//------------------------------// // 29 // Story: Seven Lights // by Fresnor //------------------------------// Scootaloo paced back and forth in front of the Golden Oaks Library with a look of worry on her face. She paused in front of the door to knock but after hesitating a moment she went back to he pacing. The rest of her sister's friends were busy so Twilight was the only one she could get help from but after what she and the other crusaders went through she was wary of approaching her. The filly was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice the door opening until she stopped to knock again before a purple figure crashed into her. As the two figures recovered the one that exited the library was the first to see what they crashed into. “Scootaloo? What are you doing out here?” The orange filly looked up to see her friend Spike rubbing his head. After a moment she realized that with him she didn't need to see Twilight and she grabbed his shoulders with her hooves. “Spike! Just the dragon I wanted to see. Is Twilight around anywhere?” Spike raised an eyebrow at the question as well as the worried look on the filly's face. He eventually shook his head before responding to her. “Nah, she's out with her friends having a picnic or something. Why do you want her anyways?” Scootaloo gave a sigh of relief at not needing to meet the unicorn but she still needed help with her problem. Looking at the dragon again she realized that he might be a better choice to get help from due to his own experience with craziness. “Well I kind of needed help with my sister and Twilight was the last one for me to look for. But you have to deal with Twilight all the time so that means you'll be perfect to help me out with this!” Spike looked at her with a raised eyebrow but decided to follow her anyways as she turned to head back towards her home. “Aegis Flare? Did something happen while she was out in the Everfree Forest? Did she run into a brain-eating monster that latched onto her head and is now trying to sneak into Ponyville?!” His question was met with a deadpan stare from the pegasus filly before she let out a sigh. “If only it was that simple. She never even went into the Everfree like I thought. I just found out today that she was in the basement ever since that award thingie in Canterlot.” The young dragon's jaw dropped at hearing this before he started sputtering out a reply in astonishment. “But that was a week ago! You're telling me that your sister has been hiding down there for an entire week and you never noticed? What was she doing all this time?” Scootaloo thought back to what happened when she tried to interrupt her sister and let loose a shudder. “It's probably better if I just show you.” With a wave of her hoof the filly lead Spike into her home and towards the door leading to the basement. She paused as she reached the door before she sighed and threw the door open so that Spike could see inside. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust but when they did he spotted a figure down in the darkness which became clearer when the sun shone threw a nearby window and down into the dark. “HISS!” Spike recoiled at the image of horror before him as he staggered backwards away from the entrance. As soon as he cleared the threshold the door slammed shut in his face leaving the two to stare at it blankly. Turning his head slowly towards the orange filly with wide-eyes. “THAT was your sister? I haven't seen anything that bad since Twilight's brother told her that two plus two was fish and the rest of the family agreed to it. She spent days trying to figure out how that worked. I would never have expected your sister to pull something like this though, she always seemed to be so... not Twilight.” Scootaloo let loose another shudder as she thought back to last times this had happened. “She's only done this two other times and neither of them ended well. One time it took over a month before Applejack and Rarity could pull her out of there and the other time...” The filly paused for a moment as she rubbed her right foreleg with a hoof. “That time we found out that if she tries nothing can get through her shields if she doesn't want it to, including air.” The dragonling looked confused for a moment until his eyes widened in realization on the reason how she would know that. “Whoa. If she really can get that bad then we better find her friends fast. I don't think she has much longer until she reaches that point again if what happened yesterday is an example. I'll go find Twilight, you get the other Crusaders so we at least know where you all are, just to be safe.” With a nod the two leave the house to find the others that could hopefully help out with the problem they had found. It didn't take long for Spike to return leading the mare's six friends as he knew where they were going to be for their picnic. “All right we're here Spike. Now can you finally tell us what is wrong?” The group looked around as they entered the home but they couldn't see anything out of place other than the large pile of unopened mail on the table in the room. Ignoring the glares from the others, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie flipped through the pile and saw that most of it was from Canterlot though there was the occasional piece from some museum or other. Finally catching his breath after having run the whole way, the young dragon finally explained what was happening. “Scootaloo came and told me that her sister never went into the Everfree like you all thought and has been downstairs doing something and I think she's about to