//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Tears // Story: Avatar: Legend of Diamond Tiara. Book 4: Immortals // by Jeweled Pen //------------------------------// “There it is...” Pinkie mumbled, her eyes locking on the cave in the distance. Acrylic and Pearl quickly lifted their hoods, covering themselves as much as possible and blending in with the sand. Slowly, they made their way towards the cave. The entrance was tiny, barely big enough for them to walk into the cave one by one. In the end, it was less a ‘cave’ so much as a crevice in the desert. Easy to miss, leading deep into the darkness. Pinkie went in first, followed by Pearl and Acrylic in the very back. Slowly they walked down the dark stuffy tunnel, their hoofsteps light on the ground. Before long, they were enveloped entirely in darkness and they had to move ever slower. Careful to reach out and make sure they didn’t slam into a wall. It was incredibly claustrophobic, even moreso whenever Acrylic let his mind wander to the fact that, above them, were thousands of pounds of sand and stone. That they could all come falling down on their heads, trapping them. He shuddered at that mental image. He felt intense relief when the narrow gap they walked through opened up considerably. The heat began to get more intense and a dim, red glow could be seen off in the distance. He saw Pinkie and Pearl pick up the pace and he couldn’t help but join them, walking a little faster towards the main, opened chamber. They walked around the last corner and were hit by the intense heat, enough to almost make them stumble back. Even with the heat however, it was at least safer feeling. They were inside a massive cavern, housing great steaming pools of boiling water, as well as lava. Inside many of these pools were the very creatures they’d been tasked with getting the items for. Dragons. Ponies, mostly fire benders were working along with the dragons, however the appearance of the three brought a few looks of concern. “You’ve come,” one of the unicorns whispered, stepping forward. He was wearing colorful garments of the fire tribes. “Have… you had any success?” “Yes,” Acrylic said, slowly lifting the bag and placing it onto the ground, he pulled it open, revealing the plants within. The unicorn gave a sigh of relief, taking the bag. “Thank you for your assistance,” he said gently. “Please continue on to Spike. I will have these prepared.” Acrylic nodded, glancing over to the largest pool of lava, which housed Spike. Easily the largest dragon here. Though, he couldn’t help but notice a few of the dragons were growing well, one of the largest was easily the size of four or five minotaurs now. The three stepped forward, towards the massive pool. While the fire benders who tended the dragons were able to deal with the heat, primarily through their bending, the three of them had no such luck. Instead, they were forced to slowly make their way through the pools, feeling the thick layers of sweat flowing across their coats. Even though they dared not get too close to the pools of magma, Acrylic swore he could feel himself burning. The massive, dark purple dragon turned to them, slowly rising from the lava and giving them a concerned look. “Are you three okay? Did you run into any problems sneaking past the barriers?” “Not at all, silly!” Pinkie said with a light giggle. “We have those hidden paths for a reason. Have you had anymore trouble with the changelings?” The dragon shook his head, though his gaze wandered over towards the exit of the caverns. Fortunately for them, the dragons had been spared most of the dangers of this new war. Primarily because the Fire Tribes were quick to surrender. However, it did mean that the majority of the entrances to these caverns were now locked tightly, with changeling guards watching over it closely. The heat managed to keep them from coming too deep inside, as the spirits seemed to be incredibly sensitive to the heat. Only the keepers of the dragons now remained within the caves, doing what they could to aid the dragons in preparations. In this case, the preparations were for a mass exodus. The dragons stood as a symbol of the fire tribes and nopony wanted to see them become almost extinct again. Escaping, however, wasn’t quite that easy. Dragons were massive and powerful, but they required a specific type of location to survive. Volcanoes and the like. Finding a place like that, where they couldn’t be trapped, was difficult. It required special preparations, special medicines. Things they couldn’t get by themselves without the guards noticing that something was up. So for now, they plotted, schemed and prepared. The crevice they came from was not the only secret entrance into these caverns, nor were the dragons the only creatures that now resided in them. “Did you get everything you were sent for?” “Yes, it’s being prepared