//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: The Search // Story: Crystalline Destiny // by Spark_and_Twilight //------------------------------// Chapter 4: The Search Rainbow Dash flew in for a landing Spitfire not far behind her as the cerulean Pegasus landed with a thump “Alright everypony, I want Big McIntosh, Fluttershy and Soarin to stay here and rest maybe get a fire started. Everypony else we gotta split up and start searching.” “Searching Fer what?” Applejack asked frowning. “Twilight’s freaked out over the accident and teleported somewhere, so we gotta track her down and if need be smack some sense into her.” Rainbow replied “So lets get moving shall we?” “I’m perfectly capable of helping” Soarin insisted as he stood up wincing as his tired wings protested “Eyup” Big Mac added standing tall despite the pony on his back. Spitfire shook her head “No I agree with Dashie you three stay here, Big mac you gotta keep an eye on Fluttershy and that, and Soarin a dive like that its best for you to rest your wings for a bit, you don’t’ want a strained muscle now do ya?” “I guess you have a point…” he sighed “Alright I’ll keep an eye out here if she returns…” Rarity nodded “Well then I suppose we should just split up and start searching?” she suggested. “Lets go, lets go, lets go!” Pinkie declared already hopping away in a random direction. “Alright, how about in an hour we meet up back here?” Applejack suggested before turning to leave. “Sounds good” Dashie added turning to fly off in a different direction as Spitfire nodded and flew off as well. Spike frowned slightly as he dug in one of the bags pulling out a scroll of parchment and a quill starting to write…. ~~~~With Rainbow Dash~~~ Flying overhead she glanced down eyes panning over the trees below, searching for a flash of purple amidst the green and brown “Come on Twi, where are you…you know Shy’s not gonna blame you for what happened…none of us do.” She sighed “This is mule dung Twilight WHERE ARE YOU?!” the Pegasus yelled voice echoing through the midday air as she flew on. ~~~~With Spitfire~~~ Glancing back she chuckled as she heard the yell “I sure hope somepony else finds Twilight first I think Dashie’s a bit mad at her…” “I’M NOT MAD!” a voice called rather angrily from behind her. “SURE YOU’RE NOT DASHIE!” she called back snickering lightly “Just shut up and look” the rainbow maned Pegasus muttered. “Alright Dashie” ~~~Applejack~~~ The apple farmer glanced around weaving through the trees not saying much as she kept an eye out for her friend Come on Twi, ya know we don’t care about that…we’ve all made mistakes…its actually kinda refreshing to see you mess up from time to time, no harm was done and it just shows that you’re still you even with the fancy new powers… the famer shook her head again as she sped up trotting along faster to search on, too stubborn to give up till she was sure she was okay. ~~~Back at the campsite~~~ Soarin’ winced as he flapped his wings. “Should you be trying to fly so soon?” Fluttershy asked softly. “No. But sitting around her isn’t gonna help much either.” Soarin responded, as he folded his wings in again. “Nnope.” Big Mac said as he brought a bit of wood over for the fire. “Does she do this a lot?” Soarin asked glancing at the yellow Pegasus. “She worries easily.” Fluttershy said softly. “But vanishing?” Soarin asked. “At times.” Fluttershy responded. Soarin nodded quietly frowning slightly as he glanced back at the small fire in thought. Spike suddenly belched from nearby two scrolls appearing from the enchanted green flames ~~~~Rarity~~~~ The ivory unicorn sighed slightly as she wove through the fields “You had better have a good excuse for dragging me out into the dirt and mud Twilight Sparkle” she muttered mock grumpily clearly more concerned for her friend than actual worry over the dirt that was sticking to her hooves. It helped distract her from overthinking what might happen if they didn’t find Twilight soon. Slowly though the fashionista’s ears twitched faintly as she heard a low sniffling as she turned to trot towards the sound quickly finally spotting a familiar flash of violet as she rushed towards the shivering Alicorn only to let out a loud oof as she impacted with a barrier a few feet away from her on the far side of a small stream from her. Sliding her hooves over the wall she noticed a few faint ripples of violet light rushing over the air before her. “Twilight!” she called hoping her friend could hear her. “Go ‘way Rarity…before I hurt you like I did Shiny and Shy.” The bearer of magic muttered voice barely audible. “What are you going on about? You didn’t hurt anypony” the designer retorted trying to push her way through the barrier but the more she pushed the more