//------------------------------// // Chapter One Hundred Ten // Story: HiE - A Hollow in Equestria // by Charlie_K //------------------------------// Chapter One Hundred Ten Twilight let out a grunt as she slowly climbed to her hooves, and proceeded to stretch much like a cat would. She was certainly no stranger to logging long hours spent reading. But there was a limit to how much time even she could remain fixed in a stationary spot, and pose, before her body demanded she take a break and move her muscles, lest they rebel against her for not heeding to their demands. They had no care for how enthralling a particular book might be at the time, as such details were entirely immaterial to their position. There was an inaudible pop as she stretched her back muscles, noted by a sharp pain that faded into feeling good as a kink was exorcised and banished away. That had been needed far more than she actually cared to admit. Because if she did admit to needed it, then she'd have to acknowledge just how long she'd been sitting still. As she did a few more stretches to loosen herself up a bit more, she took note of her surroundings, just in case anything had changed around her while she was in her own little zone, oblivious to everything else. And as such did, her ears picked up on a funny sound somewhere in the room. It was, how would she best describe it, almost like a slippery squeak? Glancing around, she saw the only other one currently in the room with her was Spike, also sitting on the floor, and with his back turned to her. He was doing... something... but his back was obstructing everything, making it hard to see. But the sound definitely sounded like it was coming from him. Or at the very least in his general area. "Spike? What're you doing over there?" "Buffing my hammer," Spike replied back. Twilight sputtered in response to just how brazen his answer had been. "Out here!? C-can't you at least have the decency to go do that in the bathroom, you little pervert?" Spike, in response, slowly turned around to face her, revealing that he was holding his sledgehammer and a polishing rag, all the while giving her a sour look with a quirked eyebrow. "I'm the pervert?" Twilight could only sigh as she glanced at the floor in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Spike, my mind was somewhere else." "Yeah, like in the gutter," Spike quipped as he returned to his polishing/buffing task. "So what're you reading over there anyway? And are you actually old enough to be reading it? Because if you're not... then I get the book after you." Twilight shook her head in response. "Well, my little lecherous dragon, you're certainly welcome to it. But I'm afraid it's not anything along those lines. I've been trying to do some research on what Discord said, but so far I'm not coming up with anything pertaining to what we're supposedly up against." "You mean that reality shift thing? Well he did say it was unprecedented, so of course there wouldn't be anything you could research," Spike pointed out. "I still find it very hard to believe that something can be truly unprecedented," Twilight basically mumbled in response. "But I'm afraid you might be right about that. Even Starswirl's research never spoke on anything like this even being a possibility." Unprecedented. A word that Twilight had a love/hate relationship with. Unprecedented meant new discoveries could be made. Unprecedented meant that they were going in blind with no idea of what to do. Unprecedented brought them Ulquiorra Cifer and all the wonders he held. Unprecedented also brought them the discovery that the world they lived in might not be the world that they knew. That was perhaps the scariest aspect of it all. From what she had gathered from Discord's explanation of the matter at hoof, their reality being thrown off its intended course had the potential to reverberate even into the past. Meaning even their own memories of events that had already transpired could've been affected, making it impossible to know for certain. There was a certain, overwhelming sense of incomprehensible fear and terror at such a possibility having the potential to be real. If one couldn't even trust their own memories, then what could truly be looked towards for answers and certainty in the world? It was something she -understandably- tried very hard, not to think about too hard. "Alright," Spike spoke up, "I think we need a break. We'll go to Sugarcube Corner, get something sweet, have a couple of laughs with Pinkie, try and enjoy the rest of this peaceful afternoon, and come back to start on dinner." "Hmm, that does sound more promising than what I'm doing now, which is just worrying futilely about something I can't possibly do anything about," she mumbled to herself and rubbed her chin in thought. "Fine, you win. To Sugarcube Corner it is then." "That's the spirit," Spike replied as he proceeded to drop his hammer to the floor, to scramble over and climb atop Twilight's back. "Onward." Twilight could do little more than giggle at Spike's enthusiasm, finding it a welcome relief to the stress she'd been experiencing lately. Sometimes, more often than she cared to admit, she really needed that. They were outside the library in very short order after that, and she enjoyed the sensation of the late-summer sun against her coat as the trotted along to their destination. Even she would willingly admit that no amount of books in the world could ever replace that simple joy; not even first editions. "So what's your sweet tooth craving at the moment?" "Jelly doughnuts," Spike said without a moment of hesitation. "You know, that sounds mighty good right now," Twilight commented. "Jelly doughnuts it is, then." The trip to Sugarcube Corner had been short, simple, and pleasant enough to warrant taking the snack break in the