Chapter 6: Dangerous Liaisons
"What the hay is this?" demanded Caramel.
"I don't know," admitted Softhoof, "This has never happened before. This makes the second time that Grayblood's rejected my recommendations."
"So you actually approved of Fluttershy the first time?" asked Twilight, surprised.
Softhoof nodded. "While I had some areas of concern, there was nothing serious that stood out to me. What I did see indicated that she's a fine mother and more than able to handle Dawn's unique needs."
Fluttershy blushed and sank down slightly.
Softhoof continued. "But, for some reason, Grayblood decided that my investigation was insufficient and demanded that I come back to Ponyville and conduct it in more detail. I did and this is the result." She gestured towards the letter with his response.
"But why would he do that?" asked Fluttershy, gently clinging to Dawn.
"I don't know, but I intend to find out," growled Softhoof, "This is completely unlike him. He's never acted like this before. I'm gonna go back to Canterlot and have some words with that stallion. And if he's really dead set on this, I'll take it before the Princess if I have to."
"I hope it doesn't come to that," said Twilight, "If you do take it before the Princess, this whole thing takes on the risk of becoming a public spectacle. The article was enough. We shouldn't need to keep dragging Dawn and Fluttershy into the spotlight."
"Hopefully I won't need to," said Softhoof, gathering her things and heading out the door.
"There she goes," observed Caramel, "I feel sorry for this Grayblood character, making a mare like that angry."
"I'm more worried about why he's doing it," muttered Twilight, "If what she's told us before, it seems that his willingness to disregard the evidence she's presented is completely out of character for him. Why would he do it in this case?
"Could...could he be with the Cult Solar?" asked Fluttershy, shivering at the thought.
"I hope not," said Twilight, "But it's definitely looking like a possibility." From what Mayweather had told them, the members of the Cult Solar clearly held the Element Bearers in high regard. If Dawn was considered a demon by their ilk, then the fact that he was staying with Fluttershy made him a threat to the Element Bearers, if only in their own minds. This could be a ploy by the Cult to separate Dawn from Fluttershy and, by extension, the rest of the girls in order to "protect" them from his "demonic influence." If they determined that force was not working then they might be trying a more subtle approach.
If Grayblood were a member of the Cult Solar, the implications would be quite serious. Until now, it seemed that the group's influence was mostly confined to the rural and outlying regions of Equestria, with only light infiltration into larger population centers, areas where communication with anypony who could report their actions to Princess Celestia herself was difficult to maintain, where they could spread their message and draw in other ponies before someone had enough of an idea of what they were about to try and bring the matter to Celestia's attention. But, if Grayblood was a member, it would mean that the group had support in the upper echelons of Equestria's government, which changed the scope of the problem drastically.
"So he's going to try and send somepony else to do the investigation instead of Softhoof," said Caramel.
"Yes, because an investigation isn't what Grayblood really wants," reasoned Twilight, "What he wants is a pretense, an excuse to declare Fluttershy unsuited to being Dawn's mother. He'll keep sending somepony to look into it until he finds one that's basically willing to lie through their teeth to give him the verdict that he wants."
"But what good will that do?" asked Caramel, "If Softhoof's right about how solid a case we have, then any reason anypony could come up with would be so flimsy that we could easily appeal it and have the decision overturned."
"I don't know," admitted Twilight, "But doing that means bringing the case to the courts, which means bringing it out under the public eye. Given the fact that Dawn just had an article about him on the front page of one of Equestria's premier newspapers means that it would automatically become big news. The whole thing would turn into a media circus. Reporters would come to Ponyville like flies."
Fluttershy shuddered and pressed herself rightly against Caramel, who wrapped a hoof around her back and held her close, tucking Fluttershy's head under his chin as he tried to keep her calm. "That probably wouldn't be a good thing," he admitted.
Twilight sighed before turning to look at Dawn. The colt had been strangely quiet, not even making a sound after Softhoof showed them the letter. His expression revealed nothing. However, Twilight noticed certain aspects about him that betrayed his true mood. There was a tautness to his muscles that suggested incredible tension, as though he were heavily restraining himself...though to what end she couldn't imagine.
"Dawn," she said, "Are you alright?"
Dawn looked at her, his eyes hard and cold, sending a shiver of genuine terror down Twilight's spine. It was there, cold as ice, a pure and absolute rage. When he saw her shrink back from him, Dawn closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The tightness in his body faded away and he seemed to calm himself down. Looking at Twilight again, she saw that his anger had faded, but only to just beneath the surface, to keep it from being directed at her or the ponies that cared about him.
