//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Sparking Emotions // Story: Martin: Chronicle Of A Hero // by CrypticMetaphor //------------------------------// Somewhere outside of Equestria’s borders a large crack opened in the earth arousing suspicion from a passerby who had stopped to rest after a long days run. The colt slowly approached the crack as a black smoke like energy began to emanate from within; the smoke soon took on a rough humanoid shape before solidifying. The entity that had been dormant had finally regained itself partially, it looked down at itself and noticed it was indeed human in shape but to the colt he had no features, just glowing white eyes and it was completely black and its skin looked exactly like oil. The entity fixed its eyes on the colt that in turn jumped in surprise. Then in a flash the entity planted its cold hand over the colts mouth and lifted the defenseless victim off the ground, soon black liquid like energy slithered from the entity’s hand and into the colts eyes effectively blackening them to the point of there being no sheen of light within them, then the entity let go of the colt leaving the poor pony writhing on the ground swinging widly at invisible foes while screaming in absolute terror. The entity then sharply inhaled and walked off toward the darker aspects of the path leading toward griffin territory, the entity knew it would need more strength for what was to come. ******************************************************************************************************************************************* Four days had passed since Martin revealed his new ability to Twilight and the gang and so far things were going well. He and Dash had become pretty good friends in terms of competitiveness and pulling pranks or just hanging out, Applejack decided until he found a place of his own place he could live with her and the family, but he would have to pay for his stay by helping out around the farm, which he agreed to. Rarity had taken an interest in human fashion and had been requesting some one on one time on occasion to discuss the various designs and how they impacted culture in general, or to just chat. Martin was even starting to get involved with everyday life, be it averting a potential danger like catching a falling billboard, or just helping out like he sometimes did with Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie. All of these deeds and more were starting to put him on good terms with everypony in Ponyville; some even approached him to start conversations out of pure interest or to just be friendly. He met so many new faces and was able to put names to them, one was the mint coloured unicorn that always acted so strangely around him that went by the name of Lyra Heartstrings, she was nice but weird. But things got weird one faithful day when Twilight called Martin to her library, for some time she had been tutoring him on how to control his invisibility and so far he was making great progress so he assumed it was another lesson since Spike didn’t really elaborate on what she wanted. When Martin arrived, Twilight was busy looking over some scrolls on a table and beside them were two stones, one was rose red and the other was sky blue, both looked like they fit together but both halves were separated for some reason. When he reached out to touch them his hand was smacked away immediately by Twilight. She looked right at him with a smile, “sorry, but these aren’t to be touched just yet”, Martin was still rubbing his hand while she spoke and eyeing the stone with curiosity. Martin just pointed, “So are those what you called me here for” Twilight nodded then took on a serious expression, “They are called Roserio Stones and they are among many of the most potent magic catalysts in existence, there mostly used for spells that affect the mentality and or emotions of creatures” Martin raised an eyebrow at that comment, “so what’s your point?” Twilight rolled her eyes, “the point is the fact that I have found a way to give you complete control over your abilities and maybe even unlock some new ones that are dormant at the moment” Martin’s expression turned to one of fascination, “What makes you say that?” Twilight levitated the stones in front of her, ‘It’s my hypothesis that your abilities are linked in some ways to your emotions which in turn a linked to your brain, I realized this when you showed me your cloaking ability and how it worked almost like a reflex”, Martin nodded as she continued, “so I did some research into this possibility and uncovered these stones, so I asked Rarity is if she could find them and soon she did” Twilight then levitated the stones into Martin’s hands, as he took hold of them he cast a skeptical look toward the unicorn, “so you’re sure this will work?” Twilight nodded, “I am positive, just unite the stones as a whole and watch the magic happen”, she then chuckled at her own pun. Martin rolled his eyes as he raised the stones before him, he was about to combine them when he thought of something, he then cleared his throat as he spoke in a clear and powerful voice, “KLAATU BARADA NIKTO!!”, then he smacked the stones together releasing a shock wave of red and blue throughout Ponyville and well into the sky. When the dust settled so to speak, the stones were dust and Twilights mane was sticking up on an angle, Martin dusted himself off as he looked at the stunned Twilight, ``well I can see your, preoccupied so I’ll let you know if anything happened, I got some things to do”. Martin waved goodbye as Twilight groaned at the dust that used to be the powerful stones, and began cleaning up while muttering, “I don’t get it, the scrolls said nothing about the stones breaking after use…unless….”, her eyes widened in absolute fear as she rushed to a book entitled, “Geoarcanius: Manual Of Magic Stones”. Twilight rushed to the door after she found what she was looking for and looked for Martin on the street but he was nowhere in sight, “Oh Celestia I hope I find him soon before they do, because if those were the stones the book said they were, Martin could be in for big trouble” ************************************************************************************* Martin really didn’t want to leave so fast, but he did have a few errands to run and wanted to get them done so he could have the rest of the day to test out the possibilities that the stones bestowed. As he walked, Martin had a strange sense that someone was following him but when he looked behind him he saw nothing but busy ponies going about their business, he sighed as he turned around….to come eye to eye with Rainbow Dash. Martin yelled out in surprise as he jumped away on instinct but relaxed when he saw who it was. Martin just raised an eyebrow at Dash, “A little close for comfort don’t you think were you following me just now?” Rainbow Dash landed trotted up to Martin, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I was in the neighborhood, noticed you were walking with that cute swagger of yours and thought I would pop by to say hi” Martin smiled at her, “Oh, well that was nice of you and-“, he stopped in mid-sentence, “I’m sorry, did you just say I have a CUTE swagger?” Rainbow got a LITTLE closer as she spoke in a tone that made Martin feel very uneasy, “uh huh, and the fact that you have all these ability’s makes you hot, like, 20% hotter”, by now she was in Martin’s personal space and hovering at eye level, usually he wouldn’t mind because that was the way she was, but now he knew something was wrong with her. Rainbow then spoke with a half lidded expression, “Hey Marty, whatta ya say we go back to the training field for a private training session?”, the second that was said, Martin’s brain put together all the signals and said one rational sentence…….EVACUATE, FOR THE LOVE OF SANITY, RUN AWAY MAN!!!! Martin coughed then nervously smiled, “Yeaaah, have fun with that”, he then went invisible and ran down the street leaving an annoyed and somewhat crazy Rainbow Dash alone. Rainbow then calmed down and yelled out in determination, “you’re playing hard to get, well no pony escapes from Rainbow Dash, I WILL FIND YOU!!”, she then flew off in the opposite direction. Martin uncloaked as he leaned against the side of a building panting slightly from the scare he was submitted to just then, what was the matter with her and why was she acting like a lunatic. Martin sighed, “at least things can’t get any more crazy” he then looked up…and saw Rarity looking down at him dreamily from the second floor window of her boutique, “I hate it when I’m wrong”