Passing the Torch
Chapter Eleven: Safe House
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Dirt, Amber could smell dirt, why she could smell it was beyond what her tired sleepy brain could process right now. She tried to roll over but found a pair of muscular hooves holding onto her. She opened an eye to find her vision blocked out by gray fur. She moved her head and looked behind her, Trixie was there sleeping peacefully. It was beginning to dawn on her very slowly where she was, and the memories of last night slowly dripped into her mind.
After fighting off that shadowy tendril thing and saving Blackout. She was taken home by Twilight Sparkle, the second she got inside, and away from the eyes and ears of Blackout, Amber sat down, and sobbed. She was a little shocked when the first one to come and hug her was actually Maud, moving at almost lightning speeds to hold her. This combined with the fact that Maud began soothing her in a gentle tone, one that Amber didn’t even know that Maud could use, only aided in Amber’s decision to wrap her legs around Maud and cry helplessly into her shoulder. Maud smelled like dirt.
It was a little sad to note that Pinkie had gone home to her family already, but it was nice being able to be held by Maud like that. Sure Amber had been apart from Maud for a long time, and she still couldn’t forgive the mare for hurting Trixie’s feelings like she did, but she accepted that Maud was indeed one of her parents and loved her.
She wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that, she could vaguely remember being carried by Maud, which was a feat in itself, and she remembered laying in between her moms as they kept her safe. She fell asleep soon after that, and her dreams were actually pretty good, but the memories of her dreams were fading fast, she remembered a flower bed, and a castle made of marble stone and green glass. After that she couldn’t remember a thing about her dreams.
Amber rolled over in Maud’s embrace and faced Trixie. “Hey, mom.”
Trixie stirred, the morning light from behind the blinds cast orange blades of light on Trixie’s mane. Since Trixie wrinkled her nose, but then relaxed, it looked like she wasn’t ready to wake up quite yet. Amber planned to fix that.
“Hey, mom, wake up,” Amber said again. “Please wake up, pretty please.”
Trixie’s eyes slowly opened. “Yes, Amber?”
“Good morning,” Amber replied playfully.
Trixie let out a rather loud yawn before saying, “Good morning.”
“Will you make something good for breakfast today?”
Trixie smiled. “No, but I know a great little chief.”
“Who? Is it Pinkie?” Amber asked.
Trixie shook her head. “Nope it’s the pony who can’t stop hugging you right now.”
“Who-,” Amber began asking but stopped herself when she felt Maud’s breathing stop. Amber looked behind and saw Maud staring down at her with a flat expression, well not entirely flat; there was the slightest curl to her lips.
“You were awake the whole time,” Amber asked.
Maud averted her eyes. “I wanted to hold you…”
“Oh you big lovable thing,” Trixie said. “You’ve missed out little unicorn haven’t you?”
Maud nodded slightly.
Amber squeezed out of Maud’s embrace, and frowned when she saw that smile of Maud’s reverse and turn into a frown. Amber climbed off the bed, and went to the front door. Not wanting Maud to get the wrong idea she explained, “I’m hungry and I need to pee.”
Trixie shook her head. “She’s as blunt as you are sometimes.”
“I’ll get t work on breakfast,” Maud said.
Trixie sat up excitedly at those words. “Really!” Maud nodded. And Trixie nearly exploded with joy. “Yes, I love it when you cook for me! It makes me feel like a princess.”
Maud stared at her flatly. “You are my princess…” She looked at Amber and added. “You are too.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to be a princess, I want to be a legendary hero. There is a big difference.”
With that said Amber left the room and trotted to her destination with a growing sense of urgency. The bathroom was thankfully right down the hall, otherwise Amber might have screamed.
Breakfast was simple, quiet, and delicious. Amber had no idea that Maud could cook pancakes that rivaled if not beat out Pinkie’s recipe. Somewhere in the back of her mind she made a note, if she ever learned how to cook, she was getting this recipe from her second mother.
After breakfast was over Amber went outside, quietly thanking the heavens for not letting either of her moms ground her for her explosion the night before. The last thing she wanted was to be grounded today, because it was on this day that she was going to do all those fun things with her friends. She made a note to acquire her new friend beforehoof.
The walk over to Rarity’s was quiet, with all the ponies she passed by giving her dark looks, and whispering sinisterly. Something was wrong, and Amber didn’t like the atmosphere one bit. She hurried her pace to Rarity’s after noticing that ponies began to leave after seeing her. Ponyville felt very lonely today.