"I don't know," said Dawn cautiously, "I need to think about this...or perhaps not think...Excuse me."
Standing up, the colt left.
"Dawn!" cried Fluttershy, reaching out for him.
On the verge of walking out the door, Dawn froze. After a second, he turned around and walked to his mother and Caramel. He gave Fluttershy a hug, which she didn't hesitate to return as Caramel wrapped the both of them up in his own embrace so that Dawn was safely tucked between him and Fluttershy.
"I'm not upset with you," said Dawn, "And I won't run away. But I can't keep this inside of me much longer. I just want to let my frustration out where it won't hurt anypony."
"Alright," said Fluttershy, "Please don't stay out too long."
Dawn nodded and broke away from them. He departed, leaving an uneasy silence to all over the library.
"Geez, he was about ready to explode there," said Caramel, sagging tiredly against the table, "I guess it's kinda callous for me to think this, but I'd thought he'd gotten used to stuff like this."
"Well, not quite like this," countered Twilight, "Dawn's perfectly fine with ponies who want to attack or kill him physically. He can protect himself just fine from those kind of enemies. The Gale King is perfect for those kind of situations. But this is a completely different case.
"Right now, the ponies who are trying to do the most harm are doing so by manipulating his situation, using proxies, and not getting involved themselves. Dawn's frustrated because this isn't the kind of opponent you can deal with by using force. What makes it worse is that this enemy is using other ponies’ good intentions, even their good intentions toward Dawn himself, to hurt him. That's probably what's driving him up the wall."
Twilight let out a sad sigh. I can certainly sympathize, she thought glumly. After all, her own situation wasn't all that different. She'd gotten lucky the last time she'd been to Canterlot. Steel Flint had at least been direct and open in his attempts to take control of her. But other nobles would learn from his mistakes and try to win her over indirectly, possibly by using even her own friends as tools in their games. In fact, the entire situation with the Noble Court felt similar to Dawn's predicament. Just as the colt was probably longing for an enemy he could at least beat down face to face, Twilight was wishing that the Noble Court were just some unambiguous evil that she and her friends could blast with the Elements of Harmony and be done with it.
"I think he'll be fine," said Twilight, "He's not upset with you, or even Softhoof. He just needs some time to cool down and then he'll be back. When he gets back, why don't you just spend some time with him. I think Dawn's had enough frustration for today. We'll figure out what to do about this tomorrow."
Fluttershy and Caramel nodded, both trying to think of what they could do to help Dawn cheer up.
Softhoof tapped her hoof impatiently as she waited for the next train to Canterlot. Her frustrations had been building with each passing moment. Right now, it didn't matter that it might cost her her career. She was fully prepared to march right into Grayblood's office and give him a piece of her mind. She hoped that the lengthy trip up the mountain would give her some time for her blood to cool to keep from performing such a rash action. Still, she fully intended to get to the bottom of this matter, no matter what it cost her. A colt's happiness and wellbeing was on the line after all. Softhoof would never be able to live with herself if she failed now.
Thus, it was a relief when the train finally rolled into the station with one last whistle. The olive mare quickly trotted aboard and made her way to her compartment, a first-class one at that. If she was returning to Canterlot under circumstances such as these, she fully intended to make the most of it and make sure that her department footed the bill.
With a sigh, Softhoof settled into the luxuriously soft cushions of the bed that the compartment had been furnished with and laid her head down, trying to relax so that she could properly sort out her thoughts and come up with a plan of action. However, she succeeded in relaxing a little too well and ended up falling asleep before the train even left the station. As such, she failed to notice that, as the train followed the tracks up the mountain towards Canterlot, it passed another train on its way down.
And, even if she had been awake, it was highly doubtful that she would have noticed a pony on the caboose of the descending train spreading his wings so that he was swept up into the air like a kite, the sun glinting off of silvery feathers. Of course, nopony else noticed either as the colt circled slowly, his black cloak billowing out behind him as he flew, spiraling down towards Ponyville.
Lightning cracked, a bolt of energy lancing out and blowing a large rock to smithereens. Dawn spun about, wheeling his wings, gathering energy until the air around him was filled with crackling blue and white streamers before sweeping them out, sending a rippling wave of electricity washing across the ground. Dawn drew his wings back, retracting an arc of electricity and curling it about his wings before whipping around and launching it out in a manner not unlike that of Storm Front when wielding his meteor hammer. In fact, it had been watching Storm Front and Rumble train with the exotic weapon that had given Dawn the impetus to wield lightning in a similar way.
