//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: The Siblings // Story: Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Passing the Torch Chapter Two: The Siblings Written by TheCrimsonDM It was such a nice day in Ponyville today; why not take her sweet time walking over to Sophie’s house. Lots of ponies were outside playing today, a few of them Amber knew fairly well, as for the others, well there wasn’t much need for the apprentice to The Twilight Sparkle to socialize with them. Amber had a close group of select friends, but it always felt like other ponies just wanted something from her. Being the apprentice to the local princess was not all it was cracked up to be, for starters Twilight was sometimes very brutal with her lessons, secondly Twilight never trusted Amber to go out on dangerous missions, and lastly her relationship to the princess made it so that ponies tried to use her position for their own desires. The small cottage at the edge of town crept into view and Amber jumped at the sight. She couldn’t help but to start galloping towards the small cottage, with its leafy roof and its private road leading up to its front door. Amber jumped over the bridge and ran up the road, she smiled at all the birds that tweeted at her arrival. Amber slid to a full stop at the front door and couldn’t stop grinning as she knocked repeatedly in rapid succession on the front door. The door opened just a crack and a bright blue eye stared at her. Amber just smiled and the door opened up all the way revealing the butter yellow pegasus that stood inside. The pegasus in question was wearing her long pink mane into a ponytail and smiled back at Amber. It always bothered her just how young the pegasus looked despite her age, whatever her secret was Amber was determined to steal it one day. “Hi,” Amber said excitedly, “Auntie Fluttershy, is Sophie here?” Fluttershy took a sensitive tone with Amber as she explained, “Why yes she is, she’s up in her room playing with her little dolls I think.” Amber rushed past Fluttershy and into the house, much to the yellow pony’s annoyance. Fluttershy shut the door just as Amber made her way up the stairs and onto the second floor balcony. Just as Amber reached Sophie’s bedroom door Fluttershy called out, “Please be careful.” Amber shot a dirty look back at Fluttershy and shouted back, “I only lit Sophie’s room on fire the one time! I already promised to not practice magic inside anymore.” “Oh… okay,” Fluttershy said. Amber blew her off and trotted through the door and into Sophie’s room. The room was decorated in blue walls with a dark wooden floor. Shelves lined the walls and upon the shelves sat a venerable army of stuffed animals and plushies. These were the so called dolls that Sophie owned, but she didn’t just own them, she had made them. There were dolls of the element bearers, of the princesses, and of all of Sophie’s closest friends. It used to creep Amber out that Sophie made stuffed dolls of her friends, until Amber received a little plushy from Sophie one day that explained it all to her. The room was empty of any ponies, save for Amber, leaving the unicorn to wonder where her favorite cousin was. Amber looked underneath Sophie’s pink bed, no ponies, but more dolls this was where the monster dolls were kept. Amber looked in the closet and only found a giant dragon plushy about half her size staring back at her. Amber turned and began walking towards the door because clearly Fluttershy had been wrong about Sophie being in here. “Surprise!” shouted a high pitched voice that caused Amber to look up, just in time to see a pink earth pony with a short blond mane descending from the ceiling and towards her. The pink pony landed with legs spread onto of Amber’s back and wrapped her forelegs around Amber’s neck giving her a tight hug. If Amber wasn’t so big and strong then this would’ve knocked her onto the floor, but the tiny pony sitting on top of her back was more of nescience then anything else. Instinctively Amber gave a few hard bucks but the small pony wasn’t leaving so easily, after a few tries she gave up. “Get off, Sophie,” Amber growled. “No way, I’ve been hiding up there for at least five minutes waiting for you to come by, so now I’m going to get a piggy back ride. Besides that you owe me,” Sophie said cheerfully. Amber looked up at the flat ceiling and tried to figure out just how Sophie was hiding up there, or how Sophie knew that Amber was coming over anyway. Amber began walking to the door and Sophie suddenly squeed. If Sophie wanted to have a piggy back ride, then she was going to get one. Amber opened the door with her telekinesis and walked out. Downstairs Amber saw Fluttershy sliding a bowl of vegetables over to the small white bunny named Angel. Angel wasn’t pleased with the food and refused to partake of the meal, Fluttershy began pouting and said, “Please eat, I don’t want you to starve.” “Look at me!” Sophie cried out as Amber walked down the stairs. Fluttershy looked at the two of them and allowed a small giggle to escape her lips before saying, “It looks like you two are having fun. What are you planning on doing today?” “Oh, we should get Hushpuppy and then we can all go to Sweet Apple Acers!” Sophie suggested loudly. Amber groaned. “That sounds wonderful; I think that Hushy went down to Rarity’s. Hush’s little jacket got all ripped the other day, I do hope that Rarity can fix it,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t want my little Hushy whushy to cry again.” Amber turned to the door and said, “Well I didn’t have any better plans. Maybe after I get us together we can go explore the Everfree.” “WHAT!” Fluttershy shouted. “Y-y-you can’t do that. You’re not even eighteen.” “Relax I’m joking, I wouldn’t drag Sophie into there. She’s not as good with animals as you are,” Amber