//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Through Fire and Darkness // by Mr Wool //------------------------------// "This is a weird looking magic gate." Overburner said as he inspected the horse statue that stood outside Canterlot High. "Why would they make it to look like a statue ?" "Don't know. Maybe whoever designed it wanted it to stand out." Shadow Runner replied as he set his bag on the ground and began to look through it. "So how do we activate this thing ?" Overburner asked while he scanned the area. "I don't see anything else nearby." "From what I saw earlier all we have to is just walk through it." "And they just have it out here in the open ? What if somebody is leaning against it and goes through by accident ?" "I guess they'd just go back through the one on the other side. The girl I saw go through this morning said that there was another portal linked to this one on the other side." "Do you think they use this thing for school trips ?" "If they do then they're not gonna have them any more." Once Shadow Runner had finished going through his bag, ensuring that everything he needed was present, threw it back up around his shoulder. "You ready ?" he asked Overburner. With a nod Overburner jumped up on the statue and stood on the back of the horse. He then extended his arm above his head as far as he could and produced a flame in his hand. A stream of fire then shot out from the flame and began to create a circle of fire a decent height above the statue, making sure that the radius of the circle was big enough to cover the whole thing. "Alright now to wait a minute or two and it'll be ready." Overburner said jumping down with the stream of fire still flowing from the flame in his hand to the circle, filling it. At first glance Overburner's falling star spell didn't look like anything overly spectacular, just a simple circle being filled with fire. But for anyone who could sense magic energy it was something else. A great amount of magic energy was being sent into it; which would then make a ball of fire strong enough to destroy the statue. "If I was able to increase the intensity of my fire even more then this wouldn't take half as long." As he watched Overburner cast his spell Shadow Runner felt a bit excitement; the same as when the two of them were getting ready to escape. Once they went through the portal that would be it; the end of many things that persistently bothered him after they escaped. They would no longer have to worry about the others finding them, they wouldn't have to fight them or, more importantly, they wouldn't have to face Solas. Solas had a way of punishing them that Shadow Runner considered much worse than anything he could do with his own magic. Everyone that Solas kidnapped, including his own daughter, had experienced it at one point, some even experiencing it more than once. One girl, who Solas named Cya, was put through it so many times that her mind was on the borderline of insanity the last he remembered. Overburner learned that she was not being punished; it was another one of Solas's sick experiments. Shadow Runner was the only one Overburner told this to. Knowing what it could do people made Shadow Runner feel ashamed of himself due to the fact that if they ever had to fight the others he would use it a way to buy them time to get away. Once they were on the other side of the portal he planned to destroy the bag of cubes that would let him do such a thing. For a while Shadow Runner was lost in his own thoughts until Overburner snapped him out of them. "It's ready." "Then lets go." Without a moments hesitation Shadow Runner began to walk towards the statue. Overburner followed in suit, readying himself to release the stream of fire from his hand and immediately follow Shadow Runner once he had gone through the portal. It was only when Shadow Runner walked straight into the statue he came to a stop,. Seeing this almost made him laugh. "This shouldn't happen." Shadow Runner said in a slightly panicked tone. He put his hand on where he knew the portal should be and pushed at it. Nothing happened. "No." Immediately he went to the next side and tried the same thing only to get the same result. "No." he growled. He tried it again on the remaining two sides, still being met with the same result. "No ! This shouldn't be happening." He then began furious smacking the statue in a futile attempt to get something to happen. "It was working this morning ! All she did was walk through it! That's all I saw !" His hand was now getting sore, prompting him to stop. It then dawned on him that there was a large ball of fire powerful enough to destroy the statue and the ground it stood on suspended above his head. "You done ? Because I don't think I can hold onto this for much longer." Overburner commented. "Don't let it hit the portal! Can you make it shoot upwards ?" "I don't know, I've never tried before." A much easier idea then came to Overburner. Jumping back up onto the statue he stopped producing fire from his hand, letting the remaining stream of fire flow into the fireball, like a lit fuse on a stick of dynamite. He then extended both his arms in the air and caught the fire from his spell as it shot down towards the ground. As the inferno rained down it flowed directly to Overburner like he was a magnet for it. It wasn't long before he was completely covered in fire and he jumped back down. Upon reaching the ground he moved forward to gain distance from the