do something terrible like Twilight did yesterday.” While Twilight looked a bit sheepish at being reminded about what she did, both Rarity and Applejack were instead giving each other a look of worry. “Oh dear, you don't think that...?” Applejack just shook her head at the fashionista. “Ah don't have ta think, ah know it. Ah just hope it don't happen again after she finally started opening up again.” The other looked confused at the two before the two shook their heads and Rarity answered their questioning looks. “You see, the poor dear has done this once before and it didn't end well. We don't know what caused it but she was studying some sort of time magic and doing what she is now. We were able to get her to stop but...” She looked over at the farm mare who took up the train of thought. “In the end she just plain shut down around everypony except her sister. Sure she would still do her job but she never got friendly like with anypony else until Twilight showed up.” The others in the room winced at that remembering what she was like before though Twilight was only exposed to a small part of it. “What do we do? If you've seen this before then you should know some way of helping her.” Rarity shakes her head sadly at Twilight. “We don't know if what we did then will work this time. We tried to talk her down but since we didn't know what caused her little, incident, we couldn't help her that way. Instead we had to, um.” She paused as she looked over to AJ who had removed her hat and set it aside. “We had ta hogtie her and dump her in the creek to snap her out of it.” As AJ rubbed the back of her head Twilight looked towards the basement door and let out a sigh. “Let's just hope that we only need the first part and not the second.” She pauses and brings a hoof up to her chin before turning back to Spike. “How long did you say she was down there again?” Spike drops the pile of mail he was sorting before looking at Twilight who raised an eyebrow on seeing what he was doing. Clearing his throat he glanced out the window as he tried to remember. “Well Scootaloo did say she was gone since you all got back from Canterlot. Oh and if you go down there you might want to cover the windows before opening the door, she reacts badly to the light.” Nodding to the dragon the six move towards the basement carefully while covering all the windows and shutting off the lights. Once the area was dark they make their way down into the basement quietly so as not to interrupt the mare already down there. Looking around they saw scrolls and books scattered around the place while the mare they were her for was in a corner surrounded by candles. In front of her was a board filled with pictures and notes that were connected by various colored strings. Looking over Aegis Flare's shoulder the six examine what she had been doing the past week she had been sequestered. Twilight's eyes traced the strings that started at a picture of Discord and eventually led to one of Princess Celestia before ending up on a banana. The purple mare was confused at how it all started out making sense before it devolved into craziness. Applejack lightly coughed as she passed something she had picked up from a corner to her and the librarians eyes widened in shock at what she was reading. “What!? Smash the statue of Discord!?” Her hooves shot up into her mouth as Aegis Flare's head snapped up at her voice though she didn't appear to notice them as she started speaking to herself. “Smash the statue? No, that won't work. Already tossed that idea out as unreliable.” She paused for a moment as she tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Why am I even thinking about that again? I still need to feed the piano so that the banana is crossed with the chocolate tuna.” Looking at each other the six mares behind the orange unicorn looked worried for her as it was obvious that something wasn't quite right with her. They froze as Aegis Flare turned towards them but she didn't seem to see them as she walked between them all towards the other side of the room to retrieve something. After she passed the other six she took a few more steps before she stopped and slowly turned to look at her friends. “Where did you all come from?” They didn't get a good view of her until just that moment but what they saw made them worry. They remembered what happened the last time that they saw a unicorn with an eye-twitch like they were seeing but unlike with Twilight this one only had access to more destructive magics. It wasn't just that but her mane was getting loose from her braid while her tail was a frayed mess. After taking in the scene the group looked at each other before Twilight stepped forward. “Well your sister was worried about you and she told us that you had been down here for a week now. Isn't it about time that you take a break?” Aegis Flare tilts her head as if she didn't understand them before she shakes it at them. “No time for a break. Have to finish before he shows up again.” “Before who shows up again?” “Discord of course. Have to stop him before he hurts her again!” Her outburst surprised them all but when she thought about it Twilight could see her point in regards to the unpredictable draconequus. As she watched her friend turn away again to get back to what she was doing she tried to think of what to do. “Is this really all necessary? I mean we stopped him with the Elements so we shouldn't have to worry about him anymore. There's no reason to have to think about him now.” The exhausted mare froze in place at her words before she slowly turned her head back towards Twilight without