it pushed back not hurting her, but simply resisting her efforts. “Only cause the rest of you moved so fast, Dashie knocked Shiny out of the way so I blew up the ceiling not him…Soarin’ caught Shy and Big M-mac caught both of em” she retorted sniffling her voice thick with unshed tears. Rarity frowned as she glanced around tapping faintly at the shield as the ripples stretched out in a fair sized dome clearly encompassing Twilight completely “That’s just the point…you weren’t at fault Twilight…we understand…” “NO YOU DON’T!” the violet mare shot back voice suddenly echoing around the clearing “None of you could possibly understand w-w-w-what I’m feeling…” she added voice shaking. “Then…why don’t you try and tell me? Help me to…understand Dear please?” she asked softly. Twilight sniffled softly “I…I can’t…it….it’ll scare you away” she mumbled “I have…I have to deal with this on my own…nopony can help me…” she shifted and turned away more a slow wash of opaque coloring slowly crawling down from the top of the barrier “Just…leave me alone Rarity” she sighed quietly curling up tighter wings moving to shroud herself from sight. Rarity frowned as her horn glowed faintly some of the water in the stream splashing up to strike Twilight’s flank making her jump “I will NOT be leaving you alone Twilight Sparkle, You think you are the ONLY mare in all of Equestria to have issues with your magic? I would bet you the Boutique that even Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna had issues with theirs!” “Not like me” Twilight replied shivering as her horn flickered faintly drying her flanks off her cutie mark flickering faintly “I bet both of them were better at it than I’ve been…I bet they never almost hurt a good friend…” “Everyone makes mistakes Twilight, the true test is whether you can face up to them or if you hide from them” she shot back. “Then call me a coward!” Twilight snapped glancing at Rarity her violet eyes watering with unshed tears “I don’t CARE as long as I stop hurting my friends…” “Twilight! What in Celestia’s name do I have to do to get you to understand?” Rarity asked. “You’re not changing my mind Rarity, I’m not coming back…the next time I make a mistake it might just cost somepony their life” Twilight replied simply looking away her one hoof drawing idle lines in the water. Rarity frowned slightly as she heard footsteps behind her as she glanced back blinking at the sight of spike running up a pair of scrolls clutched in his paws “H-heya Rarity” he panted stumbling to a stop as he slammed into the shield wincing “Ow…” he groaned “What are the letters for Spike?” the unicorn asked offering a hoof to help the young dragon up as he accepted it gratefully “Thanks Rarity, anyway these are to Twilight from the Princesses, I wrote to them and asked for help…they sent me a couple letters one just said to give these to Twilight and not mess with them.” Rarity nodded “That’s all well and good but…how can we get them to her with her putting up a shield like this?” she asked tapping on the invisible barrier. Spike frowned as he sighed placing his paws on the shield as he blinked glancing at his one claw “Rarity…are the scrolls doing what I think they’re doing?” he asked quietly as the ends of both scrolls were poking through the edge of the shield with no interfearance. “They are indeed darling” Rarity smiled stepping back a bit “And that gives me an idea…how good is you’re throwing arm spike?” “Pretty good…why do you….ooooh” the dragon grinned slightly “I get what you’re talking about now…” he took a few steps back and held the scrolls up one at a time throwing them towards Twilight as hard as he could bouncing them one at a time off his Sister’s nose as she instinctively caught them with her magic a soft violet glow surrounding them. Twilight blinked as she caught the scrolls examining them, seeing one adorned with a white ring imprinted with a gold lined sun, the other had a dark blue ring with a silver crescent moon on it “C-Celestia…Luna?” she mumbled sniffling softly as she wiped some of the unshed tears from her eyes with a hoof “Why would they be…” her horn glowed brighter as she slowly unfurled the sun marked scroll first. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I hope this letter finds you in a good mood on your journey, though I’ve found that sometimes a good story can help pass the time like nothing else. Just don’t go spreading this around to too many of your friends back in Ponyville I’d be terribly embarrassed if it got out. She giggled softly at the comment she didn’t think she’d ever seen the sun princess embarrassed. Anyway, the story is from when I was a little filly, not much older than you actually, I was just coming into my power, and I spent pretty much all my time playing with my best friend. Now before you freak out from this I’ll tell you right now my fillyhood friend was none other than Discord. Now don’t think badly of him or I, he was MUCH different than he was when you met him, but the point is we were good friends and spent all our time together. One day I decided to show off a bit I’d practiced for DAYS and though I had the trick down, I was going to make it rain, Discord always loved the rain…I led him out to a field…and with some concentration I managed to summon a few storm clouds above us, with a little magic I managed to make it start raining a bit…but then it all went wrong…the storm got worse in seconds going from a light spring rain to a gale force downpour all centered above my stunned friend… Then the lightning started…it struck him over and over hurting him badly…I was horrified, I couldn’t look at him or a cloud for a month. Then he came to me, tracked me down while I was hiding in my room and he talked to me, told me in no uncertain terms I was being a grade a silly filly for hiding after an accident. He assured me that I wasn’t to blame for what had happened, and that he was still my friend. So you see Twilight, everypony makes mistake. The key is to always face your fears and stand with your friends. Who will always stand with you through thick and thin. No matter how big a mistake may be. Sincerely, Princess Celestia She sighed softly as she rolled the first letter marveling at the fact that her mentor had once been friends with the monster known as Discord. Shaking her head she slowly slipped the silver and blue ring off the second letter and unfurled it violet eyes panning over the writing. Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle, I heard about thy issues with your magic earlier today, and yesterday as well. I am truly sorry to hear about it. But do not let such mistakes overly trouble thee, all magic users make mistakes as you should know. But Alicorns due to our stronger magics are able to do much more amazing things with our power but at the same time our mistakes may very well end up being larger due to the greater power source. I have something I wish to tell you, It’s a story from when I was younger, even younger than you are now I was just learning to control the night sky and one of my proudest achievements was the stars in the sky as I created them all one by one from scratch. Unknown to me the sailors and travelers of Equestria and the surrounding lands to navigate in the darkness of the night, one night I decided on a whim, after tiring of putting them up in the same location night after night for two years at that point, I switched them all around, nothing in the sky was the same as it had been and I caused hundreds of travelers to get lost with my foolishness. Though it took me a full week to find out, I was mortified, due to the fact that I had almost caused a fillyhood friend of mine to drown when their ship ran aground due to inability to navigate properly. It was this event that helped to cement the fear of the night for most of ponykind. If thou ever hast wish to talk, you must only call out in your dreams, and I will hear thine call. Your Friend Luna She flushed softly as she smiled slightly at the sight of the letter as she slowly rolled it back up sliding the ring back onto it the violet mare stood up slowly tucking the scrolls under her wing with the first letter from Luna “Thank you” she whispered softly looking up towards the sun. Rarity perked up as the faint hum of the shield slowly dwindled down to nothing as it faded Twilight slowly fluttering over to stand on the near side of the shore. “I’m….I’m sorry for what I said Rarity…thanks…for not giving up on me.” The unicorn grinned and nudged her lightly in the shoulder “Not to worry Darling, It’ll be a cold day in tartarus before I give up on you. You’ve done so much for me since we met the least I can do is stand by you when you need help.” Twilight blushed softly smiling “that…means a lot to me Rarity, but come on…I want to check on Fluttershy” Spike nodded “She seemed okay when I left the campsite, her, Big McIntosh and Soarin’ were resting” the baby dragon replied lightly as he trotted after the two ponies. “Good to hear” Twilight smiled weakly her wings twitching slightly at the tip betraying her nervousness “What about everypony else?” “They’re all out looking for you Dear” Rarity replied “they should be back in a few minutes to check in though we agreed to meet after an hour to check in” Twilight nodded “I hope I didn’t cause too much trouble for them” she muttered “I bet I looked like some idiot foal running away like that…” She fell silent again as she spaced out slowly as she followed her two friends back.