Finally, Dawn let the last few sparks trail away into the air before letting out a breath. It would normally seem foolish for the colt to practice with lightning when he was in such an agitated state. Dawn's anger and frustration had been on the verge of boiling over. However, Dawn had learned that mastery of lightning came not from voiding his heart and mind of emotion, but instead by accepting his emotions and understanding them. Practicing with his lightning allowed Dawn to feed his anger into his techniques and safely drain it away.
Snapping his wings out once more, Dawn relaxed his mind to its furthest limits, almost abandoning conscious thought in its entirety. To his consciousness, it created a feeling almost akin to watching his body from without as he tested one of his newer innovations when it came to practicing lightning, the one he had first begun to conceive when he had faced Willow in the depths of her fog.
His feathers began agitating the air around his wings, producing a charge. Instead of simply channeling it until it was powerful enough to launch, Dawn instead began to confine the circulation of energy into a smaller and smaller space, until it was all circulating at the tip of his furthest primary. More and more energy gathered with each passing instant. The energy began to change the quality of the air itself until a glowing orb was hovering beside him. The energy within it continued to circulate, building more and more. Thanks to Dawn's control, none of it escaped its confinement. Otherwise, his entire wing would have been reduced to cinders in less than a second.
Plasma. That was what Twilight had called it. It was the stuff of the sun itself. According to Twilight, lightning too, was a form of plasma. But what Dawn now wielded was infinitely more powerful. With a flick of his wing, Dawn launched the orb away from him. The blazing sphere of power slammed into the ridge that Dawn used to separate himself from Scootaloo when he was working with lightning. The orb slammed into the face of rock and melted a channel through it, all the way to the other side, leaving a glowing tunnel in its wake.
"Wow! That was something else. I don't think even my wings could stop that."
Dawn's eyes widened as the voice reached his ears, which immediately swiveled as he sought out its location. Already his mind was reeling. He knew this voice, recognized it instantly. After what had happened in Cloudsdale, there was no way he could ever forget. How did he get so close without me noticing?
Dawn spun about, his wings spreading and his body sinking into a crouch. Sunlight flashed off of wings forged from silvery mithril, as a familiar, cream-colored colt touched down in front of Dawn, a black coat trailing out behind him, spreading over his haunches as its hem was held clear of his wings. Perlin Bluestreak smiled as his yellow, hawklike eyes zeroed in on Dawn.
"Yo. It's been awhile."
Scootaloo blinked as she stepped out into the afternoon sunlight after finishing her shift at the teahouse. Much to her disappointment, Dawn hadn't reappeared after he'd been summoned by Spike to the library, where he was apparently meeting with the mare from Foal Protection Services. Even thinking about Softhoof made Scootaloo grit her teeth. Softhoof had actually come over to her house one evening to talk about Dawn. Though there hadn't been anything really offensive or irritating about her methods, the agent's entire manner grated on Scootaloo. Softhoof was cold, professional, and distant. Her entire personality seemed as sterile as a surgical instrument in an operating room. It made Scootaloo want to push her buttons just to see if she could get a rise out of the olive-colored unicorn.
"Hey there Scoots, what'cha doin?" asked Apple Bloom as she came out of the teahouse behind the orange filly.
"Just thinking," said Scootaloo glumly, not sure what else to say, "Dawn didn't come back."
"Ah guess not," agreed Bloom, before turning to nuzzle Spike, "But it was mighty nice of ya to help out in his place sugarcube."
"It's no problem," said Spike, grinning, "I used to make tea for Twilight all the time. Plus, Arkenstone's been giving me pointers."
In fact, Spike had been joining the Crusaders at the teahouse every now and then, helping them with their work. With his dragonfire, he could easily heat the water in a matter of seconds. With Arkenstone's help and guidance, Spike even learned how to heat the water precisely to the right temperature for a particular tea. Different teas released their best flavors at different temperatures. If one tried to steep green tea at the same temperature as black tea, the result was a bitter, unpleasant brew. Fortunately, years of practice in using his fire for cooking had made Spike a quick study when it came to the finer aspects of making tea, making him a useful addition to the shop and significantly speeding up the service on days where he helped out. It was getting so that Apple Bloom would run and fetch him whenever there was a serious rush.
"Maybe Dawn's still at the library," said Spike, turning his attention to Scootaloo, "Whatever they wanted to talk to him about sounded important."
His statement caused butterflies to start fluttering in Scootaloo's stomach. If it was something that had kept Dawn away for this long, then it must have been really important. She could only hope that it didn't mean trouble.