now,” Acrylic said quickly, before wiping his brow. The dragon nodded, before motioning behind himself. “Go on, then. Thank you,” he said. The three nodded and made their way around the pool housing the massive dragon. Behind it, tucked away and easily hidden behind the massive dragon’s bathing form, was a hard to see crevice in the wall. One by one the three ponies headed inside. Instantly the temperature dropped considerably and they let out a sigh of relief. The hidden cavern went deeper into the ground, surrounding them on all side with rock. He let out a soft, gentle sigh of relief when he felt cool air for the first time in days, closing his eyes. There was moisture as well, a nice damp feeling washing over him. Eventually, the winding path down into the earth opened up, letting them step out into a well-lit, massive chamber. Housing the majority of the Fire Tribe resistance. It hadn’t been easy to make such a place, now maintained by a few teams of earth benders working around the clock in order to create it. There were also a few water benders who worked to draw water needed from the ground, often working with the earth benders to locate it and the fire benders to ensure they stayed as far from the lava flows above as they could. “Mom!” a voice yelled, making them look up at the blue coated, white maned unicorn stallion galloping forward, a clipboard suspended in his magic. “We heard there was an issue, that the general was on the move. Did you--” “Just a patrol, Coral,” Pinkie said with a light smile, before giving her son a tight hug. “Don’t be such a silly goose! I wouldn’t let myself get captured THAT easily. Where would everypony be if I wasn’t here?” she asked with a snicker. The stallion blushed, but gave her a one hoofed hug back. “Right. Sorry. I just… worry, sometimes. When you go out like that. You could have warned us. Err, thanks for watching over her for us,” he said to the pair. Acrylic nodded. “Of… course,” he said sheepishly. Try as he might, he couldn’t remember which one of Pinkie’s kids he was. Even the name Coral didn’t help his confusion either. At least a dozen of Pinkie’s children were helping to maintain the resistance hideout, not even including the dozen or so who were hiding out throughout the country as well. He wondered how old the stallion was, he looked older than Pinkie. Then again, some days Acrylic did, too. “We didn’t run into any trouble. Has there been any news from the other teams?” Coral nodded. “Yes. We haven’t had any losses today, fortunately. Rose’s team is currently hiding out and waiting for some changeling forces to abandon the area, but they’re good. Did you get everything needed?” “Yes,” he said smoothly. “Manehatten wasn’t any issue. Pearl got everything as requested,” he said, giving the mare a small smile. “It really wasn’t hard,” she said sheepishly, lightly tapping the ground with her hoof. Coral nodded, before coughing. “Um… mom? You can let go. Err...” The pink mare snickered, pulling back from the hug. “You feel better, then?” He chuckled. “Y-yeah. I just… we just wish you wouldn’t go out like that. What if there was a fight? You--” “Oh, please,” the mare said with a light giggle. “I wouldn’t get in a fight.” “But--” “This is Acrylic and Pearl’s time to shine! I can’t just show them up!” she said before turning and trotting deeper into the compound. “You worry too much. I’m gonna go help with cooking, bye bye!” Coral sighed, before glancing back to the two of them. “Thank you. I really hope she wasn’t too much trouble. I just...” “She’s your mom, it’s normal to worry about your mom,” Acrylic said with a shrug. The unicorn paused, before coughing. “Speaking… of that. Have… you talked to anypony yet?” “… No? We just got back. Why? What’s wrong?” he asked, his heart beating faster. “Well… we got news a little bit ago. Metal Orchard is under siege by Discord’s forces.” Acrylic felt the floor fall out of his stomach and barely managed to contain himself. “I-I see,” he managed to choke out, keeping his face as calm as possible, though his suddenly dry mouth made him stutter. “Acrylic...” Pearl whispered softly. “It’s fine. My mother knows what she’s doing,” he said firmly, shoving down the worry bubbling inside. He tried to ignore all the times he’d seen her act recklessly, or almost get herself killed, or ignored all the consequences. That was during peace. There was a war going on, now. There was no way she’d mess up now. She was once commander of the entire Water Nation military, she was amazing at this kind of thing. She had to be able to handle herself. He hoped. “Indeed,” Coral said softly. “We haven’t heard any news yet, aside from the fact it has started. But the moment we do, we’ll inform you. In the mean time, it might be best that you rest and relax. Its been a long trip and we may need you to go out again before long.” He nodded and started walking away