//------------------------------// // Mark of the Titan // Story: Stolen Fire // by Tzelael //------------------------------// Stolen Fire by Tzelael Chapter 4: Mark of the Titan __________________________________________________________________________ After their spa treatment was over, Fluttershy and Rarity started their trip to the Ponyville Library to get the books they needed to teach their guest. Despite the fact that this was a library, it was rarely quiet when they came to visit. Once they arrived, Twilight was already busy with yet another project. It was equally likely that she was caught in obsession over a fault or mistake she overlooked. Today was no exception. As Rarity and Fluttershy approached the library, they heard crashing noises and galloping inside the giant tree. They looked at each other, Rarity offering Fluttershy a winsome smile. “Not to worry, darling. We just need to get her mind off of her latest obsession and things will be back to... Um...” Rarity carefully considered her words. “... Normal... For her.” She knocked on the door. “Twilight, dear, Fluttershy and I are looking for some books! May we come in?” "Just a second!" Twilight's muffled voice called back. The door opened up and revealed Spike standing in the doorway. His eyelids were half-closed with exhaustion, though he immediately perked up on seeing Rarity. “Hi Rarity! Hi Fluttershy! Come on in.” Spike stood aside as Rarity and Fluttershy entered the library, and gently closed the door behind them. He walked beside the two ponies, keeping particularly close to Rarity. The entire library appeared to be in a state of organized chaos. Many books were lined up in neat stacks scattered across the room, while many of the shelves remained empty. Spike explained the situation as one of the books glowed and flew up to the top of a nearby ladder. “Twilight’s got some new books yesterday and, well... She seems to think that means she needs to re-organize the entire library.” “They’re not just any new books, Spike!” Twilight called down from a ladder, having set a copy of The Night’s Mysteries on the top shelf. She slid down and landed on her hooves as she approached another stack. “One is the newest Daring Do novel, and another one of them is one of the oldest surviving copies of Prognostications by Theophrastus Ponycelsus!” Twilight’s voice rippled with excitement of such a find. It was all she could do to prevent herself from ending her sentence with a squeak. “Twilight, you read one of his books a long time ago and thought it was stupid because it didn’t have any basis in fact. Why are you so excited about this one?” Spike inquired as he showed Rarity and Fluttershy to their seats. They sat down and relaxed, momentarily enthralled by the exchange between the librarian and her assistant. “That was his treatise on alchemy, which was completely wrong by the way, since thaumaturgists later perfected transmutation spells using totally different methods. This is a book of predictions and, while I doubt any of them are correct, it’s amazing to find an old book like this in such good condition!” Spike raised a claw in protest, but Rarity held her hoof before him. She gave him a gentle smile, then turned to Twilight. “That’s lovely, darling, but Fluttershy and I are looking for some reading material.” “Oh!” Twilight perked up, then turned to the two with a smile. “What can I get you?” “Well, we need a foal’s alphabet book and a storybook, preferably with pictures.” Rarity listed off her needs with a perfectly straight face, though Twilight could hardly say she listened with one. She stared for a moment, then tilted her head at the list of demands. Her gaze shifted between Rarity and Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus smiled nervously at her glance. “Uh, are these for you two, or is there something one of you isn’t telling me?” Twilight asked. Rarity immediately picked up on the misunderstanding, waved her forelegs defensively. “Oh no, it’s nothing like that! It’s just that there’s somepony who doesn’t know how to read or speak, so we’re trying to teach him, and we thought it would be best to start with the basics.” “Oh, okay! That makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking.” Twilight's horn glowed as she sifted through the stacks to try and find appropriate books. The ones she had searched through dropped neatly in a new set of piles. While Twilight did this, Spike gulped. His cheeks bulged, and he let out a loud belch. Green flames erupted from his throat, and a scroll appeared in front of him. He picked it up, broke the seal