//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Harmony isn't everywhere // by The-rogue-shadow //------------------------------// Surprisingly enough, Twilight had been quite enthusiastic about accompanying him to Canterlot, and was even willing to talk to Princess Celestia and set it up beforehand. Quill politely refused her offer on the grounds of not wanting to call in favours when they might be better served later on; if he got immediately turned away by the royal guards for example. They agreed to go to Canterlot two days later on when the weekend was finally upon them. After their weekend travel plans were all decided the team of writers; one veteran and the other fledgling, got to work on brainstorming their collaborative effort. Or at least tried to. Twilight wanted to do a story about Clover the Clever, first student of her idol; Star Swirl the bearded. It involved a trek across the great arctic wastelands in the search for an ancient artefact that would save the earthers from a plague, all the while being hunted by a rogue windigo. “Well the problem with that is that Clover is a great historical figure. Writing a story about her would be like me writing a story about the elements of harmony where you are all male instead. It would be recreating history in such a way that no one could believe,” Quill explained, leaving Twilight with a very disappointed look on her face. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t use the world you’ve created, but how about we change the main character to someone else; say an earther peasant.” At this, Twilight instantly perked up once again. “Great idea!” she exclaimed happily, quickly scribbling the addition in the notebook. They decided to set it a few years before the great unification of the three tribes, when the windigos were at the height of their power and the three tribes were at their most warring. They spent the next few hours going through the details of their universe and their main character. Keeping with Quill’s idea of an earther peasant as the main character, they decided on a woman named Heart Song. She was to be the daughter of a farmer that had suffered greatly at the hands of the pegasi and the unicorns, before eventually contracting the plague. The only skills she had were a rudimentary archery ability and a magical locket called ‘The Star Heart’ which had the ability to guide her to whatever she wanted; the cure for the plague. The rogue windigo was replaced by a trio of griffin marauders as well as a shady group of unicorn mages. The mages were hell-bent on making certain that she not find the cure, while the marauders simply wanted the star heart. *** “Is it dark already?” Quill asked, looking out of the nearby window as the white light of Luna’s moon shone through it like a beacon of serenity. Twilight yawned, looking down at the six pages of notes they had amassed. “Well I think we can call it a day or, y’know, night,” she giggled as she started to pack up the stationary. “But hey, if you’re free tomorrow, we can keep going?” “Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t tomorrow,” Quill said apologetically. “Lyra’s offered to help me find a place of my own so I don’t have to keep freeloading off her.” “Really? I thought they were both more than happy to have you stay there.” “They are, but somehow their late night ‘activities’ have gotten considerably louder and-“ “Say no more. Good luck, and I suppose that if I don’t see you around I’ll meet you at the train station bright and early Saturday morning yeah?” Twilight asked, prompting a nod from Quill, who then turned and walked out of the library with his blood stained shirt tucked under his arm. When he thought he was out of earshot, Quill let out a loud moan that caused the strange looks from those around him. ‘I can’t believe I lied straight to Twilight’s face just then,’ he thought, smacking himself in the forehead with his palm and creating a sizable red mark. ‘You have nowhere near enough money to get your own place. You only said that because the brainstorming went a lot quicker than you expected and now it’s time to actually write. You damn idiot!’ Quill continued to scold himself for the entirety of the walk home, stopping only to purchase a box of hay fries when he suddenly remembered that he hadn’t eaten since lunch. *** When he got home, he found both Lyra and Bon Bon sitting at the kitchen table staring intently at the front door as though they were waiting for him to get home. Quill stood awkwardly in front of them, before giving a short wave and heading straight for the stairs, trying his best to ignore the overly creepy grin on Lyra’s face. “So… had to borrow a shirt huh?” asked Lyra and Quill grimaced, stopping at the top of the stairs and looking down at the white shirt that he had been given. “I uh, I got blood on my other one,” he replied, backing down the stairs and standing in front of them like a school boy in trouble with his teacher. He unrolled the shirt and showed them the dried brown splatter across the fabric. Quill smirked when he noticed Bon Bon starting