from them. “Noted...” “Acrylic...” Pearl mumbled, following after him. “You should rest.” “Huh?” he asked, glancing back. “I will. I just need to--” A hoof covered his mouth. “No,” she said firmly. “Allow me to rephrase. You are GOING to go rest.” His eyes widened. “W-what?” “I see that look in your eyes. You’re planning to burn yourself out on more spell casting, aren’t you?” “I wasn’t going to--” “You’re literally walking towards the training cavern right now.” He paused and looked up. Sure enough, he was walking straight towards the cavern they’d set up to allow ponies to practice, out of the way of the main camp. His cheeks went red. “I just… need to work on that for a little--” “You need to rest. We’ve been out all day, running around, through the desert. We all need rest.” “Pinkie’s not--” “Pinkie’s a statistical anomaly,” Pearl said flatly, giving him an unamused look. “She’s probably twice our age and I SWEAR sometimes she moves and acts as if she’s half it. But you are not her. You are a pony who does a lot of work, will have to do more work and needs to be rested to, again, do said work.” He ground his hoof into the stone floor. “Pearl, it’s fine, I can take care of myself.” “Oh, the buck you can,” she said flatly. “You’re getting some sleep if I have to carry you to the cots myself.” His cheeks turned scarlet when the memory flashed of the last time she’d done that. He choked softly. “Y-you can’t… tell me what to--” “Can to. Marefriend. In matters that concern your health and safety, I have special veto powers to make you take care of yourself.” “… That’s… you can’t… what? I never agreed to that, I--” “Don’t make me carry you off,” she warned. He stared at her, before shaking his head with exasperation. “Fine! Whatever! If you want me to take a nap I’ll take a nap! Just give me a minute to clean off first, sheesh...” he muttered before storming off. She slowly followed after him, shaking her own head. ------ Acrylic woke with a start, staring up, into the darkness in confusion. He could faintly make out the other beds in the room, many filled with lightly snoring ponies. As much as he hated to admit it, Pearl was right. He’d been exhausted. After he’d finished rinsing off and came to bed, he’d fallen asleep almost instantly. He’d been exhausted and trying to practice likely would have been stupid. But now he was up. He glanced towards the exit, another tunnel. Light could be seen illuminating from down the hall, where the main forces were. He closed his eyes and, with a soft flash, appeared in the entrance. He shook his head, the light feeling of wooziness disorienting him for a moment. Once everything cleared, however, he started to walk down the dim hall. His mother was in danger, every bit of him wanted to run after her, to rescue her. He knew that was foalish. She was a far, far better bender than he’d ever be. He’d likely only get in her way. Another part of him wanted to believe that Silver would show mercy. That if she won, she wouldn’t take Vinyl’s cutie mark. After all, Vinyl had been friends with Silver for years, practically a mother, or at least an aunt, to the filly. But then, Diamond had been one of her best friends. He’d always thought he and Button were her best friends. If she had no qualms, no guilt about hurting them, how could he ever expect her to show mercy to his mother? Besides, Vinyl had been a leader, one of the few that Silver hadn’t yet captured and taken to who knew where. If the Metal Orchard fell, then there would be nothing he could do about it. Even if his magic was ten times better than it was now, there was no way he could cross over two countries in order to get to her in time to make any difference. He’d need an airship for that. Which would only draw more attention towards them, likely resulting in him being captured and putting them all at risk. He knew the plan. Wait. Just wait. Trust Diamond and wait. But it didn’t make him any less frustrated. He wanted to be out there, fighting. But they couldn’t, yet. They had to be careful. If they rushed off, there wouldn’t be enough of them to help Diamond when the time came. Anypony who was captured lost their marks almost instantly, making the Fire Immortal all the stronger. Making defeating it seemingly more impossible. He grabbed a few apples in his magic when he passed by the dining section of their cave. He supposed, in the end, they were lucky. They weren’t hurting for supplies, while more than a few ponies in different sections of the resistance were. Wait. It was all they could do now. He wanted to believe in Diamond, he really did. She was incredible. But he didn’t see how any of this could be fixed. So much had been lost and destroyed. Silver had played them all for foals. He glanced down at the cores of the apples. He couldn’t even remember eating them. With a small flash of magic, the two cores disappeared and