//------------------------------// // Family Reunion // Story: Hold Your Color // by Quillery //------------------------------// Hold Your Color by Quillery Suggestions, Editing and Pre-Reading by : Siyray, Willsons, Izraill Z, BabySkittleMonster, Legion222, Dreamshadow, edensbane, amacita Chapter Three Family Reunion For all the time Dash knew the bright and cheerful mare, she had never seen Ditzy fly so fast and so straight. Usually a flying disaster, now she was flying with practiced precision in a quiet, disciplined nature. She hadn’t spoken since they left the ground and once Dash was able to fly on her own strength as they approached the hills where Dash’s home lay. Dash looked behind her. Twilight was keeping up with labored effort. She was breathing heavily as she flapped her wings out of sync in an effort to keep up. Dash slowed down as best she could without her wings locking up completely. The worry in Twilight’s face was plain as day, as she glanced quickly between her, and Ditzy ahead. “What’s going on, Dash?” she asked. Dash shrugged. “I have no idea. She hasn’t said a word.” Dash squinted an eye as she thought. “I’ve seen her angry before, mostly when her daughter was involved, but I’ve never seen her so…” “Worried?” “Yeah… I guess that’s a good way of putting it. It’s like she’s a completely different pony.” Twilight eased over closer and touched a hoof to Dash’s head. “What do you think this means, Dash?” Dash looked up to the tip of her mane. She rubbed her hoof through the hair and shook her head. “I have no idea, Twi.” She glanced ahead. “But apparently my dad knows. And it sounds serious.” “Ditzy said you were in danger.” Dash scoffed. “Because my mane is turning gray? You can’t honestly tell me that makes any sense.” “I’ve also never been scared of Ditzy before. Today is already full of nonsense, so I’m pretty much open to anything at this point.” Ditzy turned in the air, and Dash and Twilight followed suit. The three ponies banked in the air and climbed as Rainbow Dash’s home came into view. They touched down on the front landing, and Ditzy spun around to face them. She stared at them with narrowed eyes for a moment, then turned her attention to the sky around them. She searched for a full minute before she turned to the door. “Get inside, quickly.” Dash frowned. “I don’t need to be told to go inside my own house, Ditzy.” Ditzy’s face was pleading. “Please?” Dash blinked as a chill crawled through her. As long as she had known Ditzy, she had never thought it possible to hear such fear and worry from another pony. Ditzy actually sounded like she was on the verge of tears with dread. Dash swallowed and stepped through the door, with Twilight right behind her. They stepped into her foyer, and the first thing she noticed was voices. Two ponies seemed to be engrossed in a heated argument further in the house. It was a muffled argument from where she stood, but one voice, deep and stone-like, was more than memorable. “Who’s with dad, Ditzy?” Dash asked. Ditzy didn’t answer. She stepped towards the hallway where the voices were coming from. She turned back a moment before she went around the corner and said, “Wait here,” and then she disappeared. Dash looked to Twilight. Her look of worry had not faded as she tilted her ears towards the arguing voices. “I’ve never heard your dad so angry before.” Dash forced a weak chuckle. “I have. He has his moments, being a Stalliongrad pony. Short tempers and anger is just something they tend to have. Even I have my moments.” She shrugged. “I just vent it into my flying. You’d be surprised how much frustration helps a workout.” She turned back to the yelling. Her ears fell, and she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Twilight stood closer, smiling with assurance. Dash tried to return it, but her gaze fell to the floor. “Dad never yells with mom around, though. When she’s around, its like the anger is sapped right out of him. I guess she’s not here.” Twilight fidgeted. “I just wish somepony would tell us what’s going on.” She brushed her hoof through Dash’s mane again. “It seems to have stopped, for now.” “You can’t think of anything that might be doing this to me?” “Honestly?” Twilight said, shrugging. “No. Only one possible thing comes to mind, but I don’t think that’s it.” “What?” Twilight frowned. “Discord.” Dash raised an eyebrow. “Discord? What would he have to do with this? It’s not his style.” “Well…” Twilight rubbed her chin. “The only reason I brought it up was because when he broke free the first time, after he had manipulated us, we all lost our colors. I don’t think this is him because it’s too gradual. The rest of you looks perfectly fine, its just the one shade in your mane.” Dash groaned. She turned to the hallway. “Well, I’m sick of sitting here like a mule in my own house. I’m going to get answers.” Dash started for the hallway, only for Twilight to reach out and stop her. “Wait. Won’t they notice us approach? Pegasus hooves, right?” Dash glanced at the floor and tested it with a prod of her hoof. She turned back and smiled. “Don’t worry. There’s a few spots that are hardened cloud for extra support. They don’t give off any vibrations for pegasi to notice very well, if you know where to step. Just wait here, I’ll be right back.” Twilight nodded, and Dash set off. She took her time, stepping very carefully along the way. The voices grew louder as she went, and she focused her attention on the conversation. She blinked in surprise, as she noticed the voices were not speaking in