"Let's go check," said Apple Bloom, trotting off towards the library. Spike and Scootaloo quickly moved to follow her.
Looking back over her shoulder, Scootaloo saw Rumble leaving with Sweetie Belle. However, instead of following the rest of the group, the gray pegasus and white unicorn turned and went their own way. Sweetie turned and gave Scootaloo a small smile, but one that looked distinctly troubled on her face. She waved goodbye. Scootaloo waved back and watched as Rumble trotted up to nuzzle her cheek. Sweetie returned the gesture and the two of them walked off together.
"What's gotten into them?" she wondered aloud. Recently, Sweetie and Rumble had started going off by themselves. Since the Crusaders didn't actually do much actual crusading anymore, it wasn't that much of a problem. But part of her was starting to seriously worry about Sweetie. Recently, Sweetie had started acting more depressed, like she was deeply saddened about something, but was hesitant to talk about it.
"Probably going off to do lovey-dovey stuff," said Spike, somewhat dismissively, "But I'd guess Sweetie's upset that she's the only one of you three that still hasn't found her cutie mark and Rumble is trying to cheer her up."
"Ya really think so?" asked Apple Bloom, blinking in surprise, "But why would that make her sad?"
"Maybe she feels like we're leaving her behind," said Scootaloo, her ears drooping at the thought, "Ever since we've gotten our cutie marks, we've all started doing our own things. Even though Dawn and Rumble don't have theirs yet either, they're still training, so they at least have an idea of what they want to do. But maybe Sweetie's feeling sad now that we don't really have any more reasons to go crusading."
"Ya might be right," agreed Apple Bloom, her own face falling, "Ah guess we should talk to her 'bout it sometime."
"Probably a good idea," said Scootaloo, "But let's find out what's up with Dawn first."
"Right," said Bloom with a sharp nod.
The trio made their way over to the library and stepped through the door. Scootaloo blinked in surprise when she saw Twilight, who was leafing through some thick text. However, the lavender mare was alone in the library, with nopony else to be seen.
"What the hay happened?" asked Scootaloo, "Where's Dawn?"
Twilight yelped, her head snapping around to look at Scootaloo, causing the orange filly to roll her eyes in frustration at how easily Twilight got wrapped up in whatever she was studying.
"Sorry," said Twilight, "I forgot about the time."
"Never mind that," said Scootaloo, "Where's Dawn?"
"I don't know," replied Twilight, turning fully away from the table to face Scootaloo, "He took off earlier, but he was really upset about what happened."
"What happened?" demanded Scootaloo, her frustration getting the better of her. Her worst fears were starting to feel confirmed.
Twilight sighed. "Things didn't go very well. Softhoof got a response from her superior. She'd decided that, based on the evidence she'd gathered, there was no reason Dawn shouldn't stay with Fluttershy. But her superior apparently decided otherwise. So he ordered her back to Canterlot and is apparently going to send somepony else to do the investigation over again."
"What?" snapped Scootaloo, "Why?"
Twilight frowned, not really wanting to go over the same ground again. However, as Dawn's fillyfriend, Scootaloo probably deserved to know what was happening with the colt. So she gave Scootaloo as brief a summary as she could about the situation.
Scootaloo listened as patiently as she could. However, with each passing moment, her mind was urging her to go find Dawn and do whatever she could to make him feel better. She just wished she knew where he'd gone.
Scootaloo tried to think of where Dawn would go when he was upset about something. Normally, it made sense to him to fly to Fluttershy, or maybe Caramel, but they had both been with him when he'd run out, which made it clear that he probably wasn't with them, unless he'd managed to calm himself down in the meantime. If he was still working out his frustrations, then he had to be somewhere else. But where? she wondered.
It suddenly occurred to her, causing Scootaloo's ears to snap straight up as the realization hit her. Of course, the quarry! That's where he is! She turned and bolted to the door.
"Scoots! Where are ya goin?" shouted Apple Bloom.
"To find Dawn," replied Scootaloo over her shoulder as she knocked the door out of her way and took to the air, winging her way to the quarry. As she approached, her ears picked out the roar of wind and the crackle of lightning. Immediately, she picked up that something was wrong. This wasn't the rhythmic, evenly-paced tempo that usually accompanied Dawn's practice sessions, this was frenetic and fevered. Dawn was fighting someone.
Oh no! Scootaloo beat her wings harder and used the force of her magic to launch herself forward as quickly as she dared.
