//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Tears for the Pearl // by The Lord Thunder //------------------------------// Discord’s trail led them about twenty miles north to a little house in a lonely, quiet stretch of land that, except for grass and a few trees, was empty as far as the eye could see. The ponies who lived here didn’t have any neighbors. Just as her mother’s diary said, they’d isolated themselves, and a small house in the middle of miles of nothing was the perfect place to do it. Twilight’s bubble vanished along with Discord as they landed near the front porch. Pearl took a deep breath of courage and let it out her nose. “Well, this is it.” “How do you feel?” Starlight asked, putting a hoof on Pearl’s shoulder. It was difficult to put into words. So many emotions swirled within Pearl that she couldn’t put her hoof on just one. “How am I supposed to feel?” “Yeah, I’m not sure I’d know what to think in your situation, either,” Twilight said. “But we’ve come all this way. Now's the only chance we're going to get.” Nodding, Pearl took another breath and stepped up onto the porch. She knocked on the door, her heart pounding in anticipation of what awaited on the other side. After a few moments of silence, the door opened, revealing a middle-aged unicorn mare who still partly resembled the young pony staring at her. “Hello there,” the mare said. “Can I help you?” Pearl didn’t recognize the face; she had no memory of this mare, yet Pearl knew in her heart exactly who she was. “M-mom?” The mare studied Pearl for a silent moment, then her mouth gaped open in an expression of complete disbelief. “Oh, my. It can’t — I thought you were — Astral! Astral, dear, come quick!” A stallion galloped up to the door, no doubt alarmed by the note of urgency in his wife’s voice. “What is it, Ivory?” “It’s… it’s…” the mare stammered, tears streaming down her face as she pointed at Pearl. Astral looked to their new guest, his eyes perfectly resembling Pearl’s. “No. It can’t be. I can’t believe it. You, you were gone…” “Dad?” Pearl asked, looking now at the unicorn stallion. He was no more familiar to her than his wife, but Pearl knew she was standing face to face with her father. The mare Pearl knew now as Ivory wiped her eyes, letting out a joyful sob. “Our Lilac’s come home!” “Lilac?” Pearl echoed. The name from the dairy. The same name Luna heard in her dream. Her real name. “Look at you!” Astral said, joy entering his voice. “You look just like your mother did when I fell in love with her. Where have you been all these years?” “A stallion named Gold Nugget found me on the bank of a river up in the mountains near Whinnypeg. He and his wife raised me. I lost all memory of my life before that. It’s like I’m meeting you two for the first time.” Ivory gasped and held her hoof to her mouth. “You don’t even recognize us, dear?” Pearl shook her head. Ivory turned to Astral and hugged him, sobbing as she buried her face into his shoulder. “Oh, Astral, it’s all our fault!” Pearl stared at them for a moment, debating what to do. Should she hug them? The urge was there, but she had come for answers more than anything else. Affection could wait. “I need to know. Why is it you never found me? Didn’t you love me? Did you even try to look for me? How hard did you try?” Pain etched across Ivory’s face. “Oh Lilac, sweetie, of course we loved you. But what happened to you frightened us and we thought you were gone. We did search, the neighbors too, but where to look? If we’d known you were still alive, we would have come for you.” “The ponies who rescued me sent out fliers! How did you never find one?” “We moved out here,” Astral explained. “There’s not a major city within a hundred miles of this place. We… wanted to be alone with our thoughts after it happened.” The tears finally started to flow down Pearl’s face. “So, did you just give up on me?” “Lilac, that was –” “Those ponies who rescued me did everything they could; they gave so much for me! And those ponies behind me? I barely know them and they were willing to set their priorities aside and do everything in their power to help me. Why couldn’t you?! If you ever truly loved me, you are going to shed some tears, real tears, so we can destroy the Seed and I can finally get past this nightmare!” With tears in their eyes, Pearl’s parents wrapped their forelegs around her, holding her close. “Lilac, we tried everything we could,” her mom sobbed. “We deserve your resentment, my daughter, we do. But just try to imagine what we’ve been through.” Twilight gasped, forcing herself away from the emotion of the moment. “Tears. Tears! Starlight, now!” Pearl gnashed her teeth, her eyes suddenly flaring red as she struggled to keep her focus on her parents. "No! Not now!" The Seed fought back in desperation for control. “Destroy them!” the Seed commanded, its deep voice emanating from her. “Rid us of them, and we will be strong forever!” Pearl anchored herself as she groaned out loud, partly to take her mind off the pain and partly to drown out the Seed’s voice. “They brought this on you! They didn’t even come looking for you! Why do you care about them?!” The red aura of power surrounded her and the batlike wings began to sprout from her back. Her horn started to curve and divide into two. “I won’t let you!” Pearl screamed, now in her own voice. Even as she struggled against it, violent thoughts creeped into her mind. She could pay her parents back right now, make them suffer for their negligence. “No!” She shook her head, trying to erase those dark influences. “They should have kept a better eye on you!” the Seed taunted. “What kind of ponies leave such power out in the open for a child to stumble across?” “I won’t do it!” Pearl shouted. “It’s their fault. I said destroy them! Destroy, destroy, destroy!” Pearl shook her head. “No! It wasn’t their fault! It was mine!” Even as she said that, the desire to hurt her parents, to punish them, grew ever stronger. The wings’ growth sped up and the aura of power around her strengthened. “Hurry! I’m losing my grip on it! I can’t hold it much longer!” Twilight and Starlight both squeezed their eyes shut, putting all their focus into the counter-spell. The transformation continued despite this. “It’s not working!” Starlight groaned. Pearl’s eyes burned red and suddenly she felt free – free to destroy the ponies who’d ruined her life. Free to annihilate, to burn all she laid her eyes on. No! Those weren’t her thoughts! The more she tried to contain them, the more she felt unrestrained, to let her power loose as if it was in her nature. Oh, to look upon the defeated and broken bodies of these ponies. She flashed a vicious smile and raised her hoof above her parents’ hug to strike. “Everypony, join their hug!” Twilight shouted. “Pearl needs all of you!” Twilight and Starlight kept the counter-spell going while the others gathered around and embraced Pearl as she snarled and screamed and struggled, but the others held her fast even as magic energy pulsated through the house and heat began to rise from her as she attempted to summon a fireball. “You’re too late!” She snarled in the Seed’s voice. “I’ll destroy you all! I’ll destroy everything!” “Forgive us, Pearl!” Ivory said. “We love you!” Her parents’ tears washed onto Pearl’s cheek, coalescing with her own and the magic of the counter-spell. A twinkle appeared on her face, emanating from the tears, then turned to a rainbow of light that spread through her body. Her cutie mark, which had been glowing with the Seed’s power, now begin to flicker. Pearl screamed at an agony that felt like something inside her being torn from her body. Her eyes flashed between red and their natural indigo color as the rainbow formed into a globe and lifted from Pearl’s body, carrying from the bottom of it a tiny black form no bigger than an acorn. The Seed lashed out toward Pearl with a pair of long tendrils and held onto her, struggling as if fighting to regain its host. The rainbow light grew and overcame the darkness, and with one final scream the Seed exploded in a shower of magic sparks. A resulting ring of power expanded outward. Pearl’s cutie mark vanished. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped to the floor. I don’t understand. It’s impossible. I am a weapon. I was created to win wars. I was created to destroy. Why, then, does it seem my own existence is coming to an end? To think that I would be destroyed... I don't understand, my vessel. Why don't you want this power? Why do you want to destroy me? I don’t understand...