reappeared in the disposal containers, before he trotted lightly towards the training dummies. Gathering some water from one of the jars, he began to practice. She’d played them all for fools. It was his fault. He played it over and over in his head. There were three of them who had been closest to her. Who had known her and seen her for so long. But it wasn’t fair to have expected Diamond to have noticed. She was the avatar, she had enough duties without noticing every little subtle thing that could or would go wrong. Moreso, she hadn’t even known Silver that long, how could she have expected to notice things like that? Then there was Button. Button had known her just as long as Acrylic had. But he’d always been the kind of colt to forgive and forget. Even now he still swore up and down that Silver would turn around and become the pony they knew. He trusted, unceasingly, in his friends. It was part of what made him Button. Lying to him, tricking him? That was easy. But Acrylic stopped, closing his eyes and willing the tears to not fall, trying to force his eyes to dry themselves. ‘I lov--’ he thought to himself, stopping. ‘I thought I loved her. And I let it blind me. I let myself believe that she was a friend. That she cared about us. I was an idiot. I was a foal...’ Yet, despite all of that, he couldn’t bring himself to hate her. He couldn’t wish her dead, no matter how much he tried. The thought of fighting her, of hurting her, made his heart feel like it was being torn in two. He shook his head again. He refused to admit it, though he knew it was true. He still loved her. Despite everything that happened, the first thoughts that sprang to mind were of who she had been. Who she had pretended to be. The kind, sweet, gentle mare that he’d known for so long. Trusted so much. The mare who, over the years, had always been by their side and supported them. No matter how much he told himself that he hated her, that she had only been tricking them. Lying to them. No matter what she did, all he could see was the pony who he’d fallen in love with. He teleported the water through the air, trying to hold his pain in and bury it deep. He felt hooves suddenly wrap around him from behind. He jumped and glanced back, his eyes widening when he saw Pearl. “W-what?” “It’s okay...” she whispered softly. “I...” He stopped when he realized that, despite his best efforts, some of the tears had fallen. “I just...” “It’s okay...” she whispered. “I understand.” “I’m not… I don’t...” he whispered, his body quivering against the warm mare. He tried to deny it, but with her words, even more of the tears fell. “I just...” “You don’t need to explain. You don’t...” she whispered. “It’s okay. You’re allowed to cry...” she whispered softly to him. “It’s okay. Everyone needs to cry sometime. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He couldn’t stop himself. He buried his head in her withers and did just that, letting the tears fall while his thoughts flew to everything he felt destroying him from the inside. The betrayal from the pony he loved. Knowing his mother was in danger and might lose her cutie mark, or worse. The feeling of helplessness while they waited for Diamond, without any idea how long she would take or even if she could succeed. Not knowing if Button was really safe without him to look over him. The very state the world was in. It refused to stay stifled and, slowly, he found himself wrapping his hooves around the other mare, holding on. Using her as a rock in this storm of pain. Eventually, however, the tears faded and he pulled back, staring up at her. His horn glowed and his magic wiped the tears across his face away, before doing the same to her coat. “S-sorry. I… I just...” “It’s fine. We all need to cry sometimes,” she reeated with a light chuckle. “I cry all the time! Well, used to. Everyone needs it sometimes. We all get overwhelmed,” she said before reaching out to gently pat his head. “Feel better?” “A bit...” “Good. Then it was worth it.” He nodded, slowly pulling back. If anypony else had noticed his little breakdown, he couldn’t tell. None of the other practicing ponies were looking at him. He suspected it was out of courtesy, though. He was thankful for it. “Now. Do you want to join me for breakfast?” she asked with a small smile. “I already ate...” “Not what I asked.” He gave a soft chuckle, before nodding. “I’d… love to. Thank you.” She nodded before turning around and trotting away. “Good! We’re hoping to hear from Cloudsdale soon, it’s about time for them to report in. Do you want to go there for the briefing?” He shrugged. “Eh. Maybe. I mean, they’ve got Scootaloo and Prism. If anypony knows what they’re doing, it’s those two.” “What about Daring?” she asked, glancing back. “Eh. Ironwing can keep her in line. Sorta. As good as anypony else can. Probably. As long as they stay together, they’ll be fine.”