Perlin opened his mouth again, apparently with the intent of speaking some more. However, it quickly became apparent that Dawn was in no mood for banter as the ebony colt surged forward, his wings gathering the air around him and sending the atmosphere careening at Perlin like cannon blasts.
Perlin tilted his body as he sidestepped, catching the blast of air on his wing before rolling, shifting his axis so that the blast rolled away harmlessly without even jarring him. Pivoting, Perlin's wing was now in a position to swing straight down at Dawn's head. However, before Perlin was able to even begin moving to attack, Dawn's hooves had already left the ground and the younger colt was sweeping one of his forward extended wings around, putting the force of his entire body behind the motion. The sky roared as the resulting twister swept Perlin away.
Because of the speed with which he had been forced to act, Dawn hadn't been able to put as much force behind the tornado as he had with the one he had used during his first fight with Perlin. It was smaller and less powerful, but that didn't make it any less dangerous, especially considering that having the funnel so close to the ground created an entirely different hazard for Perlin to contend with. Tornado swept up debris, small stones and larger boulders, twirling and hurling about, accelerating their speed until they would smash virtually anything they came into contact with. As they spun about, they collided with each other, fragmenting and filling the funnel with a whirling cloud of flechettes.
However, Perlin was not as unprepared as he had been the last time. His body moved in cooperation with the air currents, allowing him to use his wings as shields to ward off the spray of stone and earth that would pulverize his flesh at the first opportunity. Righting himself, he managed to get clear of the tornado as it began to quickly dissipate. Perlin was half-expecting a retread of his original fight with Dawn, anticipating seeing the colt off in the distance, preparing to bombard Perlin with blasts of air.
So it was much to his surprise that when he came clear of the storm of dust that the tornado had kicked up, that Perlin found himself face-to-face with Dawn, their eyes meeting briefly just as Dawn thrust forward with his leading primaries, sending a bolt of lightning arcing straight for Perlin's chest.
Though he'd been surprised by the development, Perlin wasn't caught so off-guard that he wasn't able to defend himself. He easily managed to interpose a wing between him and Dawn, the bolt of lightning dissipating harmlessly against the mithril feathers in a shower of impotent sparks. Perlin’s movement actually caused him to lurch away from Dawn, which was just fine with him as Perlin detached one of his wired feathers from his other wing and rotated about, sending it lancing out like a dart, aiming straight between Dawn's eyes.
Dawn didn't even blink, instead swinging around his own wing, the feathers slashing through the air like blades. With a grunt of anger, Perlin pulled back, retracting the feather before the crescent shaped vacuum could slice through the wire holding it. In the face of Perlin's retreat, Dawn actually pressed forward, his wings blurring as he gathered the air around them, compressing it. But, rather than launching the air like a projectile as he did before, Dawn simply directed it into currents, moving them like extensions of his wings themselves.
Seeking to regain the initiative, Perlin used his own wings to deflect the attacks, rotating his body and shifting his axis so he rolled them across and away from his body, rather than trying to ablate them head-on. As he did, Perlin lashed out with his own wings, trying to find an opening between Dawn's strikes. However, the ebony colt's hooves kicked out against the air and he seemed to vanish from in front of Perlin, instead now diving down at the cream-colored colt from directly above, trying to attack from the same side as the wing that Perlin had slashed at him with, hoping to hit him while he was still out of position.
However, Perlin detached one of his wired feathers from the opposite wing, extending the wire and using his own back as a fulcrum to tighten the arc of the weapon's swing. Flying so fast that it was practically invisible to the naked eye, the razor-edged feather threatened to split Dawn's head in two. Dawn beat his wings and kicked off again, the feather cleaving through his afterimage as he backtracked outside the arc of its swing. Perlin wasted no time in going on the offensive, extending all ten of his wired feathers, twirling and spinning the wires so that the weapons closed in on Dawn from almost every conceivable angle.
Dawn responded with lightning, unleashing another bolt, sending electricity lancing straight for Perlin, almost completely ignoring the detached feathers. Rather than try and block with his wings, Perlin instead altered the course of his wired weapons, spinning them about so that the lightning caught on the wires instead, using the feathers as shields before immediately swinging them back at Dawn, who simply responded with another barrage of lightning even as he dove straight toward Perlin and those deadly wings of his, charging between the swiftly-flying feathers. Perlin used half of the ten deadly weapons to keep Dawn's lightning at bay, while he attacked with the other five. Dawn dodged around Perlin's swings and launching yet more lightning as he continued to move closer.
