Chapter 14 preview · 9:25pm Dec 6th, 2020
This isn't all the work I've gotten done, but one thing that has been hindering progress has been trying to decide which version of this chapter to go with. Long story short, the chapter involves dreams, some of which feel real enough that they're mistaken for reality. I've been working on two different versions for this chapter because one has the reader somewhat aware of the dream while the other has it gradually revealed. I'm still debating which is better to use, so here's a small preview of one of them with information that is carried in both versions.
Chapter 14
Reconnection
“Let me dream, for there I shall be with all I love.” —Mic Check
For the next several days, the friends pressed on towards the island Twilight had indicated on the map. Her assumption that their compass would be repaired soon was correct, however it seemed as though the changelings had finally realized they were being tracked. The compass was all but useless, pointing in ten different directions at once at nearly all times. They agreed that the changelings must be splitting up to try to lose them and after much discussion decided their best course of action was to continue toward their original destination and figure out what they could from there.
As concerned as they were for the safety of the Outset pegasi, Twilight and her friends were equally concerned for Heart Shield’s health. He’d refused to sleep since they started their chase, barely ate and his mood was growing darker as a result. His impatience with their lack of progress, worry for Angel Wing and the surprising amount of anger he seemed to have for these changelings were all taking a toll on himself and everyone around him. He lost his temper quite often and would push the ship to its very limits whenever they had the slightest amount of power.
Twilight was especially worried with these last few changes in her friend. While it was a relief to see him finally recognizing the changelings for the threat they were, this level of hatred he had for them was unlike Heart Shield. It was like he was a completely different pony ever since the attack on Ponyville took place. She couldn’t help but remember his vicious attack on the changeling that had posed as Chrysalis, how he had tried to put a permanent end to it. This wasn’t the kind, yet nervous pony that had first arrived in Ponyville so long ago; this new, unknown side to her friend unsettled her. It was almost as if his anger was eating away at what remained of the friend she’d had before this whole fiasco with Chrysalis began.
Just one more thing that despicable mare has taken from me, Twilight thought. Anything touched by her gets tainted by her evil. I can’t understand what ever made him think she could be good.
There was also the matter of his recklessness with the ship. She and Rarity were refueling the crystal more often than they were able to have a moment to themselves. Any more of this and she doubted she’d be able to even lift a quill with her magic. Not only that, but the engines were taking a serious beating from the constant strain Heart Shield was putting on them. Yes, time was of the utmost essence, but if they kept going at this same pace then Twilight feared their ship wouldn’t last. It needed rest, they needed rest, Heart Shield needed rest, or else none of them would survive this voyage. There were plenty of times when she considered casting a sleep spell on her friend, just to make him get some much needed slumber, but she feared doing something like that after the last time she’d forced her magic on him. With the volatile state he was in now, she doubted he’d ever forgive her for doing that again even if it was out of good intentions.
Twilight suspected an underlying factor to her friend’s reckless abandon was that mare, Angel Wing. It’d taken her by complete surprise when they stumbled upon the pegasus. She looked so much like Heart Shield that for a moment Twilight had thought she’d been seeing double. Perhaps there was a grain of truth to Gale Bolt’s assumptions about where Heart Shield truly came from. Whatever there was between Angel Wing and Heart Shield, he’d seemed to feel as though he were personally responsible for her abduction. He’d taken to pouring over the maps on the ship with a fervor she’d never seen from him before. It was as though his own life depended on them finding the mare. Twilight wasn’t certain what exactly there was between the two ponies, Heart Shield hadn’t told them all that much about Angel Wing before the attack, and afterwards he clearly wasn’t in a mindset where he could calmly answer her questions. Still, the resemblance between the two was enough that even Rainbow Dash had picked up on it. Certainly this Angel Wing being a relative of Heart Shield’s might explain his recklessness in trying to get her back; his need to have something to connect him to the family he’d never known would make sense, even if it didn’t excuse his inability to take care of himself since the attack.
Whatever the case may be, Twilight didn’t like what was happening to her friend. He’d changed so much since his encounter with Chrysalis, and certainly not for the better in Twilight’s opinion. That reckless abandon with which he was pushing himself and the ship was going to be dangerous if nothing was done to stop it. Tensions were high, all of them were exhausted and scared; sooner or later, something was going to give.