statue. Using some of the flames that covered his body Overburner created a dome of fire around him and released the remainder of it inside, doing his best to control it as it detonated like a bomb. The whole thing was quick and once things settled down the dome disappeared. Despite keeping the burst of fire controlled so that he took the bulk of it there was still a noticeable crater where the dome was. Overburner stood in the center of the crater, unharmed. He looked back at the statue and saw that the back of the horse where he stood on was slightly melted. Shadow Runner sighed with relief, only for that relief to quickly turn to anger at the portal that wouldn't work. In his anger he punched the statue as hard as he could and recoiled in pain after his fist made contact. He looked as his hand, blood was beginning to trickle down it. "Oh great." "You gonna heal it ?" Overburner asked walking up to him. "Might as well." Normally Shadow Runner wouldn't use his magic to heal something that wasn't much, worrying about the others sensing him use it. He had the same attitude towards the two of them using their magic in general, believing it would make staying hidden from the others easier. But since magic was already used he figured using a tiny bit more wouldn't make a difference. "The school isn't even open. Does that mean it only be activated on the other side ?" Shadow asked himself, still frustrated. Once again he felt compelled to hit the statue but was stopped by Overburner. "Getting angry isn't gonna do anything." "You're right." he sighed. "Lets get out of here for now. We'll figure something out later." "Yeah." "I saw this cafe when we arrived yesterday, Sugarcube Corner I think it was called, lets get something there." "I could do with something sweet." When the two of them arrived at Sugarcube Corner the place was crowded. Shadow Runner was able to spot a free four person space and made his way towards it. "I'll hold onto that spot for us, get me whatever you're having." he said handing Overburner some money. "Sure thing." After taking his seat Shadow Runner began looking around for a bathroom where he could wash the blood off his hand. Still on his mind was the portal, trying to figure out what he had to do to get it working. He was beginning to think that the portal wasn't put outside the school intentionally, it was something on the other side that must be making it work. That one girl who went through this morning however seemed to be friends with those other girls, making him believe they might know something about it. He saw Overburner coming over to him with two milkshakes in hand. "I'm going to the bathroom to wash my hand." "Ok." Overburner said quietly as he took a seat. The spot Shadow Runner had found was next to a window, which Overburner had taken the opportunity to sit next to. He didn't want to admit it to Shadow Runner but he was relieved that they didn't go through the portal. He didn't want to run away to some new world, he had something that he wanted to do the moment the two of them escaped but after a year he had still done nothing about. "Sorry do you mind if we sit here ?" a girls voice asked, grabbing his a attention. Overburner turned away from the window to the person that spoke to him. It was a girl no older than he was, with beige skin and blue and pink hair. Next to her was another girl with mint green skin and hair that was white and a lighter shade of mint green. "It would only be for a few minutes." she pointed to another table where two people were sitting at. "They look like they'll be finished soon." "Sure go ahead." "Thanks." she said taking the seat next to the window across from Overburner. "I'm Sweetie Drops by the way." she introduced. "Most people just call me Bon-Bon though." "And I'm Lyra." the other girl said. "Overburner. But I prefer to be called O.B. ." "I don't think I've seen you around before are you new here ?" Bon-Bon asked. "Yeah my friend and I moved here yesterday." Overburner replied. He then noticed Shadow Runner coming back from the bathroom. "Speak of the devil." "Looks like someone is making friends." he commented as he sat back down. Both girls introduced themselves to him and he did the same. "So are you two gonna be going to Canterlot High ?" Bon-Bon asked them. Overburner didn't reply, not knowing what to say. Shadow Runner however recognized Canterlot High as the name of the school where the portal was. "Yeah we'll be starting on Monday." he lied. "Too bad you didn't start this week. You would've been there for the battle of the bands." Lyra said, getting an odd look from Bon-Bon. "Actually I caught a glimpse of it last night. I saw that performance by that band with the seven girls. That was an amazing light show they did." "You mean the Rainbooms ? That wasn't a show they were putting on they ..." Lyra was nudged by Bon-Bon to get her to stop. "Hey." "Is something wrong ?" Shadow Runner asked. "No. It's just... You might think its weird if we tell you." Bon-Bon said. "Don't worry about sounding weird. Shadow Runner thinks he was abducted by aliens when he was younger." Overburner said joking. This managed to get the two girls to laugh. Shadow Runner looked at Overburner and mouthed 'I'm gonna get back at you for this' at him. Overburner couldn't help but laugh. "Still. It's something weird I don't know how to explain it." Bon-Bon continued. "It's a long story and we don't know much about." "That's alright. I guess we'll find out sooner or