Finally coming within reach of Perlin's wings, Dawn seemed to make a crucial mistake, as Perlin merely swung a wing at him, aiming to decapitate the other colt. However, Dawn's response was just as frightfully fast, swinging out his own wing in what seemed to be an imitation of Perlin's own attack. However, Perlin realized what was wrong almost immediately. Dawn's vacuum blades were sharper than any physical edge could possibly hope to match. Even Perlin's own mithril feathers had been easily been cut by them in the past. More importantly, the blades were swift, requiring nowhere near as much time or energy to build up, making them much more difficult to dodge than simple concussive blasts of air. At this range, escape was almost impossible...almost.
Perlin altered the arc of his swing until it was almost perfectly parallel to Dawn's own, lifting his wing slightly so that Dawn's slash passed harmlessly beneath it. His limb clear of danger, Perlin altered the course of his swing again, still aiming for Dawn's head. However, Dawn tilted the feathers of his attacking wing upwards, sending a wave of air straight up against the laid out feathers of Perlin's wing, forcing it up just enough that Perlin's slash passed harmlessly over Dawn's head.
The two of them came apart, both going into flat spins as they put distance between each other. Orienting on his target once more, Dawn launched several of his crescent-shaped vacuum blades at the older colt. Perlin spun and swooped about, darting in between the dangerously lethal strikes as he strove to once again bring Dawn within the range of his flying feathers. Even as he attacked, Dawn closed in as well. Just as Perlin launched his feathers, Dawn ceased his own attacks, continuing forward. At the same moment, he began to implement the same technique he'd been practicing only moments earlier.
Channeling the charge down his wing, Dawn kept it circulating through the smallest possible area, until the energy was focused on the tip of his furthest primary. The air being drawn in became charged and began to change its nature, circulating and building more and more energy.
As Dawn slipped between two of the razor-edged feathers, Perlin saw what the younger colt had been preparing. Dawn lunged forward, launching an orb of energy that looked almost like miniature sun. As he did so, Perlin took drastic action. Rather than trying to dodge, Perlin snapped one wing back, causing the wired feathers that Dawn had dodged earlier to come back, approaching Dawn from behind and threatening to slice into his back.
Dawn ducked and dodged, slipping sideways, forced to abandon his attack. The sphere of plasma was sent whirling off in a random direction. As Dawn spiraled away, Perlin retracted his wires and then snapped his wings out in an extremely sharp motion, causing the flats of the metal feathers to slam into one another. The sound was a loud ring, not unlike that as a bell. Dawn recognized the technique as one based on the principles of pegasus magic. Using air as a medium, the sound was transmitted directly into the target's inner ear, where it completely disrupted their balance. Dawn actually remembered Storm Front once doing something similar with his meteor hammer.
That moment of recognition wasn't enough to save Dawn from Perlin's attack. The wave of sound swept over the colt before he could respond. Dawn cried out, but couldn't even hear his own voice over the ringing in his head. His vision swam and his insides churned as he tried to fight off the waves of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. He was barely even able to perceive Perlin's approach through his wind-sense. Only years of constant training and practice saved Dawn's life as he barely managed to lurch out of the way of Perlin's next slash, feeling the razor-edged feathers shave off a tiny portion of his mane. Desperate to buy time to reorient himself, Dawn folded his wings and allowed himself to drop like a stone. Up above, he could feel Perlin following him down, the young stallion probably aiming to bring this battle to its ultimate end.
Scootaloo watched from a distance with wide eyes. She'd never seen the colt that Dawn was fighting with before. However, given the way his wings looked and how he fought, she realized that this must have been Perlin Bluestreak, whom Dawn had once fought in Cloudsdale. Now they were fighting once again, over what, she couldn't tell. What Scootaloo did know was that there was no way for her to interfere. The battle was a blizzard of concussive blasts of air, bolts of lightning and whistling vacuum blades. Perlin's wired feathers glinted as they caught the light of the sun, the only indicators that allowed Scootaloo to follow their motion. If she tried jumping in during this fight, she'd be cut to pieces before either of the combatants could realize she was there.
At least it wasn't the desperate struggle that Dawn's fight with Storm Front and Red River had been. Back then, Dawn had been at a disadvantage for the whole fight, merely struggling to survive. This battle was completely different. It was a rapidly shifting back-and-forth between Dawn and the other colt that had neither securing the advantage nor remaining at a disadvantage. The two of them seemed evenly matched, both of them taking crazy risks in an attempt to secure victory, only escaping death by the skin of their teeth.