Equestrian, but in Trotsky, the language of Stalliongrad. It was a cold and harsh language, which only multiplied the tension of the argument as she listened. “You promised, Khroma!” the second voice shouted. It was a feminine voice that shook with rage. “You stood there, with your newborn child in attendance, and promised me this would not happen. You spent how many years of your life ensuring that this would not come to pass?!” “Ten years,” a male voice replied. Dash blinked at how unnaturally calm her dad’s voice sounded in the presence of another, angrier voice. Usually, when shouting was involved, he would spare no quarter. Dash crept closer and kept listening. “Ten years! Ten long years for you to take every single little precaution as you prepared your life with your precious Equestrian wife, and look at the results!” The house shook under Dash’s hooves as she heard the rebuttal. “Do not think I am not affected by this! To see all my work amount to nothing! A decade of blood, secrets and lies, to my own wife, to my own child, wasted! I asked you here for help to correct this, not to berate me. Remember who is eldest here!” “I will remember you as eldest when you begin to act the part! Even now, your own guardian attests to the fate of your daughter.” A third voice entered the conversation. Dash’s mouth fell open as she recognized it as Ditzy’s voice, speaking perfect Trotsky. “It’s true, Khroma. The process has begun, and I can already see weakness overtaking her.” The house shuddered again as Dash’s dad sighed. “At least let me see her and explain. She needs to hear it from me.” “Then do it now, Khroma,” the first voice said. “She is waiting.” Dash felt ripples in the clouds as a set of hooves approached the door. She scrambled to back out of the hallway, when the door suddenly swung open. She felt to her rump as she stared up at three faces looking down at her from the doorway. The first was Ditzy’s. Even her skewed eye managed to find its place in a silent stare in her direction on the floor. The second was her dad. He filled out the frame of the door, towering over the rest. His golden eyes felt as they had an actual weight to them as he gazed down at her, pinning her to the floor. Dash blinked as she noted the third figure in the door, with her hoof on the knob. She held her head in a haughty stare as she looked down at her behind a veil of silvery hair. The mane cascaded down, nearly to the floor like a flowing river of diamonds. Her eyes flickered like rubies in a cold and piercing stare. “Auntie?” Dash said. “What are you doing here?” Aurora blinked and quickly smiled. “Prizma!” she said with honey laced scorn. “Did your father not teach you that eavesdropping is impolite?” Dash stood, frowning. “Didn’t grandpapa teach you that breaking into other ponies’ houses is wrong?” Aurora's mouth fell open, aghast. “My! Is your home not open to family?” “It isn’t when they aren’t announced.” She glared at her dad. “Dad, what is going on?! First Ditzy shows up telling me I’m in danger and now I’m losing the colors in my mane.” Khroma stepped through the door. He lifted a hoof to rest on her head, but she stepped away, glaring. He blinked, and after a moment, smiled. “Always a fighter, just like when you were born.” “Dad, talk to me. What are you hiding?” Khroma sighed. “It is a… long story.” Dash glanced at Aurora a second, and back to her father, smirking as she did. “We’re all Stalliongrad ponies here, Dad. We love long stories, don’t we?” Aurora chuckled, when Dash heard a cough from behind. Twilight had stepped into the hall. Her head was lowered as she approached Dash. She stopped and waved. “H-hello, Miss Aurora. It’s good to see you.” Aurora smiled. “It is good to see you too, darling. You are looking well.” “Yes, yes,” Dash snapped. “It’s nice to see everypony, but I want answers.” Khroma nodded and silently moved out of the hallway into the living room, with Aurora and Ditzy following close behind. They gathered into their seats, sitting in a circle. Dash sat opposite her father, and kept her eyes locked on his. He did the same to her. Khroma began with a sigh. “I wished that this would never come to pass, my dear. You must understand this. Even before I moved here to be with your mother, I put so much work into keeping this out of your life.” “Keeping what out of my life?” Khroma looked down. “Do you know how many ponies exist in this age with our color of mane?” Dash blinked. “What the hay does that have to do with anything? Ponies have all kinds of mane colors! There’s bound to be a bunch of ponies with it!” Khroma shook his head. “Then perhaps you can account for this ‘bunch of ponies’?” Dash leaned back in her chair. “Well, see… there was…” She rubbed her chin, searching through memory. Her rubbing slowed through each moment she tried to account for and her mouth fell further open with each passing one. “I… can’t think of one.” She turned to Twilight. “Twi, help me out here! You have to have seen at least one other pony with a rainbow colored mane.” Twilight blinked, and searched through her own memory. After a while, she shook her head. “No… I can’t either. Not even during my time in Canterlot.” Dash looked back to her dad. “What does this mean, Dad?” He leaned back in his seat. “The answer is two. There is only ever two ponies with rainbow colored manes to exist at one given time, for the past several millennia. Even before the founding of Equestria. For now, the most recent ones would be mine…” He pointed at himself, then towards Dash. “...and yours.” “So? Okay, we both have awesome mane colors and are the only ones, that doesn’t explain why I’m losing mine.” Dash blinked when her dad shifted his attention to Twilight. He stared quietly at her with a smoldering gaze. Twilight gulped from the new attention. Khroma’s voice rumbled again. “Miss Twilight. Can you tell me how many ancient artifacts exist in public knowledge today?” Twilight’s brow furrowed in confusion. “U-um. Hundreds? Maybe more? There are so many public treasures in museums, and there are even more magical artifacts that are in safekeeping, such as the Elements of Harmony, among many others. Mostly in Canterlot under lock and key.” Khroma nodded. “And how many exist outside of public knowledge?