later." Shadow Runner said. They didn't talk with the two girls for much longer; once the spot Bon-Bon had mentioned earlier was free they were gone. It was still a pleasant conversation for the two of them nonetheless. Both of them had never bothered to talk to anybody in the other places they passed through and friendliness of the two of them was a much welcome change of pace from what they usually experienced from the only other people they knew. Shadow Runner didn't do much talking, his mind was on something else. These 'Rainbooms', as Lyra had called them, were probably the only people around who knew how to make the portal work. In his mind he ran over what they looked like and made his next plan. The two of them were late. After being told where they were supposed to meet up a month ago they were still late. It shouldn't even take them long. Both could turn into their respective elements which should make them get there faster. Three months ago they began the search for Shadow Runner and Overburner, deciding to split up into groups of three so they could search more places, meeting up after a month. This wouldn't even bother her if she wasn't put in charge by her father. Ferrous was the first out of all of them to be given magic by her father. In fact she was the only one for a few years until she was six; that was when the others came into her life. At the time she had never even met someone close to her own age. Even with the years they spent together she would hardly call any of them her friends and she had a feeling they had the same mindset as her. The only one of the she had the slightest positive opinion of was Shadow Runner. Despite not having any luck in finding the two she remained patient. She could spend the next year looking for them and she still wouldn't lose her patience, even if she did have to keep her eyes on someone with a questionable mental state. That person currently sat in across the way from her in the corner of the room. A yellow-green skinned girl messing with her dark, leaf-green colored hair to keep herself distracted. Suddenly there was a bright flash of yellow outside the decrepit house they were in. It was then followed quickly by a loud rumbling. "One more left." she said to herself. The person outside entered. He was roughly the same height as Ferrous and has white skin and spiky blonde hair. "For someone who can turn into lightning you sure have trouble arriving on time." Ferrous chided. "I was out having fun." he responded. "We're not supposed to..." "We're not supposed to have fun." he interrupted. "I take you didn't find out anything about them or where they were ?" "Why do you think I was out having fun ?" "Then maybe it's a good thing you didn't find them. You do realize we're supposed to bring them back alive right ?" "Me killing them would probably be a favor when compared to you finding them, especially for Shadow Runner. Maybe the reason he decided to leave was because he couldn't stand the thought of another moment with you." "Watch it Golden Bolt !" Ferrous said angrily. "Did I strike a nerve daddy's girl ? Why so defensive ? We all know about your activities together." The argument between the two was watched by Cya who now had something else to distract her, much to her own discomfort. She put her hands to her ears in an attempt to drown out the growing hostility, hoping that Cold Streak would arrive soon which would make things quieter and her and Ferrous could then get on their way. As if her hopes had been answered he had finally arrived. Cold Streak was shorter than Golden Bolt, had pale blue skin and darker blue, well kept hair. His eyes were also blue and were behind a pair of glasses. "Good you're here." Ferrous commented. "Lets get things over with." "This won't take us too long." Cold Streak said with smugness in his voice. This gained him everyone's attention. "You know where they are ?" Ferrous asked. "Not quiet. Yesterday before I left to meet up with all of you I overheard this girl talking about some strange energy signatures she detected the night before." "What's the point of this?" Ferrous interrupted. "We can sense magic energy as well." "This energy wasn't close enough for me to detect it and this girl doesn't have any magic powers. She was able to do so with machines she had." "Where did they come from ?" "Canterlot." "And you think that's where they could be ?" "It's our best lead." "Then that's where we're heading." "There's one more thing." Cold Streak said. "That girl I was talking about. She may know things that even your father doesn't know. She's definitely a smart person." "All she did was detect magic energy further away than we can that's all." "I know that but it wouldn't hurt to see what else she knows. I also told her to over to Canterlot today to find out more." "This could be a waste of time." "I'll take that risk. Besides she doesn't live too far away from Canterlot." "Ok do what you want. I'll take Cya and head to Canterlot. Golden Bolt you go with Cold Streak." "What ?!" Golden Bolt protested angrily. "I'm not staying with him while you and the freak do the fun work." "Shut up !" Cya shouted in her raspy voice before sitting back down in her corner. "I agree with Golden Bolt on this one. I'd much rather be with Cya than with him." "No. Cya's poison will make capturing them easier, if they're even there. Besides I don't want to be near him any more than you do. Now get some rest if you have to, we leave in a few hours."