts.”
“Yes. Yes it does.” Rarity added the pony’s tail and brainstormed ideas on how to adorn it. “It is often a far easier thing to give a little white lie.” She set the pencil down and looked up at him. “Do I seem a liar to you?”
He narrowed his eyes and he pursed his lips. “No, Lady Rarity. You are not a liar.”
“Then understand me when I say I refuse to leave his side.” She set her notepad aside and turned fully to Magnet. “I will remain his friend until the day I die.”
Steven frowned. “You are not a liar, merely naïve. You will die a long, long time before he does. You can’t be by his side forever.”
“But maybe I can be by his side long enough,” she said. “Maybe he can still make friends knowing that his stayed by him. Maybe he can rest easy knowing that adulthood isn’t the end of his friendships. Maybe…” She sniffed, and then took a deeper breath. “Maybe he won’t end up like those lonely dragons in their caves in the mountains. Maybe he won’t be abandoned if we simply help him to…”
“I had friends, and a family,” Steven interrupted. “We would play together in the stream next to the house. There was one who took it upon himself to be my older brother, and would defend me from bullies who thought I was some sort of mutant snake.” He snickered and shook his head. “He’d come home so black and blue that I thought it was his natural coloring.”
Rarity put a hoof to her mouth.
“I had a pony I loved,” Steven said quietly. “She had a beautiful yellow coat, and golden hair that shone in the sun. Her eyes were a striking magenta. Her wings flowed so gracefully, I thought she looked as though she was flying under water.”
He sat there, rolled up in the alley with his memories. “They’re all gone, Rarity. Old age, sickness… Monsters that even I was unable to hold back.” He stared across the street and sighed. “And alone I live in the Everfree, despite all their love. It’s the way of the wyrm.”
Rarity’s muzzel scrunched up. “But that was your choice, Steven. Spike does not have to make the same, and I shall make sure he knows it.”
Steven’s eyes fell. “Don’t give him false hopes.”
“Don’t give him false despair.” She gathered her things and trotted inside, leaving Steven Magnet alone.
Spike walked past, his legs moving at an easy gait. He frowned at his feet, apparently unhappy with his progress. “No,” he mumbled, though it was barely audible. “No, I haven’t hoarded, so… go away.”
Twilight sat up on the bed. “Is something wrong, Spike?”
Spike gasped and grabbed his tail. “N-no! Nothing’s the matter! Why would you think something was the matter?”
Twilight folded her forelegs. “You’re acting like a teenage filly that just went through an awkward growth spurt.” She tilted her head with a frown. “It’s about that ‘growing up’ thing, isn’t it?”
“Yah think?” he asked. He threw his claws over his mouth. “Sorry… sorry, that was kinda mean.”
Twilight patted the bed beside her, and Spike sat down beside her. He experienced a momentary panic when he realized that he had sat down, not climbed up. Twilight placed a warm hoof on his shoulder and nuzzled him. “It’s alright Spike. You can talk about it with me.”
He fidgeted with his claws and looked at the floor.
Twilight sighed. “What happened when I was gone?”
His lips parted, then closed, then parted again. “I grew up again.”
Twilight cupped her chin in her hoof as her eyebrows lowered. “What—?”
“Rarity was in danger, and the Diamond Dogs were gonna hurt her, and we were in a dark cave, and there was no way out, and I got crushed by a cart, and I just couldn’t hold it back!” He broke down in tears and leaned into her shoulder. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
Twilight brought him into a full hug. “It’s alright, Spike! It’s alright, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“B-but I’m a monster!” Spike pulled away and bit his lip. “All it takes is one bad day, then poof! Incoming Gojira! Batten down the hatches, the freight train’s coming through!”
“Spike!” Twilight took a breath and spoke quietly. “Spike, what did you do after you grew up?”
“I…” He sniffed. “I hurt the Diamond Dogs—badly—and carried Rarity to the surface.”
“In other words,” Twilight said with a small smile, “it sounds like you saved her.”
Spike snuffled as he ran an arm over his nose. “You think so?”
Twilight nodded. “From what I’ve been hearing about it, you were the hero of the day.”
“Rarity mentioned it to yah, huh?” Spike lowered his head again. “I don’t wanna be the hero if it means…”
“If it means what, Spike?” Twilight slid a foreleg around him, and he didn’t resist.
“If it means growing up faster.” Spike swallowed the lump in his throat. “If it means having to leave you guys sooner. Like all the dragons do eventually.”
Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Spike, you can try and leave us all you want.”
He looked up at her in confusion, but she placed a hoof on his mouth. “But we won’t let you,” she said. “Simple as that.”
They shared another hug in the small bedroom as the sun set behind them. Even so, Spike couldn’t shake the frown that stole across his features.
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Sheesh, even when Blueblood is trying to help, he's still a prick about it. Not that he doesn't have a point, but have a heart, will ya?
Like I said before, you have a lot of good ideas that are executed well. Steven Magnet's backstory and the continuing troubles of Spike and Rarity's relationship simply hit all the right notes. All in all, this chapter was well worth the wait.
3596190
I've made a name for myself writing jerks, why stop now?
Really though, in life you'll find many, many knowledgeable people with no idea on how to share information without belittling the informee. You attract more flies with honey than vinegar, but they just don't get that.
Too many ideas, i've found.
I'm glad you've stuck around! I hope the pay off for all of these plot threads is as worth it as the wait was. We're getting close.
Huh, this is back.
While it may have just been too long since I read the last chapter, I seem to have no idea why Twilight's going off to ManehattenDale. Again, I probably just forgot.
Also, I think that we already got past the part where Twi wouldn't be wiling to let her friends help her when she goes running off on stupidly risky adventures.
"Rarity's mussel scrunched up." I believe that should be "muzzle".
“From I’ve been hearing about it," forgot the what.
3607114
Yes, indeed!
A couple of reasons, actually.
A. Blueblood wanted the bearers to meet him in Manehatten so that they could tromp Sombra for him. She's there as part of that request, if only to let him know that Rainbow's missing.
B. Manehatten sort of has that "last homely house" thing going on, being one of the few not-Sombra controlled cities in Equestria. It's a jumping off point for her infiltration of Canterlot.
Of course, thus the lack of any true resistance. Like anybody, Twilight needs a little reminder every so often.
Ah yes, the perpetual mistakes.
Thank you very much for pointing them out.
Though Rares could have been carrying around a mollusk, you never know.