turning the rest of her body. “No reason? No reason?!” Turning her body she stomped up to Twilight who flinched back as her friend got close. “We don't even know how long he will be stuck in stone this time since he escaped once before. I'm not letting him touch her again. Never again!” They were all shocked at the look of panic on her face as well as in her voice especially since they didn't know what she went through exactly. They had talked a bit after defeating Discord about what he had done to each of them but the orange unicorn had been rather closed-mouthed about her experience and had only mentioned that it had dealt with her sister. Applejack, probably knowing the best how she felt about her sister, was the one to ask the question they were all wondering. “Scootaloo looked fine last Ah saw her. What did that varmint do ta her that freaks ya out so much.” Aegis Flare froze in place as her mind shot back to that instant before everything went fuzzy that day. At first the others thought that she had locked up and was about to faint but when they saw the tears starting to fall it was enough to force Fluttershy to rush up and grab her into a fierce hug. She flinched from the contact but it was enough to push her into speaking quietly. “He was trying to threaten me using her but I was able to get her away from him and run away deeper into the maze. Just when I had found a place for her to hide Discord showed up again.” She shuddered in the grip of the yellow pegasus as she relived that moment again in her head. “With no warning he cut her in half right in front of me. “The rest of the girls gasp in horror as she says this but she keeps speaking without hearing them. “I don't know if it was really her or not but just the thought of it happening scares me more than anything. When our parents disappeared I swore that I would protect her but to have this happen... I just can't lose her like I lost them!” By this point she had completely broken down as she cried helplessly into her friend's shoulder. She was soon joined by the others as they gather around her in a group hug as they try to reassure her. At first it doesn't help as her crying gets even worse but eventually the noises coming from her steadily quieted down until the room was silent. Looking at their friend in their grip they all find that she had fallen asleep while they held her and they set release her while looking to each other. “So what do we do with her now?” Rarity steps forward as she motions towards Fluttershy while she floats the unconscious unicorn in her magical grip. “Well I don't know about you all, but the first thing I plan on doing is getting her a bath. After a week alone down here her coat and mane could really use some care.” Glancing at each other as Fluttershy follows the fashionista upstairs the rest quickly converse before agreeing to spend the night there. With a promise to return soon they all scatter to pick gather some supplies for the night though Twilight pauses at the bottom of the stairs before looking around the basement again. Not really needing to get anything important for the night she turns back and starts gathering up the papers scattered around the room. <><><><><><><> The next morning found the seven curled up in various positions around the living room of the home. They had placed Aegis Flare at the center of the room covered with a blanket Fluttershy had retrieved from her home. Both her and Applejack had taken up positions on both sides of her to try to make her feel comfortable as well. The farm mare was awake just as the sun came up like she normally was but she was surprised to find that she wasn't the first awake as she noticed Twilight reading through something on the nearby couch. “Twilight? What are ya doing up so early?” The librarian looked up from her reading to Applejack before she set her reading material aside. “It's what Flare was working on down there. She was researching into the relationship of harmony and chaos and, if this is all true, she had found some interesting information. In fact I never knew that she could perform research of this caliber.” Retrieving a couple of the pages she flipped through them again to verify what she had read before continuing. “I'll have to research this again myself but if this is all true it can really change some long-standing ideas. Primarily in how chaos and harmony are not opposites like many scientists think.” Raising an eyebrow at the claim Applejack decides to interject. “Hold on a second there. How can they not be opposites with how Discord was acting? That varmint couldn't be any further from being a harmonious creature than anything.” Shaking her head Twilight showed her a chart that was on one of the pages. “That's the point, Discord was also about disharmony and he even mentioned it separately from chaos. In fact chaos is needed for harmony to exist since the opposite of it is order. It's strange though how she points out that she compares both order and chaos with death and life. In fact if what she has written here is true then Discord would never kill. But after how she reacted then he never should have been able to do what he did in front of her.” Applejack looked confused but before she could respond another voice spoke up from across the room. “Darling, if losing her sister is her greatest fear then there wouldn't have been much else that brute could have used against her. Still, I for one am glad to see her no longer holding her feelings back since that time.” Seeing Applejack nod in agreement earned a look of confusion from Twilight as she looked between the