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Outside?” Twilight paused and put a hoof to her chin. After a moment, she shrugged. “Who knows? Hundreds? Thousands? The old kingdoms and empires of Equestria and the Eastern Kingdoms combined might have countless magical objects unaccounted for, not to mention the empires that existed before that.” “And how many of them do you think have has the power to bring about the end of Celestia’s rule here in Equestria?” Twilight’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open. “W-what do you mean?” “I mean what I say, Miss Sparkle. We have seen Celestia’s power threatened before, so how difficult would it really be for one such as Discord, or Chrysalis, or Nightmare Moon to possess just one of these items and put an end to her reign?” His eyes narrowed gravely. “And yours…?” Twilight trembled as she tried to voice a response. “I...I… I don’t know. It’s… possible that something like that exists, b-but I’ve never really encountered anything like that.” “Dad!” Dash shouted. “You’re freaking her out. And me! And this isn’t answering any of my questions.” Khroma turned back to her. “This is leading exactly to my point. One such artifact has been stolen from its hiding place. I know of this because I was its protector, until…” “Until what?” “Until you were born and turned eighteen. The duty of its stewardship has fallen to you, my daughter.” Dash blinked. She stole a glance with Twilight. She looked scared, more so than she had ever been before, before Discord, before Chrysalis, before Nightmare Moon. She looked back to her dad. “What’s been stolen? What was I supposed to look after?” “The Celestial Prism.” Dash frowned. “You mean the thing from the latest Daring Do book?” Khroma glanced between Aurora and Ditzy and looked back. “What book?” She looked to Twilight. “It’s an adventure series I like. Twilight got an advance copy of it from the author and we were reading it last night. The title said Celestial Prism on it.” Khroma’s voice growled with interest. “And what did the book say about the Prism?” Dash shrugged. “I don’t know, we didn’t get that far yet. I suppose it’s just a big piece of glass that reflects light.” “Refracts,” Twilight corrected. Dash rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She glared at her dad. “So, you guys are worried about some fictional thing from a book?” “The Prism is real!” Aurora snapped. “And the fact that this author uses it by name is most unnerving. You will take us to her at once. We have questions for her.” Dash turned her attention to Twilight with a pleading look. Twilight tapped her hooves together. “She might still be in Canterlot. She said she was getting ready for a book tour.” “Then we shall go there at once.” Aurora, Ditzy and Khroma stood from the couch and flocked to the door. Dash and Twilight watched them, still seated. “You still haven’t answered my question on what is happening to me, dad.” Khroma turned. “That is true, but the more time we waste explaining, the less time we have to reverse this. If you want answers, then come and assist me, and it will be made clear in time.” Dash put a hoof on Twilight’s cheek. “Let’s go, then, okay? Dad says we can reverse this, and I want you there with me.” Twilight’s smile was uncertain, but she wrapped a hoof around Dash’s leg. “Of course.” They rose and joined the others at the door. Ditzy opened the door and stepped outside first. A gust of wind rushed past her in the doorway, and Dash frowned at the sight outside. The sunny day had been overtaken by an approaching murk of dark clouds. The wind was bristling against the house, and the echoes of thunder rumbled from above. Dash grunted. “Of all the days to take off of work…” she muttered. Khroma and Aurora paused just outside the door. “What do you mean, Prizma?” Aurora said. Dash looked up into the sky as she stepped out. “There wasn’t supposed to be a storm today.” Khroma and Aurora frowned and glanced at each other. Their eyes suddenly widened and they snapped open their wings. “We have to get out of here, now!” “What are you talking abou—” There was a blaze of light across the sky as the clouds began to roar. The explosion of sound followed in seconds, stinging in Dash’s ears. The flashes grew in intensity and speed as the noise became louder. She clamped her eyes shut as something shoved her off the edge of the cloud, only to open them to a blinding force of light that engulfed her. Her senses screamed in pain all around her as she felt herself falling, and everything faded into darkness. Questions? Comments? Feel free to send me a mail Either here on Fimfiction Or at quillerypenfeather@gmail.com Im on Tumblr! Follow me for additional information of upcoming stories, as well as my day to day ramblings about life, writing, and of course, ponies.