Scootaloo sighed, resigned to simply waiting back and watching. However much she wanted to help Dawn, there was no place for her in this battle. If anything, she could be a distraction that cost Dawn his life. There was no way she could accept that.
Her ears picked up a hissing sound and Scootaloo yelped, dodging to the side as a glowing orb of energy hurtled past her. Shifting her gaze, Scootaloo charted its course and watched as it slammed into the ground, filling the air with glowing splatters of molten rock as it gouged a smoking crater in the landscape.
Pain was the next thing Scootaloo felt as her ears were slammed by a bell-like ring that made her teeth rattle. Biting back the urge to scream, Scootaloo whirled back towards the battle. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw Dawn dropping out of the sky with Perlin in swift pursuit.
Dawn landed hard, his legs buckling as he fought to remain standing. He felt Perlin descending from above and sensed the erratic beat of the older colt's wings that signaled the launching of those damned wired feathers. Rather than feeling the feathers themselves, Dawn felt the movements of Perlins wings that the young stallion used to direct their movements. Pumping his wings and kicking off the ground as hard as he could, Dawn just barely managed to throw himself clear as the feathers plunged into the ground where he had been standing like hurled darts. However, due to his disorientation from Perlin's sonic attack, Dawn's movement was clumsy and he overbalanced, sending him into a rolling tumble that left him sprawled across the ground.
Dawn both felt and heard Perlin's hooves smack into the ground as the older colt landed a short distance away. Dawn struggled to get back onto his hooves, but had barely managed to get his legs beneath him before he felt a the edge of one of Perlin's feathers hovering at his throat. Dawn looked up, expecting to see Perlin grinning triumphantly. However, Perlin's expression, as it finally swam into focus, could only be called amused, as if he had been enjoying their battle immensely, which he probably had, laced with slight disappointment that it was over so soon.
Even so, Dawn expected Perlin to end it there, which made it even more surprising when Perlin withdrew his wing and instead offered Dawn a helping hoof. Wary and confused, Dawn nonetheless allowed Perlin to pull him to his feet. After that, Perlin took a few steps back and the two of them eyed one another.
Dawn was the first to speak. "Why did you stop?"
"Well," said Perlin, "This has been fun, but it isn't exactly the reason I'm here."
"What do you mean?" asked Dawn.
Before Perlin could answer, both colts turned their heads at the sound of more hooves smacking into the ground as Scootaloo landed a short distance away. She quickly trotted over to Dawn's side, eyeing Perlin warily. The cream-colored colt raised his eyebrows at the sight of the filly. "Who's this now?" he asked, a wry grin finding its way onto his face, "Your fillyfriend?"
"And my student," added Dawn with a nod.
"Wow, not bad," said Perlin, grinning.
"So," said Dawn, returning to the original purpose of their conversation, "If it is not to fight, then why are you here?"
"Wait!" interjected Scootaloo, once again cutting off Perlin before he could answer, "You mean he's not here to fight?" She looked questioningly at Dawn.
Perlin huffed, wondering if he was going to be cut off again. "Naw, I'm not here to fight you."
"Then why were you fighting him?" demanded Scootaloo.
"Technically, he's the one who attacked first," Perlin pointed out, pointing a mithril feather at Dawn, "I started fighting purely out of self-defense."
Scootaloo gave the older colt a flat look. "And the rest of that fight...?"
Perlin shrugged. "Ah, I had so much fun I kinda forgot why I was here for a little bit."
"You what?" gasped the orange filly, glaring daggers at Perlin, who simply seemed to ignore her.
"Anyway," Perlin was saying, "I'm not actually here to fight you Dawn. That just kinda happened. It was fun though."
"Then why are you here?" asked Dawn, sighing tiredly, "I have a lot to deal with now. I don't really have time for your antics."
Perlin chuckled. "Yeah, I heard about your little 'problem' with Foal Protection Services. They wanna take you away from your mom right?" He smirked. "Believe it or not, that little problem of yours is the reason I'm here."
"How's that?" asked Scootaloo.
Perlin's smirk became a grin. "I came here on behalf of somepony else. You see, I think I actually happen to know a bit more about your problem than you do."
"What do you mean?" asked Dawn.
"Let me see if I can guess what had you so angry earlier," said Perlin, "I'm guessing that the agent who was investigating your home life didn't find anything objectionable enough to warrant taking you away from your mom, right?" At Dawn's nod, he chuckled. "But, for some reason, the pony higher up the chain has decided that wasn't good enough and rejected that decision."
"That's correct," replied Dawn.