first place. But that general peacefulness had unfortunately come to an end before they even stepped hoof inside the establishment, as their ears were assaulted by the sound of a growing commotion from inside. A very unpleasant, bordering on violent commotion, that only seemed to be growing in intensity. "That can't be good," Spike muttered before they made their way to the door, doing his best to steel his nerves for whatever they were about to find as they stepped inside. Such ultimately proved impossible, as there was no way of being prepared for what was encountered; Pinkie and Bonbon were currently in the midst of fighting. Not simply shouting at each other over a matter of disagreement, but outright fighting. Bare-hooved, no holds barred, back alley fighting. Full contact body blows were being traded freely and indiscriminately, as Bonbon demonstrated when she wrapped her forelegs around Pinkie's midsection and body slammed her into the ground, before climbing atop her to pin her down, and proceeded to deliver blows to her head with her right hoof. Pinkie, not to be outdone, pulled some maneuver Twilight couldn't even put into words to describe, and flipped Bonbon underneath her, before rearing up on her hind legs and dropping back down to slam both of her front hooves on the spot where Bonbon's head had been, missing only as her opponent rolled to the side just a moment before the impact landed, and proceeded to break the floorboards under the resulting force. Bonbon's response came as she wrapped her forelegs around Pinkie's left leg before she could get loose, and swung her lower body up to deliver a kick to the side of Pinkie's head with both back hooves, staggering the pink pony and providing her the chance to scramble back onto her hoofs to reengage. Pinkie's own dazed state didn't last long, allowing her to immediately meet Bonbon's advance as the two reared up on their hind legs to grapple in the middle of the room. She failed to stop Bonbon from managing to deliver several -painful- kidney shots, however she did manage to ensnare her foreleg and twist her body around, judo flipping and throwing the candy maker down onto the floor with a loud thud. Not even the force of the impact proved sufficient to take the fight out of Bonbon's sails. As soon as she felt her foreleg was loose, she climbed onto her hooves to rear up, and began using her forelegs to deliver blows against Pinkie, who was forced into a similar standing position to use her own forelegs to shield her head and face from the impacts. Up until Pinkie spotted an opening to retaliate and swung her right hind leg towards Bonbon to kick her in the stomach, only to have it caught by Bonbon's forelegs and prevent the blow from landing. The move was very difficult and awkward to execute rapidly, but she managed to pin Pinkie's leg in place with only her left foreleg, while raising her right foreleg to bring down and deliver a bone-breaking strike to the trapped limb. That had been more than enough to snap Twilight out of her thoughts, driving her forward into action as she ensnared the both of them in her magic, and forcibly separating the two of them before the blow could actually be landed. "Just... just... what the actual, literal fuck is wrong with the two of you!?" she shouted as she forcibly held their attention. "Start explaining. What's going on here?" Both ponies opened their mouths to speak at the same time, only for their lips to be forcibly clamped back shut by Twilight's magic. "No. One at a time," she clarified, in absolutely no mood to hear the two trying to talk over one another. "Bonbon, since I saw you swinging first, you start. What exactly is going on between you two?" Bonbon nodded as the hold around her lips receded, allowing her to speak again. "It's simple, Twilight, that fatso over there, is still friends with that monster that murdered my sister! And I won't have it! She can either be friends with me or it, but not the two of us!" Again, Twilight found herself at a loss for words, uncertain what to think of what she was hearing right now. Whereas she'd initially been silenced by her own infuriated state, this sort of accusation was well outside of anything she'd anticipated. "Nightmare Moon killed your sister, Bonbon, not Ulquiorra," she eventually pointed out, deciding it was best to address that particular issue first, rather than the rudeness that'd been displayed with the name calling. "Did Nightmare Moon ram a spear through Twist's chest?" Bonbon shot back. Twilight flinched away in response, both at the question and the harshness in Bonbon's voice, her ears flattening against her skull as she did. "I didn't think so." "She wants me to stop being friends with Ulqy, Twilight!" Pinkie protested as the magical bindings on her lips fizzled out, allowing her to speak once again. "She's trying to tell me who to be friends with! She can't do that!" "I can, and I did, you fat ponka," Bonbon snarled as she turned to face her adversary once again. "You can either be friends with him, or you can be friends with me. You don't get to be friends with everyone. So you'd better choose, and choose very wisely." On, and on, and on the arguing went. Arguing and outright screaming, with the two of them carrying on as if she wasn't even here anymore. A matter that wasn't helped as her magic fizzled out in her current state, letting the two get right in each other's faces once again without ever missing a beat. What was going on here? What sort of madness had befallen the town this time around? What sort of insanity was gripping her friends? How could things be falling apart so quickly in front of her, despite her best efforts to try and head them off? It was as if she wasn't even here, and utterly helpless to make even the slightest bit of difference to her