At Rarity’s she trotted in and found Jade, laying on her stomach and staring into their cat’s eyes. The overgrown hairball stared back at her and licked its lips. Amber had learned the name of the cat once before, but swiftly forgotten it. After Opalescence passed away, Rarity took to naming her new cats in confusing ways that made Amber’s head spin.
“Hey, Jade,” Amber greeted.
Jade looked up at her with those lizard eyes and smiled a sharp toothed grin. “Hello, Amber. Have you met Bill?”
Amber took another look at the cat, it was fat, white, and grumpy looking. “Bill?”
“Mom named him Billowing something something, so me and dad just call him Bill for short,” She explained.
“Hi Bill,” Amber said. The cat somehow managed to meow grumpily. “I don’t think he likes me.”
“Yeah, he hates everypony except for mom… Why are you here today?” Jade asked.
“I’m here to invite you to our day out. Me and my friends are going to be doing some fun things today and I wanted to see if you wanted in. You interested?” Amber asked. She finished with the biggest grin she could make.
Jade nodded. “If you don’t mind bringing me along, I’d love to join… will there be gems?”
“We can probably find some way to fit that into the schedule. Actually are schedule is kinda empty anyway,” Amber admitted.
“Okay. I need to tell mom and Grandma Twilight first. I hope you don’t mind,” Jade said quietly.
Amber nodded, thought about what she said, and smiled. “I’ll come with you.”
She followed Jade into the kitchen and together they stood there staring at Rarity and Twilight, neither of the young ponies spoke as the older ponies talked heatedly. Amber frowned, and could only wonder at exactly what was going on.
“No,” Rarity said. “After what happened at the inn, you actually think that I want to get involved in this again. I have a child to look after, Twilight. What am I going to do with her, if me and my husband are out doing Celestia knows what?”
Twilight stamped a hoof down. “We can leave her at Trixie’s, she’s good with kids and Amber seems to have become friends with Jade. But I really need both of you to help, you haven’t seen what the people around here have become have you? Something is wrong, very, very wrong.”
Rarity spun towards the door, and huffed. “I don’t… Jade, Amber, what are you two doing here?” She looked surprised to see them.
Jade shrunk back a little, so Amber stepped up and spoke for her. “We just wanted to know if it was okay for us to go out and play. I wanted to have Jade join me and my friends today, we’re going to the clubhouse.”
Rarity frowned and glanced back at Twilight. “Okay, but be careful. Amber, I’m expecting you to keep my precious little pony safe.”
Amber looked at Twilight, and narrowed her eyes. Something was going on, and she wanted to know what. “So, what are you two up to?”
“Nothing,” Twilight replied quickly. Silence filled the room for a moment, but then Twilight closed her eyes and groaned. “Okay, that was a lie. I’m getting the old gang together for another meeting.” She looked at Amber and met her eyes. “But something is very strange with the town, and I need you to stay somewhere quiet and out of the way. Keep your friends at the clubhouse please, I can’t honestly think of a safer place than Applejack’s farm right now.”
Amber wanted to argue, she wanted to join Twilight, but the memories of the tendril from last night came back and she decided against it. She didn’t want to fight scary monsters again, she wasn’t ready, not at all, she couldn’t even pull off that non lethal spell that Twilight had taught her. If she couldn’t do that, than she couldn’t possibly help anypony.
“Okay,” Amber said lamely. “I’ll just stay out of the way this time… I promise.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she started saying, “Amber, are you al-“
Rarity cut her off. “Twilight, let’s get Rainbow Dash next. I don’t want to go into anything sticky without her around.”
“She is the most… aggressive one in our group,” Twilight agreed. “Okay, we’ll head there next.”
Amber quietly left as the two continued their conversation only less heated now. Jade followed behind quietly. Hanging her head low, Amber thought about just going home and giving up on the day. The thought was abolished when she saw Jade’s smile, the poor filly didn’t have many friends, she needed this outing more than anypony else did. Amber steeled herself and trotted out of the front door. She’d make this day exciting and happy for the dragon pony, because that’s what friends do.
***
The clubhouse was all but silent as the five ponies all sat around trying to figure out what to do. From what Amber had heard from her other friends so far, she realized that it wasn’t just her noticing the oddness of the ponies around Ponyville today. Each of them had received angry glances, mean whispers, and finally desperate loneliness. The only ponies unaffected by it so far had been their families.