two. On seeing her look Rarity looked a bit embarrassed for leaving her out of the conversation so explains a bit to catch her up. “As you know Applejack and I lived in Ponyville when Flare first started school here in Ponyville. Back then she was nothing like what you've known since you've shown up. It may be hard to believe, but even after her injury healed it was hard to get her to speak and if you can believe it was even less talkative than Fluttershy.” Glancing over at the still sleeping unicorn Twilight shook her head in disbelief before turning back to the two awake mares. “That really is hard to believe. She might be a bit distant most of the time but she always seemed so calm and forward.” Once again meeting Applejack's eyes with a grimace Rarity continues. “We don't know what happened to her but the last time she had an incident like this changed her. Something happened to her while she was out in the Everfree that changed her from a shy mare much like Fluttershy to what she is now. Even worse was that she stopped talking with nearly everypony outside of her business. In fact I think outside of her work she really only talked with her sister and Derpy until you showed up.” Checking with AJ for verification was met with a nod as Twilight thought on all this. She hadn't found anything in the notes she had relating to that but after glancing through them quickly noticed something that seemed a bit off. “Do you know if she worked with many museums? Many of these books she used for her research are really rare and I recognize a couple of them as only being easily available to high ranking government officials unless you know the right ponies.” The two think for a moment before shaking their heads. “No, I don't believe she did much with them but as I said she never did talk with us much back then. I suppose she may have sold things to them but I don't think she used the train often enough to make connections like that.” Scrunching her muzzle in frustration Twilight sighed as she set the notes down. “Well however she got access to them she really did come to some interesting conclusions through parts of it. I'd like to do my own research into this,as well as talk with Princess Celestia, but if what she has here is right then Discord doesn't have anything to do with chaos at all and is in fact extremely predictable.” The two gaped at Twilight as if they didn't quite hear her right. “Predictable? Discord was nuttier than Granny's fruitcake so how can you call him predictable?” “Because it was obvious that he was following a plan and much of what he was doing was exactly the same as what he was doing the last time he was free.” Three heads jerked around to stare at the orange unicorn that was wearily raising her head up from the pillow she was resting on. While a bit wary of how she would react they did have to admit she was looking a lot better than she was the day before though they noticed something off about her as well. “Are you all right there, dear? You were in such a state last night when we found you and we didn't expect you to be awake until at least tomorrow. Last time you didn't wake up for a week.” Aegis Flare nods wearily in response as she sets her head back down on her pillow. “That's good and all, but what are ya talking about with Discord having a plan? He sure acted like he just did what he did at random.” Twilight was about to answer before she was cut off by the still sleepy mare. “He may have acted random but it was obvious he had some type of plan he was following when messing with us. It's obvious when you look at what he did to Fluttershy. With all of us he used the Element we each represented until he failed with her. As soon as a little bit of chaos was introduced into whatever his plan was he forcefully controlled her to act as he wanted. In fact he did more to remove chaotic elements than promoting chaos and even what he did to Ponyville had elements of order to it even if it wasn't of the kind we were used to.” By this time the others had awoken and were listening in as well to the conversation. As she looked around at the others she gave a small smile that soon had Pinkie bouncing in front of her. “I knew it! I knew you could give out a real smile if you wanted to and didn't hold back!” The others looked confused though Aegis Flare just rolled her eyes at the mare though she didn't stop smiling. She looked around at the others before her eyes settled on the blanket covering her as she took in the design on it. She was about to ask about it before noticing them all staring at her and Pinkie causing her to let out a sigh. “Ever since she arrived in Ponyville she's been trying to get me to give her what she called a 'genuine smile' and to stop fake smiling.” The others give off various noises of acknowledgment as Pinkie bounces around her in enjoyment. “Well if she has been trying since then why did it take you so long to give her one until now? I'd be surprised if anypony would last even a week of resisting one when she decides to focus on them.” Rainbow Dash had a point about how difficult it was to deny the pink mare anything which the others agreed with, Twilight especially after her own recent experiences with her breed of randomness. “I don't know really. I'm just tired of it all, tired of having to hold everything back so I don't hurt anypony else. Not after what I nearly did to Scootaloo last time.” She gave a shiver as she pulled the blanket over herself tighter at the thought. Fluttershy pulled her close into another hug before whispering just loudly enough for the others to hear. “You really