//------------------------------// // (Kindness) The Broken Teacher - V.I - The Shattering of Everypony // Story: The Broken Bond // by TheApexSovereign //------------------------------// “Twilight’s never gonna trust me to be alone in this castle again! What were you thinking?!” V Kindness The Broken Teacher “I… I teleported, obviously! That’s what happened, nothing else.” Glimmer was lying right through her sweaty little mouth. “Ah, clearly,” said Fizzlepop, feigning notice. “You look exhausted, and your horn must be in agony. I’m surprised you can still stand.” She choked. “Uh, w-well—” She was caught, she knew it. Knew her kindred spirit of a "friend" knew her better. “What was that light show, Glimmer? What were you trying to do? Run? Is that your end-all answer?” “You were running?” said Maud. “‘Running?!’” Rainbow… cried? Roared? Perhaps both. Starlight scoffed. “Oh, I was not running! Like, not at all! I just had to get away—” “So you could blink on out of everypony’s lives, just like that,” Fizzle finished. “So that I could have a moment and think,” Starlight snarled in her face. Part of this was delightful, seeing that fire of hers still ablaze. She jutted closer, eyes narrowed. “That’s what happens when you have a lot going on, don’cha think?” “I think,” Rainbow Dash flew right in the way, laid back without a care in the world like always, “we all just need to chill out, breathe—” This idiot. “Oh, we do not need you, right now,” Fizzle muttered. “Fizzlepop!” Starlight admonished. Dash’s angry eyes filled the world. “As if you even know—” “SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!” Tempest roared. Starlight was on her stomach and shivering like a neutered mutt. Fizzlepop dragged her up like the respectable friend that she was, and slapped her for the idiot she was being. “You honestly think Twilight would believe that?!” Starlight clasped her cheek, her eyes wide, glossy as they’ve been. “Fizzlepop!" Her brows furrowed. "Did you just—?!” She smacked her hard enough to make a clap. “Any idiot unicorn with a horn could tell you that magic is given shape by two things: intention and emotion! Without one, there's nothing, so what were yours, Glimmer?” “B-but that wasn’t what was hap—!” SMACK! Fizzlepop, curse her terrible, awful soul, rolled her shoulder. She almost threw it out. “Snap out of it!” Fizzle cried as her foreleg was jerked back by something damn strong. “Do you honestly think any one of us would feel good if you’d decided to just leave us? Just like that?!” Her head was jerked aside, toward Rainbow’s. “What in Equestria are you doing?!” she cried, eyes wild. “Stop.” Something pulled her tail hard but Fizzlepop was anchored to the Earth, to this moment. They were flies, they didn’t matter. Starlight did. “This is for her own good,” Fizzle snarled at Dash, jerking her leg away while rearing up her back-left. “You'll thank me later!” she snarled as it flew into what held her back. Only to hit a solid wall. Fizzle readied another kick—“You know your strength.” Behind her she found Maud, placid, with her nappy, gross tail in her mouth. “Even in this moment,” she said around it, “you don’t want to hurt us. I can tell you want what’s best for Starlight, but I won’t let you hurt her.” Fizzlepop’s hind leg, coiled and ready to spring, hit the earth like a rock. “I was about to use all my might,” she realized. What am I doing? What did I…? She looked over and saw Starlight, on the ground, holding her cheek. The sting on her face was a dull ache. A fly’s bite. Nothing would ever match the horror of almost losing everything, and the pain she went through to prevent that from happening. And these amazing friends, who are all trying so hard, to the best of their own ability, to make me happy again… She was holding them back. They could be putting these efforts into somepony else. Somepony worth it. It was swelled, and purple. Starlight rubbed her cheek, barely heeding Rainbow’s calls of her name. She was fighting a battle within herself to keep it together, struggling to maintain a facade of plainness as it crumbled with the effort, shattered by a shuddering sob that built, crumbled, and collapsed again frantically as Dash and this Maud Pie looked helplessly toward… Tempest. Tempest Shadow. They were so lost, these friends of Starlight, that they’re looking to a psychopath like her for insight into a pony she only formally met not even a week ago! In her heart she hardened herself, chiseled herself as Tempest Shadow, for that was all she would ever be… even as the Princess’s unworthy protector. And that was fine, but it wasn’t important right now. Tempest bowed her head. “Starlight, I am sorry for hitting you.” “U-uh, oh! I-h’it’s fine.” She gulped, sniffled. Kept her eyes to the ground. “I-I get it.” Fizzlepop screamed inside. Tempest shut her out, shut her eyes, and opened them slow, exhaling the tension from her body. “You should not be okay with me hitting you. I saw you earlier, you aren’t a complacent sheep,” she asserted. Unless something happened between this conversation and their last, but that would be impossible. Starlight just shook her head, wiped her eyes. “No, I get it. I do!” she said earnestly, meeting their eyes. Fizzle noticed Rainbow covering her mouth, horrified. Like everything she knew about Glimmer was crumbling before her eyes. “Seriously, girls, I’ve just been… well, I’ve been bonkers lately! I’ve been rude and dismissive and