to turn green at the sight. “Wow, didn’t think she’d play so rough,” Lyra said flatly, cocking her head as she studied the shirt. “It’s not like that. Ink Blot did this,” Quill told her irritably. “What? HE likes to play rough?” Bon Bon asked, her back to Quill and the shirt. His wings flared in frustration and he just sighed and walked away, leaving the shirt on the table. Quill stormed up the stairs, chuckling when he heard Bon Bon starting to gag. He slammed the door and slumped down onto his bed. Shooting a quick glance over to his desk, Quill spotted a scrap of paper blu-tacked to the shelf at the back of his desk. It was the last thing he had written before coming to Ponyville, his last piece of fiction in three years. It was simply a single paragraph; Have you ever heard the world from underwater? It’s muffled, as though everything above is a secret not meant for your ears. *** Quill spent the next day actively trying to avoid Twilight so that she wouldn’t find out that he had lied to her. He tried his best to stay close to Lyra just in case he was spotted and had to prove that he was actually looking for a house, much to Lyra’s chagrin. “You’re a real moron sometimes,” she snapped as she watched him look around in a panicked fashion. “You’re just drawing more attention to yourself.” “No way! I’m completely inconspicuous,” he replied as he peered around the corner of a building. “You should have just explained the situation,” Lyra sighed, pushing past him and opening the door to the florist. “But she is relying on my ability to write to help her with the assignment and you know that I owe her so much.” “I know, I know. But think about this; she is Twilight Sparkle. Aside from her occasional bouts of insanity she has to be one of the most understanding people I’ve ever met.” She told him, putting a hand on her shoulder. Quill considered this for a moment, before nodding once and turning to face Roseluck, who had been staring at the two in a mixture of mild annoyance and curiosity. Lyra paid for the lilies she had been sent for and together they started to make their way back to their house. All the while Quill stayed silent as he contemplated taking his friend’s advice and revealing the secret of his writer’s block. ‘How do I explain it to her?’ he wondered, silently panicking at the thought of it. It had not even been his idea to tell Lyra and Bon Bon when he had first discovered the problem. But Bon Bon had gone snooping in his room for some reason or another and had found the pile of half-started stories and horrible ideas. She had then told Lyra, who, as Quill discovered that day, was unrelenting when it came to finding the truth. The defeated writer had had no choice but to tell them both about his word smithing impotency. They had been supportive at first, even offering to find him a councillor to try and help him through it, and even though he had declined the professional help on the grounds of not having the money to pay for it, the two girls had continued to encourage him. It was not until midnight, as he stared blankly into a lined piece of paper, that Quill finally decided that Twilight deserved the truth. That he was not the person that should be helping her with the assignment if she wanted to pass. He only hoped that she wouldn’t hate him too much, although he didn’t expect to be getting her aid on his article for Ink Blot. *** Quill Scratch stumbled across the dusty track as his torn blue shirt rubbed against the three long, deep lacerations in his back. His wings twitched as spasms of agonising pain shot through the left one, while the right one he couldn’t feel at all. The trails of crimson blood seeping into his eyes made them burn as he fought to stay conscious. Each step was a mustering of every ounce of his willpower, and it was only one thought that kept him going; there has to be help over the next hill. Sure enough, as the crest of the hill faded from his view and was replaced with the sight of a small village, a relieved laugh escaped his lips, before the world faded into blackness and the ground rushed to meet him. Just as he was losing consciousness, a woman’s voice filled his ears. “Hello, are you okay? Oh my Celestia!” *** Quill’s eyes snapped open as the dark lingerings of his dream started to fade back into the recesses of his mind, but it didn’t matter. He had experienced that dream so many times over the past three years that it was branded into his skull. But until that night he hadn’t had it for six months. There was something wrong, some feeling that refused to leave him, that made every hair on his body stand on end and his heart convulse in his chest as adrenaline flooded his system in preparation to fight, or more likely; flight. After a shower and all but diving out of his window for a morning fly, Quill headed for Cloudsdale; the colossal cloud city that spent its time orbiting Ponyville. Normally he wouldn’t go there, as he had never much liked the crowd, both the one in the air and the one that hurried around on the soft footpaths. But today was special. An ancient Equestrian