surroundings. "Why're you being so mean!?" Pinkie asked, both sounding and looking as if she was on the verge of tears at this point. "Mean? You think I'm being mean? I'm the one who had to bury my little sister because of what that monster you're friends with did to her! If anything I'm being kind in even giving you the ultimatum in the first place. So you'd better pick right in just who you want to be friends with. Because if you choose wrong then-" "Enough!" The sudden yell had been forceful enough to cut through the back and forth arguing, effectively shutting up both Pinkie and Bonbon, as they looked towards the only other one in the room with them. To say Twilight was mad right now would be a gross understatement. At this point she was positively furious, and utterly seething with rage through tightly grit teeth as she glared at them. Even now she looked like her mane and tail were beginning to smoulder, and threatening to burst into flames if left unchecked. Even Spike understood that this wasn't good, and quickly jumped off of Twilight's back at the first traces of heat he was detecting along his scaly butt. The instant he did a bright flash of light, and a sudden wave of intense heat erupted in the middle of the room, enveloping the both of them at the same time it sent Spike diving under the nearest table out of fear of what'd just happened. Even as bright as the light was, it still wasn't bright enough to obscure their sight of just what was happening where Twilight stood. The blackness of her pupils was washed right out and replaced with a hot white, as the purple in her irises turned an angry cherry red, as she glared right at them with a practically murderous intent. All the lavender of her coat, horn, and hooves was gone in a flash, replaced by an extremely pale shade of yellow, bordering on a dingy, sun-bleached white. And the hair of her mane and tail had ceased smouldering, only to burst into open flames. Twilight Sparkle was no longer present in the main room of the bakery. Flashpoint Sparkle had just entered the fray. Pinkie tried to squeak in fear, but found herself unable to do even that as she stared at what Twilight had become. She had only seen it one other time in her life, and that had been one time too many for her comfort and sanity. This inequine... thing... had been seen at a distance the last time, and that had been bad enough. Now it was in the same room with them, at a much shorter distance, and it was even more incomprehensibly frightening up close. She could feel the heat radiating off of its frame as the flames burnt around it, fueled by just what had to be the sheer amount of rage contained within. Rage that was palpable even to her. But as bad as Pinkie's current predicament was, Bonbon's was arguably the worse of the two, primarily because the fiery visage that stood before them slowly and firmly fixed its gaze solely on her. Leaving her feeling as if death itself was staring right at her. More specifically, her own death. Making matters all the worse, that death was slowly approaching her as the fiery visage slowly stepped forward, with tendrils of smoke wafting up from its hooves as it moved. She tried to back up, to put at least some distance between it and her, only to quickly bump into one of the tables and finding herself with nowhere to go as it moved ever closer. "Get out," the burning mare commanded in a voice that was nothing short of outright demonic. "I'll deal with you later." Bonbon, in a moment of utter sphincter-puckering terror, nodded in understanding and bolted for the front door to leave as quick as possible, lest she end up shitting a pair of pants that she neither wore nor owned. Leaving Pinkie behind to face the fiery demon all by herself. And then it just sighed and slouched, falling to its fetlocks and looking weary as the flames died out. Leaving a tired, slightly singed -and very purple- Twilight behind in its place. Just as quickly as it had all unfolded, it had all died out. It was only after everything had transpired, did Twilight realize Pinkie was currently cowering on the floor, her forelegs brought up over her head, and her eyes clenched shut tightly as she violently trembled against the floor. "Pinkie?" "Go away!" Pinkie shouted shakily, never moving from her spot or position on the floor. "Pinkie, I-" "Go away!" Pinkie shouted again, it proving to be only the first in a long string of such utterances that only grew more incomprehensible as they went, as her frightened utterances became muddled as sadness and crying slipped into the mix and rendering her a sobbing, blubbering mess. Twlight's heart ached at the sight of her friend on the ground, knowing full well that it was her who put her in this miserable state during her tirade. There was simply no excuse for that at all. Celestia would have her butt in a sling if she'd been here to witness this. Sadly, she moved beside Pinkie and wrapped her forelegs around her friend to hold her. "I'm very sorry, Pinkie..." "Twilight?" Through no small effort, Spike and Twilight eventually managed to get Pinkie calmed down once again. In that period of calmness, the damage done to Sugarcube Corner could better be surveyed, and taken stock of. Various upturned tables and chairs littered the room from the previous fight between the two earth ponies, shattered and splintered wood planks from the impact delivered by Pinkie's stomping maneuver, and burn marks in the shape of hooves where she herself had stood. Working together, the scope of the damage had been easy enough to clean up, so the Cakes would never know what'd happened when they got back. Spike had focused on getting the tables back up and into place, while Twilight focused on the floor, putting the same spell to use when a hole had been blown in the library so many weeks ago, the