distant and…” She exhaled, shaking her head. “It’s a lot. But I think I’m good now. Good to go back!” She walked blindly into Tempest’s raised foreleg. “You want to run.” Her eyes sprung open, twin pinpricks screaming internally at being caught. Their eyes were locked yet she wasn’t looking into Tempest’s, proving of how dense her own little world was. “Glimmer, listen to me, you want to run. Do you hear me? You want to run. That is not healthy. That is what I did and what you shouldn’t do.” “Yeah, Starlight, what’s up with that?” said Dash. “Why do you want to leave us?” Maud asked, only for something astonishing to happen. Starlight’s eyes unfogged with but a blink, and Tempest knew for sure she had just emerged from her own little world. Tempest was ready to thank Celestia for once in her life, but it wasn’t her. It was… “Maud,” Starlight breathed, reaching lamely for the friend who was probably dying inside. Dying because she thought Starlight had forgotten about her. Again. Like any sensitive, caring friend would, right? The words couldn’t come fast enough. “Oh, Maud, oh Maud, no, no, I didn’t want to leave you all! No, no, no, that’s—I love you all, so much! And it’s not that I want to, but—” Starlight choked. Maud tilted her head, awaiting more. Waiting to hear why her awful friend thought it was a great idea to try and abandon her. What can I do…? I can’t drop everything that just happened on Maud… Even though she wants me to. But, NO! No way! Stop thinking like that and being selfish, a-and wishful! She, my friends, nopony knows what's really going on, and if I dragged them into it there's no way they would ever leave me alone. O-or maybe I'm reading into things, and Maud is willing to deal with it. NO! I can not tell her what happened! Or any of them! S-so I have to lie AND LIE SOME MORE! And everyone was watching her, waiting for her brilliant excuse, already concluded that she was going to leave them. The worst part of all this? It wasn't that she was on the brink of doing so, but now, she was more uncertain than ever. Starlight wanted to leave them, but she really, really didn't! “I’m sorry!” Starlight erupted. “I’M SO S’HORRY, FOR EVE-RY-THI-HI-HING!” Covering her shame, Starlight's sobbing wracked her to the ground, only for her to land in somepony's warmth like a the useless lump she now was. Starlight was quick to tell herself, as somepony strong caught her heaving, worthless body. It’s fine. Even, now, even in spite of her disgusting nature, these amazing friends who she loved with everything in her being, who she’d truly die to defend, were catching her when she fell. I don't deserve you. But they would always be safe, just like Twilight, who will go on to help so many lost, hurting ponies. Like Starlight back in the day, only they would be better. They would communicate properly and know how to properly react to and process tragedy. This was objective fact, not rooted in what-ifs like so many of Starlight's deep-seated uncertainties. Everything would be so much better without me around. Her heart ached despite accepting this. Starlight didn't mind. She'd always believed the truth was meant to sting. Otherwise, you wouldn’t care that it’s the truth. “She deteriorating,” Tempest announced, grasping Glimmer’s convulsing, sobbing form close. “Rainbow Dash,” she said to the ghastly, lost, broken pegasus, “...Rainbow Dash!” “Ah-uh, y-yeah? Yes? What’s up? I should—” She looked ready to zip off. “DON’T!” Tempest roared. “Listen to me. The party’s over for this one. She needs—” A wail crescendoed, beating Tempest’s stony heart raw. She knew it, she knew that pain well, and it’s because of this she could not comfort, but do this in its’ stead: “She needs to get home and calm down! And, someone she can talk to, anyone?!” Anyone better than Tempest Shadow. Tempest Shadow wasn't a normal pony with the social instincts of one. “Yeah, yeah! On it!” And Dash was gone. A rainbow existed for a second where she hovered, trailing toward the glowing gem of the Bad Lands. But it vanished quick as it came, leaving only her and Glimmer. ...Starlight, and her frantic, breathy crying. She was having a panic attack from all her lies, it seemed. Everything had to have been racing through her head, all of those stupid mistakes she did and had been making since this all started. Attacking the kid like that... Tonight was what lit the keg. And yet, Tempest was messed up enough to be happy, caught up in its explosion—she knew how to handle it. She had a purpose here. “I’ll be her somepony.” There was this Maud pony, too. “Will you?” Tempest was relieved, because obviously she wouldn’t talk to Twilight like this, and a rock was better than nothing. “Good. This is good, you know her. You can handle her.” Now to think of a way to have Twilight poof them home without issue. What could Tempest possibly say to prevent either of them from making this even worse? “You really care.” Maud couldn’t help but admire it. Tempest Shadow was violent. Cruel. Spiteful. And worst of all, she knew it. She knew Maud’s hatred of her, because she felt it for herself. Starlight knew it in much the same way, because that’s who she was. And Tempest clearly knows her, or at least what she’s going through, her mindset. And Tempest was racing hard, filing through her thoughts for some way, any way, to combat it. Because she clearly wasn't a fast talker. Which meant she cared about Starlight. “You really do care,” Maud said again. Tempest shook her head, looking back to Starlight wailing in her forelegs, slumped against her hulking form and pawing into her for support. Poor Starlight. She needed her mom, more than anypony else. If only Starlight talked about her family around Maud, but she never was so personal in her company. “Maud Pie, was it?” A hard set of eyes were ready to meet Maud’s. “We might not understand one another, or our respective bonds with Glimmer here, for that matter. But maybe you know her well enough to ward off the princess.”   