law had tasked the pegasi with always manipulating the weather, regardless of what their cutie mark represented. The law had been amended since then, but all pegasi were still required to do five hours of weather duty per week, and today Quill had been rostered on for the morning shift. As he passed through the door of the weather institute however, he could instantly tell that it was not going to be an easy one. In front of him was a group of about thirty people, all dressed in the white overalls and high-vis vests of the weather patrol. The usual posting for the morning was only four people, which made this gathering all the more concerning for the writer. He made his way over to the crowd, all of who were looking toward the large white board at the front of the room where their boss, Cloud Kicker, was giving a briefing on the thunderstorm they would be dealing with that day. “Now unfortunately, we won’t have Rainbow Dash with us this time, she’s broken her wing… again,” Cloud Kicker sighed as she finished drawing up the path the storm was going to take. “Again! That’s the third time in as many months,” came Flitter’s angry voice from the front of the room. When he heard the irate woman’s voice, Quill visibly shrunk down lower, hoping to hide himself among the taller people in the crowd. Lately, Flitter had been making advances on Quill which at times was a little too… physical for his liking and always seemed to be at the worst times. Three weeks prior, Quill had badly burnt his arm on a steam pipe when Flitter walked past and groped his behind. “I know, I know. But ‘little miss wonderbolt’ thinks she can pull off some new trick,” Cloud Kicker explained, making air quotes with her fingers. “But we’ll be fine without her, now everyone, get yourselves ready, we get started in half an hour. *** Quills blue wings were a blur as they worked to help him keep the storm at bay. Thunderlane had gone down when a stray bolt of lightning hit him in the chest. If not for their protective overalls, it would probably have been fatal. After the accident, the storm had started to get out of control, the pitch black clouds writhing through the air like agitated snakes in a pit. Cloud Kicker and Flitter were next to him, pushing against the clouds with all of their might to stop it from drifting over the school house. None of them said it, but they all understood the stakes if the wall of destructive weather got by them. “I’m going to murder Rainbow Dash when she gets out of the hospital,” Flitter shouted, barely audible over the roar of the wind. Quill grunted as a thick tendril of cloud hit him across the face, leaving a red mark. On the ground, Lyra and some of the more powerful unicorns in the town, Twilight included, were doing double duty in that they were evacuating the immediate area and throwing up shields to stop wayward bolts of searing airborne electricity. Besides the ones trying to contain the rogue storm, a small group of the weather team was in charge of breaking the storm down by systematically dismantling each cloud strand, an arduous process, but one that they had been drilled in since each was old enough to work. Dismantling the strands involved following one of the conduit clouds, which are the ones that actually shoot lightning, back to the core, and then taking out the diamond pins that connected the structural clouds together. On smaller storm fronts, this was usually done by only one person, but this one had gotten so far out of hand and ferocious that it would have been dangerous to send only one person in. Quill could feel the cloud beneath his hands starting to loosen up, and with a cry, he gave it a swift yet powerful kick which managed to dislodge it and a few others from his section. He dashed over to Flitter, whose fringe was smouldering from the heat of a bolt and rammed into it with his shoulder, causing it to break away as well. Inside of the mass, Quill could just barely make out the shapes of the ten pegasi that had gone in to pull the pins. After the outer layer had been breached, they spent the next half an hour gradually taking the storm apart in sections and destroying the smaller pieces. When they were finished, they all but collapsed on the ground in a heap and rested. Some of them even passed out from the strain, and Quill would have to, if not for being interrupted from his rest by Lyra and Twilight. “Oh my Luna! Are you guys alright? That storm was crazy,” asked Lyra in a panicked, yet irritatingly energetic tone. “Oh I’m fine, although I have the feeling I could run a light bulb with the amount of energy I absorbed today,” Quill joked, his voice raspy from shouting orders to the others. The exposed skin of his face was numb from the tiny sparks of electricity that had arced off the clouds, as well as the cold from the rain. “Well I think you and the team should be proud, you saved Ponyville,” said Twilight happily. “Yay for us, now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m just going to pass out now,” he told them, his voice trailing off as his body shut down from sheer over-exertion.