The First Tragedy
City Hall
It was late, and everybody had left city hall for the night when Obscure Darkness and Drocsid began to talk about the growing threat to their plans. Namely, the boys they now knew were working with the Elements of Harmony to stop them from ruling this new world. Their frustration was high, especially the Mayor, who paced back and forth in front of his desk before he turn to face Brett with an eyebrow raised.
"So, the boy didn't leave his house once today?"
"No sir. Lawrence said that he stayed outside of his house all day. The only people to come in and out of his house were his parents, and both times involved going to and returning from work.”
“Hmm, I see.” Drocsid sighed and walked over to the large window in his office that overlooked downtown Wilmont. He sighed as he saw all of the cars below him driving off in the chaos of the night. The bright headlights creating a busy atmosphere as the skyscrapers cast their dark shadows over the streets below, obscuring everything except for the aforementioned headlights. The moon was full and the atmosphere in the office was chilled as both Brett and Mayor Drocsid began to feel a sense of urgency they haven’t felt since taking positions of power in this city.
“All those people,” Drocsid muttered as he placed his hand onto the glass, watching it as a yellow aura surrounded it. When it disappeared, it left a cartoonish lion’s paw. The Mayor smiled weakly before looking back down at the city streets. “They go about their chaotic little lives, thinking they understand this world. They have no idea what terrors they will soon face. Their sense of security blinds them, like the towering buildings of this city.”
Brett swallowed nervously, never enjoying when his boss got this into his work.
"Should we go after them, sir; should we go after the element we know the identity of?"
Drocsid thought for a moment before changing his lion’s paw back into a realistic human hand.
"No. Not just yet."
"But, we already know that he's an element and if we take care of him, we will be victorious. They can’t beat you without all six."
"And if we leave him be eventually he'll get a false sense of security, at which time he'll lead us to the other five elements.” Drocsid turned to face his “disciple” in chaos, “Then, we can care of them all at once.”
“Sir, no offence, but I feel like all of this; the standing around talking and doing nothing is wasting time that we could be using to find the elements and stop them.”
Drocsid chuckled, “You must be patient like me if you wish to succeed Obscure."
"You mean like last time where you’re other half sat back and watched the six elements of harmony trap him in stone? I’m sorry sir, but we can’t operate like that. We have to be proactive and think about where we’re going rather than where we are right now.”
“You were always the smart one, Obscure. Book smarts definitely are your strength.” Mayor said before he slowly walked up to Obscure Darkness, "But this world is not Equestria, and these six kids that have been assigned to represent the elements of harmony don't need me to help them losing faith in their elements like the six girls did. They already don’t believe humanity is capable of friendship, honesty, loyalty, kindness, laughter and generosity. This world has destroyed their faith in those concepts.”
Drocsid turned back around and walked over to the window, placing his hands behind his back as his eyes changed to their true, yellow selves as he went back to scanning the busy city street.
“As long as they don’t believe in what they’re meant to represent, they cannot possibly beat us.”
"So, we just let them go?" Obscure asked with a mix of confusion and annoyance, not fond of the idea his boss seemed to be getting at.
Drocsid turned around and raised his finger up, his eyes changing back to human ones.
"On the contrary, my dear Obscure, as I said before we will let the boys get overconfident, let them think they’re safe and they’ll beat me. Then, once they buy this, they will begin to make mistakes and we will capitalize. We will cut them off at the knees and watch as they fall, like the rest of this world.
“Let me ask you is it worse to die before you have any hope, or after you have it and lose it because it was based on false pretenses?"
Brett seemed to mull over what his boss told him for a moment as Drocsid slowly walked back over to where his assistant was.
Brett eventually shrugged, "Makes sense, I guess.”
The Mayor smiled, “Of course it does.”
“But what if this Ryan kid leads us to the others, do we just let them go?"
"No, if he leads you to more elements, then by all means go capture them. But as long as it’s just him, we needn’t worry. Just keep monitoring his actions and see if he goes out with friends."
Brett smile returned and he gave his boss an enthusiastic nod.
"Yes sir."
James' House
James was almost ready for bed; the time approaching ten-thirty as his physical exhaustion from the day slowly began to overwhelm every part of him, from his head to his feet. He usually would’ve already been extremely sleepy, if not asleep, already. His eyes would have been half-closed and he would be letting out a yawn every ten to fifteen seconds as he feebly tried to conceal it with his hand. But today was different. After his visit with Caroline, he felt so elated that energy he never knew he had seemed to surge through his veins. It was only now, once his newfound energy was spent, that the true extent of his sleepiness began to make itself known.
But before he could let the sandman pull him into his slumber, he had to get his daily lecture from his parents.
He sat at the kitchen table, across from his parents who both stared directly at him with accusing eyes. James looked up the stairs, wanting to get this over with so he could spend some time with Fluttershy before he went to sleep.
But he couldn't keep looking up at the stairs and mentally escape the situation that he was in. He felt his parents' eyes pierce him like a hot knife through butter.