Now Maud was confused on top of distraught. First of all, she really didn't know Starlight that well. And second... “‘Princess?’” Why would Twilight be coming? Tempest nodded, not getting it. “You’d be sensible, I think. Me, ah, well I’ll… I might get too passionate again. Oh,” she frowned back at their crying friend, and held her lightly. “I know your pain,” she whispered. “I know your pain and I’m so sorry I hit you…” This wasn’t even the same pony from before. The cold, distant one, it was all just an act before. It’s always an act, one she herself must believe on a daily basis to keep from falling apart. Because what Tempest's done tonight, what she’s done her whole life, was horrible. That was undeniable. But it was worse to none other than the one living this life, stuck being who she was, much like Maudileena Daisy Pie. And Starlight Glimmer. “Twilight will be here soon,” Tempest shushed Starlight. “She’ll—I’ll talk to her, have her put you to sleep and make this horrible night be gone from your memory. You'll live through this, Glimmer, you might not think it but you'll come out tomorrow stronger." “She’s not coming.” Tempest blinked, emerging from her fog of thoughts. “You mean Twilight?” She combed down Starlight’s mane, so both eyes could gawk at Maud. “Who could teleport two ponies to another place? And...” Tempest blinked. “I… I told her to find someone she could also talk to. It had to have been Twilight. If not her, then who else?” If Rainbow was smart, if she knew Twilight and knew Starlight, and knew neither of them were in good conditions to be brought together, there was only one other pony who could fit the bill. The soft, insignificant ping of Trixie’s spell snapped in the vastness of Maud’s cave home. Then, utter ear-pounding silence. “Okay! So,” Trixie drawled, moving forward, “that was a bummer, but we’ll get back on our hooves! No problem!” “Trixie.” She shut her eyes, envisioning as she spoke: “We just gotta~, uh, make this a camping trip! Yeah! We’ll tell ghost stories and laugh like old times, like we did that one time, right? Where we all went camping, and Starlight, you nearly went bananas tryna get us to find common ground, even went and got stuck in quicksand! Oh, that was such a lovely, fulfilling weekend… A-and, I mean, let’s have another! Just like that! Ah? Wait, shoot, Maudie! Do we have s’mores stuff? I don’t have any s’mores stuff and the shops are closed at this hour and-and-and—-” “Trixie.” Something hard prodded her in the face. “Look,” Maud said just as Trixie was about to cry out for her lost concentration. As if that mattered at this point. “Look, it’s okay.” No it’s not. All Trixie saw was Starlight, passed out on Maud’s bed from where they teleported in. Just as she had been when Rainbow Dash brought her over with an explanation that didn’t conclude, or even have an ending, until she brought her out two miles into the desert and dropped her right in front of her unconscious, tear-soaked best friend. Rainbow Dash was breaking down. That Tempest pony started babbling. Even Maud was saying something and—”Oh.” Trixie blinked. She was alone in Maud’s home, and Starlight just completely melted down. Trixie, normally, would try harder not to cry, but Maud was here and wouldn’t judge her. This was a very special circumstance to make an exception for anyway. “Huh.” Trixie sniffled, blinking, the geodes of Maud’s wonderful paradise of a home skirting the lines of clarity. "In this case, I guess there’s no need to worry about the s’m-s’m—oh gosh, I can’t! I can’t. I can’t do it anymore, this's too horrible!” All thanks to Trixie, the incredible, amazing best friend who up and ditched her broken best friend, and kept away from her this entire party. All because Trixie was being self-centered, despite not meaning too. And she just wanted to breathe! Just for a little bit, that's all she asked for! But that didn’t justify it, not at all, and and and look what happened because of her… The soft, insignificant throb of Trixie’s cry fluttered in the vastness of Maud’s cave home. Maud could do nothing. She was nothing. It was because she was nothing that she couldn’t do something. She couldn’t say anything that would be of value to Trixie. She could say nothing that would be of value to Starlight. Maud could only watch, like a rock, as her two closest, most dear friends in all her life fell apart before her. And Maud was exhausted. “Trixie.” “B’wuh?” She looked over, ruddy and runny. Maud pulled the cover aside. “It’s been a long day. Do you want to sleep with us, or should I get your sleeping bag?” “Y-you’re sleeping with—?” “I’m not leaving her.” Let her think. Let her joke in the future, when they were alive and happy and laughing together again. “I’m not leaving her.” Maud didn’t know why she said that again, but it felt good to let it out. Trixie wiped her face, and smiled. “I don’t take much room."