shouldn't bottle your feelings up like you have been all these years. It's no wonder that you broke down like that.” Nodding in her embrace she tries to relax while the others catch her up on what she had missed the last few days. Once they finish Aegis Flare is once again chuckling as she is once again stared at. “So all that to find a friendship problem when you could have found one right here the entire time.” While a blush develops on the purple unicorn's face the others join in on the laughter. Once the room calms down she continues. “Of course if I've learned anything since you've arrived it's that anything with friendship can't be done alone, though I guess I haven't been following that well myself.” Though she was about to respond, Twilight paused to think for a moment before she looks thoughtful. “That's actually a good point. Why don't you write to the princess about what you learned?” She was about to try and talk her way out of it but seeing the looks of expectation from the others just made her sigh. “Fine, since you all have to do it and she probably meant to include me in her order as well. Though there's something else as well. Where's something to write on?” Twilight pulls a quill and scroll and passes them over as Aegis Flare considers her words. “I've known that courage has always been about not letting your emotions control you but it is possible to take that too far. Bottling up your feelings can cause even worse problems as the stress increases on you. Your friends can help you before things get that far since they will always be there for you. In fact there is little that can be done alone that can't be made better by having friends by your side.” Checking with the others for their opinion they each nod before she rolls up the letter and sets it aside to be sent away later. “Not that I don't want to continue talking about what happened, but I have to ask something. Where did this blanket come from? I don't remember having something like this around the house?” Showing off the design on the blanket that happened to match a tapestry on the wall behind her. Fluttershy slowly raised a hoof before twirling it around her other one. “Well when I saw that you had that picture on the wall I thought that it would help relax you. I'm not sure why you would have something my father used... not that there is anything wrong with that.” “Well it's...” The thestral-eared mare froze before as her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Wait, what would your father have to do with one of the head clans?” Fluttershy just tries to burrow backwards into her blankets as everyone focuses on her. “Um, I don't know why really. Mother never talked about him much and only said that was the only thing she kept of him. She only ever told me that his name was Nesimtite when I left home just so that I would know to avoid him.” The orange unicorn's jaw dropped open in shock before she started laughing and pounding her hoof on the floor. The other mares just looked at her in confusion as she tried to catch her breath with how hard she was laughing. “He... He's your father?! The greatest tribalist of the family, Uncle Douchebag? Oh, that is just rich!” Most of the others flinched at what she called him, but Fluttershy just sadly nodded. “Yes. Mother did mention that he was called that but... Wait... Did you say uncle!?” Her question was met with gasps from the others while Aegis Flare regained control of herself though there were now a couple tears rolling down her cheek. “Yeah. You see this isn't an ordinary tapestry design but the banner of one of the major clans of Transylmania. My father the youngest stallion of the clan while Nesimtite was the third-born. Actually his name doesn't really mean douchebag but he always hated being called that because nesimtit translates to it.” Her revelation of this was met with winces at how unfortunate his name was when translated. As Fluttershy was trying to hide in embarrassment she let out an 'eep' of surprise as Aegis Flare grabbed her in a hug while more tears rolled down her face. “All this time I was doing what I could for what family that I had left and I didn't know that there was still family watching over me. I... I...” Once again the mare broke down crying again though this time in happiness. Fluttershy was unsure how to deal with the situation beyond patting her friend on the back while looking at her friends. Soon enough the weary mare had fallen back asleep allowing the buttery pegasus to escape from her near death grip. “Hey, where did Pinkie go?” With Rainbow Dash's question the others only then realized that one of them were missing. After a moment they all realized what she was probably doing so they were all surprised when they saw a flash of light from upstairs. Moments later they all saw the head of the pink pony wave them all upstairs and, with the exception of Fluttershy and the sleeping mare, the quietly climbed after her. Once they arrived they found the party pony standing outside of a room taking pictures of what was inside of it. Looking inside they all let out quiet 'awws' at the portrayal of cuteness that they found. Spike and the CMC were all asleep on Scootaloo's bed, but what really got them was how Both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were both cuddling up on opposite sides of the dragon. All three of them were using Applebloom like a pillow but from how the blankets were scattered all over they hadn't started that was. With a final look at the fillies on the bed the group of mares silently closed the door before returning to the room below.