"James, answer our question," James' stern father growled, "what did you do today?"
James sighed and turned his attention back to the table; the front of his body was now facing his parents but his eyes were looking down at his hands rather than up into his condescending parents’ eyes.
"I told you already, I went to see some friends at the mall and went over to Aunt Christie’s." James muttered as he started to get annoyed at how his parents always wanted to know what he did for the sole purpose of shooting it down.
"So what you're telling us is that you didn't do anything productive today?" James' mother said.
James looked up at his mother, their eyes meeting.
"Nothing you'd understand."
"Son, I've told you a thousand times, you need to find something constructive to do this summer." said James' dad.
"I have a job."
"That's not what I meant." James' dad said in an irritated tone, "I meant something like a hobby, something that interests you."
James gave his father a cold look, "Interests?"
"Do you have any?" his mom asked.
"I have plenty of them; I just don't know which ones you'll approve of." James said bitterly.
"Patrick has soccer, he has guitar, and he takes art classes down at the YMCA. You have a job, that's it."
"And which one pays the bills?"
"What?" his father asked.
James chuckled, "Soccer, arts and games are all fun and good, but how beneficial are they if you can't put food on the table? At least what I’m doing brings in money instead of costing it, which is more than I can say for all those fancy soccer lessons you’re getting for Patrick.”
James' mother and father exchanged glances before sighing, "James, I just want to let you know how scared we are for you. How we fear your future success with getting into college next year."
James just kept smiling, thinking about Caroline and how much better he had made her day. Why should he let himself get upset just because his parents downgrade him? He and Fluttershy made Caroline happier than she's been in a long time.
At the end of the day, nothing else mattered.
"Do you understand where I'm coming from son?" James' dad asked, snapping James back from his thoughts.
"Yes sir."
"Good, now, go to bed."
James stood up and walked up the stairs with a big smile that grew bigger and bigger, leaving his parents downstairs to talk about what a disappointment their younger son was.
James got upstairs and shut the door, seeing that Fluttershy was resting on his bed, eyes closed. He thought she was asleep, so he tip-toed. After he slowly closed the door to his room, he heard the little mare stir. He looked up to see the Fluttershy push herself up into a sitting position, her eyes half-closed and exhausted. Her mane was a bit messy from laying on it. She let out a small yawn and stretched. When she saw James she let out a small eep before realizing who he was, and where she was.
“It’s okay Fluttershy, it’s just me.”
"Oh James, I'm sorry…you just startled me a bit."
"That's all right Fluttershy."
He walked over to her and sat down onto his bed to stroke her pretty pink mane. She nuzzled her cheek against his hand in a friendly manner as she lay back down onto the pillow, her eyes slightly closed as her sleepiness returned.
"You know, Fluttershy, you did a really great thing for Caroline today." James said with pure joy, "I haven't seen her that happy since before she got sick."
"Wow, well, I'm glad that your cousin loved my visit so much. Maybe I can go see her again tomorrow."
"Definitely, and I’d really appreciate it as well." James muttered. Fluttershy looked up at him and gave him a smile before resting back against the pillow and closing her eyes. He kept stroking her when suddenly his phone began to go off. He stood up and pulled the buzzing device out of his jeans’ pocket. Fluttershy opened her eyes to look at James. When James looked at the caller I.D., his smile slowly fell. He quickly answered the phone and pressed it to his ear.
"Aunt Christie? What's…." that's all James said before there was complete silence. Fluttershy slowly sat up in James' bed and watched as James' bright eyes slowly widened. But they weren’t widening in shock, but not a good kind of shock. It was the kind of shock one would display after hearing the worst thing possible. A look that didn’t just include eyes that were wide, but also eyes that were cloudy as tears tried to break through and make their appearance.
“Okay…I’m…I’m sorry…I’ve…I’ve got to go.” James muttered before he slowly lowered from phone from his ear and pressed the touchscreen where it said "end".
"James?" Fluttershy asked, moving closer to the edge of the bed, "James, what is it?"
James didn't flinch; he just stood still as a statue, his eyes staring down at the ground, not even looking up in Fluttershy’s direction when she addressed him.
"Caroline…Caroline died an hour after we left." He muttered in a volume just above a whisper.
Fluttershy let out a gasp and covered her mouth with her hooves.
"Oh my…James I'm…I’m... so sorry."
James bit his lip as he tried to hold is tears back, tried to hold back the rage and sorrow and guilt he felt well up from within him. Eventually, however, he could no longer do so, and with a fierce anger he hurled his phone at the wall across from where he was standing, shattering it to pieces.
His outburst caused Fluttershy to frightfully flinch back towards the pillow. She watched as James turned and let his face fall onto the bed.
He sobbed like he never sobbed before. Not even his grandmother dying when he was seven could compare to the level of misery he felt at this moment. Fluttershy was in complete shock over this. She watched James, who had not a moment before been all smiles and full of hope, disintegrate into a heap of misery and despair. Fluttershy slowly trotted over to his side and placed a gentle hoof onto his shoulder.