"Then your problem is simple," said Perlin, "The truth of the matter is that, no matter how idyllic and healthy you manage to make your current situation, it doesn't matter, 'cause the guy in charge is simply gonna keep at it until he gets the result he wants.
"Now," said Perlin, quickly jumping ahead before Dawn could say anything in response, "That means that there's nothing you can do here in Ponyville to affect your situation. That's because the real problem isn't in Ponyville, it's with the pony in charge, who happens to be up in Canterlot, right?"
Dawn hesitated, but nodded slowly. "I suppose," he said, "But what are you getting at?"
"I'm just saying that, if you want to stay where you are, you need to address the real problem," said Perlin, "And I can help with that."
"And why would you do that?" asked Dawn.
"It's my job," replied Perlin cryptically, with an indifferent shrug, "I have orders concerning your situation. It's a bit complicated to explain..."
"Please try your best," said Dawn.
Perlin nodded. "Let me put it this way then. It's sorta like chess..." He paused for a moment. "You do know about chess, right?"
"Enough, I think, if you're going to simply be using it as a metaphor," said Dawn. He'd played chess a few times with his Master, but had never developed much of an affinity for the game.
"It's a funny thing when you think about it," said Perlin, "When you're playing the game, you know where all the pieces are, what their value is, everything. But when you're on our level, when you're one of the pieces, things get a little trickier. You don't know where the other pieces might be and, more importantly, you may not even be aware of what piece you actually are.
"Let me use your predicament with that Cult Solar group as an example. I read that article about you by the way. If you and your friends are on one side of the board and the Cult Solar on the other, when you factor in what they want, it's clear that you're the king."
"If I recall, the king is technically the weakest piece in the game," said Dawn.
Perlin shrugged. "It's not a perfect metaphor. Your power isn't important, 'cause that's not what decides what piece you are. The point is that the king is the objective. The other side wants to capture or, in your case, eliminate the king in order to win. You are the king, their objective.
"The funny thing is, depending on who you're up against, you won't always be the king. Perhaps you're just a pawn, or a bishop, or maybe a knight if you're lucky. I won't go into particulars, because those aren't needed to make my point. My point is that this time, against this opponent, you aren't the king. You aren't their actual objective. This whole ploy with Foal Protection isn't because your opponent actually gives a damn about you. To them, you're a lesser piece and this whole ploy is to maneuver you into a particular position in order to open a path to the real king, that is, their objective in this game."
"In other words, my current plight is merely part of something larger," said Dawn, trying his hardest to keep up.
"Exactly," said Perlin with an excited grin, "Right now, they are manipulating you in an attempt to get a particular reaction from a different pony."
"And who are they hoping to get a reaction from?" asked Dawn.
"Ah, that's not all that important," said Perlin, "'Cause I've come here to offer you a solution to your little problem." He grinned eagerly at Dawn. "What do you say to a little team-up?"
Fluttershy looked up from where she lay on the couch in Caramel's living room, glancing anxiously at the clock on the wall, trying to mark the time since she had last looked. It hadn't been more than a couple of minutes. The smells of caramelized onions emanating from the kitchen tickled her nose, making her stomach growl. Caramel had finished the soup, Dawn's favorite, a little while ago, having decided to make it for the colt after the rough day Dawn had been through. He was keeping it warm for now, waiting to go through the final steps when Dawn actually came through the door.
But there was still no sign of Dawn. Fluttershy looked up at the clock yet again, her heart beating erratically as she realized how late he was out. Is he really that upset? she wondered. After what had happened after Softhoof's first visit, Fluttershy had hoped that Dawn wouldn't be putting her through this anxiety again. She hoped Dawn came back soon.
There was a knocking at the door, prompting Fluttershy to shoot to her hooves and rush out to open it. Even as she did so, part of her realized that Dawn wouldn't knock. He was just as welcome at Caramel's house as he was at hers. He had no need to knock when he could simply walk through the door. If that was the case, then it wasn't Dawn.
Even so, Fluttershy threw open the door, hoping against hope that whoever was on the other side had some scrap of information about her son. Looking out, Fluttershy was surprised by who was waiting for her.
"Scootaloo?"
The orange filly looked troubled and worried. She shifted her weight anxiously from one side to the other as she looked up at Fluttershy's face, clearly not happy about whatever they were about to talk about.
"Are you here about Dawn?" asked Fluttershy.
Scootaloo nodded slowly. "Yeah, I just saw him a little bit ago," she said before gulping nervously.
"Where did you last see him?" asked Fluttershy.
Scootaloo shivered, really not happy with what she was about to say. "At the train station...Dawn had to go."