wood for lack of a better word being "melted" and reformed into an undamaged state before being hardened up again. For the most part, Pinkie had been silent since calming down, doing little more than sitting still and looking at the floor throughout. So it came as something of a surprise when she finally broken that silence. "Yes?" Twilight asked. "Please... please, don't ever do that again? Please? Promise me?" she asked shakily. "I'm... sorry? Do what again, Pinkie?" "When you burst into flames," Spike stated as he righted the last of the upturned chairs. Pinkie nodded in response. "Oh..." Twilight replied slowly, once again turning her attention back to Pinkie. "I'm sorry, Pinkie, that's not exactly something that I can do, or otherwise promise to do. It's not something that I actually have any control over. There are times when I just get so overwhelming mad and it just sort of... happens." "Don't feel bad, Pinkie, it's hereditary. Something she and Shining Armor both got from their mother," Spike clarified. Twilight could do little more than nod in confirmation of Spike's explanation. "Wait, seriously? She does? They do?" Pinkie asked. "Yeah. Although they've both got nothing on her; Mama Sparkle's flames are blue when they come out," Spike clarified, his tone sounding just a bit too upbeat for what he was talking about. "If it's any consolation, Pinkie, it's a very rare event. It takes a lot of anger to get any of us, er, fired up like that," Twilight added as she mover over to rub Pinkie's back, hoping to stave off whatever sort of growing panic might be forming in her friend. "Yeah! Which is really good in her case, considering how hot her flames burn. If you ever see Mama Sparkle go full fireball, you know someone done fucked up!" Spike stated, unable to suppress a grin as he did. Twilight frowned at Spike, as he was enjoying this particular discussion far too much. "It's not an excuse for my actions, Pinkie, I just... well I lost it when I saw you and Bonbon fighting like that. Why were you fighting? What even started that in the first place?" she asked. At the question, Pinkie looked away in shame as she hung her head. "I didn't realize it at the time, but I... might've made the mistake of commenting in front of her on how it's been a while since we last saw Ulqy, and wondering what he was up to," she reluctantly admitted. "And from there it just sort of got out of hoof and went downhill really fast; faster than I could get ahead of. The next thing I know she's saying the meanest stuff I've ever heard from her, and making all kinds of threats, and when I tried to make her stop she socked me in the face. And then it all just... happened." Out of the possible explanations Twilight could've gotten for how things happened, that most certainly hadn't been one of them. She understood that Bonbon was still upset, but to think she'd be so easily provoked, to go as far as physical violence -especially physical violence of this scale- was one she never saw coming. "I'm not a very good friend," Pinkie mumbled. "I'm a bad friend..." Twilight shook her head, and stopped rubbing Pinkie's back in order to hug her. "Don't say stuff like that, Pinkie, you're a great friend! It's Bonbon who isn't. There's absolutely no excuse for what she did, understand? Absolutely no excuse, whatsoever. She didn't have the right to assault you just because she was upset." "But-" Pinkie protested. "No. No buts, Pinkie, you're not at fault here. Bonbon is the one at fault, understand? Because if you're at fault for being hit, that means I'm also at fault for coming to your aid. Is that the case, Pinkie? Am I a bad friend?" Pinkie genuinely found herself at a loss for words at Twilight's question. She tried to answer, tried to utter something to avoid an uncomfortable dead silence, but found such to be impossible. She opened her mouth, but no words could come forth, as she honestly had no idea of just how to respond. In the end, all she could do was weakly shake her head in response. She simply couldn't bring herself to say, or even consider the notion, that one of her friends was bad. "Well then, if I'm not a bad friend, then you can't be a bad friend either, Pinkie," Twilight stated as she tightened her hug. "Think about it, if you were a bad friend, I wouldn't actually want to keep your company, would I?" "I... I guess not," Pinkie replied. "And since you're a good friend, it's only natural for another good friend to come to your aid if they perceive a need, right?" Twilight asked further. "Bonbon looked like she was about to break your leg with that one maneuver of hers. I couldn't just stand by and let her follow through with that, could I?" "... No," Pinkie mumbled and slowly shook her head. "That actually makes a lot of sense. I think." "Good then!" Twilight stated. "Now, let's have no more of this nonsense about you being some sort of bad friend. There's no room for that sort of subject matter here." "You're right," Pinkie agreed, now willingly leaning into the hug she'd been on the receiving end of for so long. "Thanks, Twilight. I think I needed that." Over where Spike was currently perched, he watched the two. He was thankful that Pinkie was coming around to Twilight's position, but at the same time, something about it all felt kind of... off, for lack of a better way of describing it. It wasn't anything specific that he could put his claw on, but there was a sense he couldn't shake, that something just wasn't right; even when allowing for Ponyville standards. It was something he would, in all likelihood, have to bring up with Twilight at some point. And he would. Just not right now; not when Pinkie was still in need of help and comforting. And just what was all the neighing going on outside about? When had that started, and why was he just now noticing it?