"James, it's okay. I'm…I’m here for you."
James looked up at her and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly as he continued to sob into her warm, comforting, yellow-furred shoulder, "Fluttershy….Fluttershy…w-why did…." He continued to cry.
Fluttershy began to rub James' back and shush him like he was one of her animals, hoping that she could at least sooth the hurt he had felt, as she knew making him feel better so room after receiving such traumatic news was impossible.
But James kept crying nonstop into her shoulder for about an hour, both tears of anger and misery, anger that he had let himself actually believe that something good could happen for someone that he cared about, and sadness for Caroline.
Fluttershy tried to comfort James as much as she could, but it did little as he was still tearing himself up on the inside. All he wanted to do was remain in Fluttershy's embrace for the rest of his life. A place where he felt like somebody, in this case somepony, still cared about him; somepony that had, through the show, comforted him and Caroline during the young girl’s struggle, somepony that was now comforting him as he grieved for Caroline. And though the pain James felt tore at him like a lance, having Fluttershy there, being in her comforting embrace, did help him calm down a bit. Just a bit though, and he knew that this pain wouldn’t stop after he fell asleep, it would loom over him for a long, long time.
Carl's Bedroom
It was late at night as Carl kept looking over the yearbook for anyone whose name was Louis Clarkson. So far, he found just about as much as the police had about Jimmy Hoffa, nothing.
Carl's head began to bop up and down like he was listening to “What is Love?” as he fought to keep himself awake, which was a sucky feeling because it was summer and the struggle with consciousness usually only happened in school when the teacher droned on about some stupid Civil War Battle or some bullshit about derivatives in Calculus. As he did this, Twilight remained right next to him, just as tired as he was, but she managed to hide it slightly better than him.
Carl turned to look at her to see if she was still awake. When he did this, Twilight noticed his move so she looked at him and smiled, "Maybe the rest of this can wait until tomorrow."
"Yeah." Carl said with a yawn as he closed the yearbook and stood up. He walked over to his bed and crawled under the covers. As Twilight got in, he noticed that she was shivering a bit.
"Twi; are you okay?"
She looked at him and nodded, "Yeah I'm fine, just a little cold is all."
Carl smiled and brought himself closer to her, wrapping himself around her in a hug to warm her up.
"Better?"
Twilight looked at Carl and gave a big yawn before she smiled in gratitude, "Better."
Carl smiled, "Why am I fighting this? She's so cute. Why should I care what other people think when I love her?"
They looked into each other's' violet eyes with pure love that they both shared for one another. Carl sighed as he felt like now would be as good a time as ever to tell her his true feelings.
"Twilight I…?" Carl started.
"Yes?" Twilight asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.
"I…" he began when, suddenly, he heard his cell phone start to buzz on his dresser.
BUZZ BUZZ
Carl sighed, "Hold on a second."
Twilight giggled and gave him a nod, ready for him to finally tell her how he really felt. She was smart, and could tell he was in denial over his feelings for her, so she knew that was what he wanted to talk to her about, to confess his love for her.
Carl grabbed the phone and looked at it for the caller I.D.
"Who is it?" Twilight asked.
"It's James, but he's calling from his home phone, he never does that." Carl quickly pressed the "talk” button and spoke into the phone, "Hello?"
After a few seconds, eyes mouth dropped, "What? Oh my God I'm sorry James I…that’s terrible, wow. Are you sure you don't need someone to come over? Okay, okay I'll talk to you tomorrow…okay, bye."
He hung up and looked at Twilight. By her face, he knew that she could tell it wasn't good.
"What's wrong?"
Carl looked at her sadly, "James' cousin died."
Twilight put her hooves up to her mouth and gasped "Oh no, that's awful."
Carl shook his head, "James is going to be a wreck for a while."
"Do you still think we should continue our search for that Louis boy tomorrow?"
"Discord isn’t going to wait for us to respect Caroline’s death. I’ll tell James that he doesn’t have to come, not that he’d want to.”
Twilight nodded, “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“First we have to find out who he is." Carl said as he got back into bed next to Twilight, "and then….geez I don’t know, what do we do after that?"
"Well we still have to find the actual elements of harmony."
"Wait, aren't we the elements?"
"I'm talking about the necklaces that you six have to wear," Twilight said, pointing to her neck, "like the ones we wore. Well, except me. I have that crown-thingy."
Carl laughed a bit, "You mean a tiara?"
"I think it was a little big and oddly shaped to be considered a tiara."
"Whatever."
They both shared a small laugh when Carl let out an obnoxious yawn, prompting Twilight to laugh even more.”
“Little tired there Carl?”
Carl nodded as he turned off the lamp besides his bed. He got back under the sheets and turned to face Twilight.
"Good night Twi."
"Good night Carl."
Though they were both in bed, their night was over. Once Carl was asleep, Twilight opened her eyes and leaned forward. Smiling, she gently pressed her glowing horn against Carl's forehead and then she too was asleep, their minds mixing as Twilight’s spell brought them into a shared dream.