and opened it. “It’s a letter from the Princess. It's also got a notice from the University of Canterlot.” “Mm... Hold off on it for now, Spike.” “Oh, don’t feel like you have to wait on our account, darling,” Rarity said as she smiled sheepishly. Twilight smiled in turn, then turned her attention to another pile. She began searching through the books for something appropriate to her friends' request. “It’s no trouble. Let’s see... How about Doctor Saddle’s ABCs and Codex Cover’s Illustrated Classics? They’re both pretty easy reads and have plenty of colorful pictures. Foals seem to like them, anyway...” Fluttershy slid the books toward her and flipped through the storybook. This collection of stories seemed to remind her of those books from medieval pony times, when books were hand-written and hand-drawn. The edges of the pages were even lined with gold, the images painted with vibrant colored inks. She quietly smiled in approval at each of the pages, admiring the beautiful artistry and recognizing many of the stories that she heard in her foalhood. “These will do wonderfully... Thanks Twilight.” She turned one more page, her eyes freezing in place at the contents of the page. The story she turned to was called “The Tale of the Hidden King,” though what caught her attention was the picture. She wasn’t familiar with this story, but on the painting was a huge red unicorn with his head lowered, a silver crown on his head, and a Cutie Mark identical to the one the stranger had. Fluttershy peered at it, then turned up to Twilight. “Um... Twilight... Can I ask you something else?” “Of course, Fluttershy.” “This... Symbol here. Do you know what it means?” She pointed to the cutie mark, which looked like a “t” with a curly-cue on the bottom right-hand side of it. Twilight examined the book, focusing on the symbol that Fluttershy pointed to. The scholar pursed her lips for just a moment, rubbed her chin, then suddenly perked up in realization. “Oh! That’s the astrological symbol for the planet Saturn. It’s a pretty common image in every re-telling of ‘The Tale of the Hidden King,’ in that it’s always his Cutie Mark.” Fluttershy looked away from Twilight. “Well... What does the mark mean?” “There’s a lot of things it could mean. It’s an astrological symbol, and a lot of ponies said that King Sulfros, the Hidden King of the Story, had such great perception about the needs of his people that it was almost like he could tell the future. Although...” Twilight hesitated for just a moment and creased her brow. “There are other interpretations of the mark.” Fluttershy didn’t like how she said that at all. “Like... What?” “Well... The short version of it is that the symbol could also refer to the Titan from mythology, Cronus, who is one of the monsters imprisoned in Tartarus after, according to legend, eating his children. Of course, this is the short explanation and I could go into more detail, but–” Upon the mention of a monster that would eat its own children, Fluttershy was petrified, her jaw hanging open as her eyes stared blankly into space. “...Rarity, I think you should take Fluttershy home.” “I couldn’t agree more, darling.” Rarity’s horn glowed a soft blue, levitating the two books into Fluttershy’s saddlebags. “Thank you for the books, Twilight, we’ll be sure to bring them back to you as soon as we’re done with them!”  Rarity tapped Fluttershy on the shoulder to get her moving, which she did, though slowly and absent-mindedly. As Rarity led her outside, she could barely hear her companion mutter the same thing over and over as she walked. “He can’t be a monster... He just can’t be... He can’t be...” **** Pinkie Pie heaved a drawn-out sigh while she stared straight at the stranger sitting across from her. He stood perfectly still and returned the stare with an unwavering gaze. Pinkie had found that this stallion was really good at staring contests. She’s played against him for a whole hour, and he won every time. Come to think of it, she didn’t think she’d seen him blink once this whole time. It was pretty cool, though in a creepy kind of way. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets as water coated them from having been open too long. She blinked, then closed her eyes and yelled out at the stallion. “Okay, Stitches, you win!” Pinkie had called him "Stitches" after she noticed the patchwork all over his body. It frightened her at first, but she decided that he probably couldn’t help that he got hurt a lot. Now, she had far more pressing concerns. After over thirty staring contests, Pinkie was bored and concerned about Stitches and his mental well-being. “He must be the most bored stallion in the whole world! It was fun the first few times, but he’s been doing this forever! He’s not even getting up to move... Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake would be crawling the walls by now! It’s my duty to show him what Pinkie Pie calls ‘Fun’!” “Hey, Stitches! How about we play a new game?” She bounced up to her hooves and jiggled her legs. “Stitches,” as he was now being called, tilted his head at the display and only grunted. He really only recognized that he was being spoken to because he was the only other pony in the room. The name itself didn’t have much resonance for him, though for Pinkie, it was certainly easier than just calling him “Stranger” or “You” all the time. Besides, it was catchy. “It’s called Tag! Why, pretty much every foal ever has played Tag before, but I’m guessing you weren’t like every foal ever. Anyway, first one of us has to be ‘It’. I’ll start!” Pinkie, now self-appointed “It,” hopped over to Stitches and then held both her hooves back. She thrust them upon the stallion, slightly knocking him over. Pinkie yelled into his ear with a gleeful smile on her face. “Tag, you're it!” Stitches flinched at the sound. Pinkie seized this opportunity and bounded away, giggling while Stitches sat there, confused by her actions. She stopped for just a moment and looked him in the eyes. “You have to catch me, silly!” While he watched her running around the house, his blue eye lit up in a moment of realization. Seeing the insanely exuberant mare leap over obstacles, hide behind things, and continually run away while looking back at him... His eyes lit up in realization. He quickly shot up on his four legs, chasing after Pinkie Pie with a crooked, lopsided smile on his face. Pinkie Pie’s bouncing suddenly broke into a run. She saw that not only had Stitches figured out what the game was about, but was incredibly fast, to boot. Not quite Rainbow Dash fast, though that was probably because his legs didn’t move properly. From what she saw, they often got in each other’s way and nearly tripped him. Pinkie deftly avoided him at every turn. She jumped over furniture, turned sharp corners behind other obstacles, and finally ran up the stairs. Stitches struggled to climb them again. He fell on his face several times while his hooves flailed in every direction, often where he didn’t intend for them to go. Pinkie stood up at the top of the stairs and waited for him to get his bearings. It was his first time, and his legs didn’t look like they did what he told them to. By the time he got halfway up the stairs, she had bolted off to another of the rooms. “Still gotta catch me!” She ran into Fluttershy’s room. She realized it was a dead end, but if he won the game the first time, he’d play it more and have more fun! After all, no pony has much fun with a game they lose at all the time. Pinkie was no slouch at Tag, or any game, for that matter, but at the same time, making ponies happy was her number one priority. He took a while to finally get up the stairs, then found Pinkie Pie hopping around Fluttershy’s room, still making zig-zags and jumping over, and on, furniture. However thorough her efforts may have been, it was clear that, at the right moment, victory would be Stitches’!  He waited, then when she hopped over the bed again, he charged at her, both of his hooves held up. He hit her in the chest, a loud crack echoing across the room. Pinkie Pie breathlessly sailed through the air, back-flipping once before she crashed through the window. Stitches’ smile of triumph quickly faded once he saw his pink playmate disappear from view. Rushing toward the broken window, he saw his new friend slam into the ground, then roll downhill. When she stopped, she writhed and groaned in pain. Stitches jumped out of the window after her, leaving a dent in the ground where he landed. He rushed to Pinkie’s side. His body quivering in panic as he got close to her. The mare’s pink body was riddled with glass shards and blood trickled all over her fur. He gently reached over, and then stopped when a voice from the sky shouted at him. “What do you think you’re doing to her?!” The wind whipped past his face, a faint rainbow trail followed close behind it. He didn’t see the figure clearly until it turned back and landed in between him and Pinkie Pie. The figure was a pegasus mare with a cyan coat and a rainbow mane. She looked between Pinkie Pie and Stitches, her teeth ground together in rage. “You’ve got some explaining to do, because no pony, I mean NO PONY, hurts my friends!”