said with a laugh. An instant look of relief came over Fluttershy. Sophie however kicked Amber in the sides and said, “I am too good with animals. I am the bestest with them.” “You very nearly crushed poor Angel there when you tired to pet him once, or do you not remember that?” Amber said with a sly grin. “That was… that was an accident,” Sophie replied. After a moment of silence she added, “And I don’t want to go with you into the stupid forest anyways. I’m good right where I is.” “Ugh, please don’t start talking like that,” Amber said. “Oh so you don’t likes the way I talk when I’m being uber cutetastic?” Sophie asked, and even though Amber couldn’t see it, she just knew that Sophie was grinning. Amber opened the door and said, “You know just for that, I’m going to double time it to the boutique.” “What does that mean?” Sophie inquired. Amber suddenly took off into a full gallop which caused Sophie to nearly fall off before she managed to grip her legs around Amber’s neck again. Sophie was thankfully one of the smallest fillies that Amber knew and so she weighed very little, and her grip was not very strong on Amber’s neck either. Although Amber would never admit it, she did enjoy her size when it came to physical strength. It made life a little easier when she didn’t have to ask some stallion to help her with physical labor. Amber rand down the little road that wound down the hill and jumped over the bridge. Sophie squealed as Amber soared through the air for a few feet before landing hard leading the small pony on her back to bounce into the air. The boutique wasn’t very far from Fluttershy’s house so the run would only last a short distance, but it was fun. The ponies they passed by all waved, and Sophie waved back, and few of them even whistled their support for Amber. *** When Amber arrived at the boutique she stopped and stared at the sign out front. “The Carousal Boutique, looks like we’re here.” “Ayep, let’s go get Hushpuppy. And together we’ll all have lots and lots and lots of fun,” Sophie said. Amber opened the front door and walked through it. It wasn’t surprising to see the white unicorn with her purple curly mane working on some article of clothing, but to see her doing so with an overjoyed smile was an absolute treat for Amber to see. Amber remembered the last time Rarity was in such a good mood, she ended up giving some free clothes to her. Thoughts of free gifts crossed her mind and suddenly she couldn’t help but walk in and cheerfully introduce herself, “Hey, Rarity, what’s up?” “Oh darling it’s…” Rarity stopped working and stared at them in silence for a moment before finishing, “Both of you. Well at least you two look happy… is there a reason that you two are like that?” “She’s giving me a piggy back ride, and its super fun!” Sophie nearly screamed in excitement. “That’s wonderful, darling,” Rarity said in delight. Amber walked over and took a close look at what Rarity was working on and smiled. “Oh, that looks pretty.” “It’s a new dress that I’m working on for Sweetie. She’s singing at The Tossed Horseshoe tonight after all. I figure that she needed a beautiful dress to match her singing voice,” Rarity explained. “Oh wow, I wish that I was old enough to get inside. She’s got an awesome voice,” Amber said excitedly, although she didn’t mention that she was contemplating sneaking in to watch the performance anyway. “Well so long as you were just going in to watch, I don’t believe that they would stop you… just no alcohol, okay?” “That’s fine, I don’t want to get drunk anyway. That would just ruin the show for me,” Amber said casually. “That makes it sound like you’ve actually drank before,” Rarity inquired. “Um… no,” Amber lied. “So what are you two doing here?” Rarity asked changing the topic. “We’re here for Hushpuppy,” Amber explained. Rarity smiled and looked back towards the changing room. “I suppose you will need to wait a moment then.” The changing room door opened and out stepped a yellow earth pony with two orange eyes and a mane of various green hues. The young stallion wore a black jacket with its hood drawn over his face. He stared flatly at Rarity and said nothing. Rarity’s smile faded and worry covered her face as she suddenly asked, “Oh, darling, did I do something wrong?” He walked over to the small group of ponies and looked up at Amber Light giving her a nod. He then looked at Rarity and said, “The world is covered in a thick black darkness that we can’t possibly hope to survive in… and yet the work you did today on my jacket has somehow lifted that veil of darkness ever so slightly to remind me that there is a light in this world, as weak and helpless as it may be.” Everypony stared at him feeling very confused by what he was trying to explain. He shook his head slowly and said, “You did a good job, thank you.” Rarity smiled and a tear ran down the side of her face as she said, “Oh, it’s no problem. If you ever need any work from me again, don’t hesitate to ask.” “I shall return when the darkness strikes me down again,” He replied. “Right, so do you want to hang out?” Amber asked. “That sounds like it could be something to break the mundane routine that I find myself in right now. I will hang out with you two,” he said. “Oh, Hushpuppy, I’m so glad that you agreed. I thought that I might have to start crying again if you didn’t accept,” Sophie said. Hushpuppy looked up at her and a tiny smile formed on his lips as he said, “So you admit to using my sensitive nature against me, so that you can manipulate me to do whatever you want?” “Yep, because you’re my big brother and you need to do what I say,” Sophie said jokingly. He looked away and said, “Curse my bleeding fragile heart, I just can’t say no to you now can I?” Amber looked back towards the door and as she walked towards it she said, “Okay, let’s go have some fun.”