At first Amber thought it was because of the fact that they were all somehow close to or connected to an element of magic, but in regards to her own family that didn’t make sense. Then she realized that each one of the ponies who had actively fought against this darkness had so far been left alone, or at least them and their families. That explanation seemed to sit much better with them.
Hushpuppy couldn’t help but stare longingly out the window, while Sophie kept herself amused by sewing a new doll. This one resembled Jade. Color Splash had her eyes planted firmly on Hushpuppy and a sly smile across her lips. Amber had a journal in front of her, and a pen, but as hard as she tried, her mind simply couldn’t figure out what to write.
“Darkness lies ahead, and there is nothing we can to do to fight it. We are missing that vital little light of hope that gives anypony the reason to fight, to survive. A cold chill runs through Ponyville today, skeletal hooves rake at our souls and whisper dark taunts to us making sure that we can’t fight. We need light,” Hushpuppy said to himself.
Amber rolled her eyes, he was being moody again.
The knocking on the front door of the clubhouse snapped everypony to attention. Amber carefully stood and walked to the door. She looked at the others, and saw them staring intently at the door, the only pony who was smiling was Sophie. Slowly Amber reached out with her magic and pulled open the door. Blackout stood on the other side.
Blackout was avoiding Amber’s eyes. “Hi.”
“What do you want?” Color Splash asked sternly.
Blackout growled. “I’m not here for you, mutant hair. I’m here for Amber.”
Color Splash stood up. “Yeah well after what you did to Hushpuppy, you have some nerve coming here.”
Things looked bad, and Amber quickly intervened. “Hey, guys we don’t need to fight here.” Amber redirected her attention to Blackout. “What do you want?”
Blackout lowered her head her ears flicked and she neighed.
Amber stepped back in surprise at the response.
“You saved me last night… I… I don’t want to say that I like, like you or anything, but you know… maybe I could… like you might be cool enough to hang out with,” Blackout said in a near whisper.
Amber stood in silence for a very long time, nopony made a noise. Eventually Blackout began to turn away. “I thought this would happen, why did I even bother with you nerds?”
“Wait,” Amber said. Still not entirely sure what to do or say she reached for the only olive branch she could. “You want to come in and hang out with us nerds for a bit? We might not be that cool, but maybe you’re awesome will rub off on us?”
Blackout laughed. “Fat chance, my awesome is kinda special. Maybe you’ll learn how to be cool from me, but… yeah I’ll chill with you for a bit. I don’t have much choice anyway, mom sent me here so I’d stay out of trouble while she goes monster hunting with Twilight.”
Amber raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“Yeah, turns out that ponies in town are all corrupted or something. She told me to stay out of it… and after that thing last night…” Blackout gave up on finishing the sentence.
Amber quickly trotted outside and looked around. It was quiet and there was no sign of anypony around. She quickly shoved Blackout in, and followed her. She shut and barred the door behind them, before reaching out with her magic and shutting the windows and drawing the curtains.
Why didn’t Twilight tell me that it was this serious already? Ponyville getting taken over by monsters or being corrupted comes with contingencies.
Amber looked around the room and noticed the fearful looks on everyponies face. She smiled and said, “It’s okay, I know the plan for if this ever happened. Twilight taught me what to do. Now since everyponies parents are one of the elements of harmony or in Jade’s case a dragon, they will be just fine. It is our job to help any of the still uncorrupted citizens into a safe place to hide before joining them. Since the entire town’s already been changed, it’s our job to just hideout here until Twilight comes to get us. Understood?”
Everypony nodded.
Blackout sat down against the wall and looked at the spot between her hooves. Hushpuppy whispered something into Color Splash’s ear. Color Splash’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Amber with intensity. Jade closed her eyes and laid her head down before shaking a little. Sophie walked over to Jade’s side and brushed the poor dragon pony’s mane. Jade’s shaking lessened.
“Good, I’m glad you understand,” Amber said proudly, she could scarcely believe that it was this easy to keep everypony inside. She could’ve sworn that at least one of them would want to go out and be a hero.
Sophie looked up at Amber, her smile was missing. Amber frowned, what could be so wrong that it made Sophie upset. They were safe where they were and everyponies parents were fine, the elements of harmony had never actually been defeated before, well not really.
“Amber,” Sophie said quietly.
Hushpuppy looked over at his sister and gave her a stern look.
“What’s wrong, Soph,” Amber said in a cool voice.
Sophie stared right at her with sad eyes. “Neither of your parents are elements of harmony… and Trixie’s already been corrupted once before… right?”
Amber’s jaw hit the floor and she felt her body start shaking.
My parents!