Equestria Girls: The Crystal Crown

by ObsidianPony

Chapter 3: Face To Face

Twilight Sparkle had seen many things in her life that had seemed impossible; she had gone hoof to hoof with a mad goddess, battled the embodiment of chaos itself and saved an entire empire from an ancient tyrant.

After all of that, it would take more than this to surprise her, more than everypony suddenly not being everypony anymore and this bizarre... thing Shining Armour was driving. She guessed that it was the same as a chariot but must run off of magic instead of being pulled by ponies.

The house they pulled to was very expensive looking and the garden alone looked like it probably saw a lot of love and attention everyday to look as good as it did, roses of all colours growing in the garden along with countless other flowers she didn’t know.

It seems peaceful enough. She supposed. It’s not like when Discord changed Ponyville, everything still makes some sense and everypony acts like themselves. What the hay did Scorpan do, did he plan this?

“I’ll just drop the stuff in and then drop you off Twiley. Unless you want to see Cadence first?” Shining Armour asked as he parked.

Twilight jumped. She had been lost in her own thoughts as they leisurely drove along.

“Yes.” Twilight answered Shining Armour. “I mean, yeah, I’d love to see her.”

Shining Armour gave her an odd look but smiled again when he saw the genuine excitement in Twilights’ eyes.

Just please let her be the Cadence I know, Celestia knows I could use something else familiar right now.

**************

“Hey, what’s wrong with them? Why are they so upset?” Scorpan had so far been doing his best to ignore the loud and obnoxious occupants of the bus but the two girls two seats forward had been grabbing his attention; one, with purple and pink hair, was comforting her friend with a shock of blue and white hair though both of them had tears in their eyes.

Scorpan yelped as Firefly hit him.

“Keep it down. Do you really think anyone on here wants to be reminded of that?” Firefly hissed.

“Okay first, ouch. Second, what do you mean?” Scorpan whispered back.
Firefly made a visible effort not to groan in exasperation.

“Sometimes Scorpan I honestly wonder if you are that forgetful or just plain stupid.”

“Less berate the Scorpan more explain to the Scorpan please.” Scorpan snapped.

“Fine you dope, their friend is missing! Happy?” Firefly retorted, visibly upset.

Scorpan’s eyes widened.

“Wait, what do you mean missing?”

Firefly sighed sadly.

“How else does anyone go missing around here these days? They reckon she fell in with a bad crowd.” Firefly’s fists clenched as she spoke.

“Do you mean-”

“Yeah, they reckon she ended up involved with the Witchweed, and she was such a nic- Scorpan what the hell is the matter with you?” Firefly growled, for at the mention of Witchweed Scorpan had recoiled in his seat, mismatched eyes as wide as saucers.

“W-W-What did you just say?” Scorpan stammered out as he settled himself back down, well aware of the various stares he was getting.

“Witchweed. Come on Scorpan, even you can’t have forgotten about something as big as that and it’s not like it’s anything new, unfortunately.” Firefly shook her head as she continued to watch the two friends with a sympathetic look.

That isn’t possible. Scorpan forced himself to think. It’s a coincidence, you’re reading too much into it, so what if people stupid enough to fry their own brains exist in other worlds, that doesn’t mean anything.

He knew he was lying to himself. But it didn’t matter; if he had any say in this he’d be long gone before he had time to find out first hand.

The important thing is not to go looking for her. I’m many things but I’m not a fool.

“Earth to Scorpan, we’re here already, get your lazy butt off the bus!” Firefly rolled her eyes and hauled Scorpan to his feet.

“You know your first instinct doesn’t need to be to drag me behind you Firefly.” It still felt odd for that name to be coming from him so freely.

“Well it does when you seem like you forgot your feet this morning. I’ll see you later anyway, Spitfire looked ready to use my head for football practice last time I was late and I don’t plan to risk it, later!” Firefly ran off into the school before Scorpan could respond.

The school building was a garish yellow that stood out horribly from the pleasant green of the field behind it, where Scorpan could see some kids had set up improvised football goals and other activities for themselves.

“Hey freakshow!” Called a voice that just screamed “muscle headed moron” to Scorpan.

And lo and behold. Scorpan groaned in his head as he saw the two hulking figures blocking his path. Hoops and Dumbbell I guess then.

****************

“Twilight!” Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she heard the familiar voice of her friends. Even with their strange new appearances, it was so wonderful to see Rainbow Dash and Rarity, waiting for her by the sign which declared “Welcome to Equestria High”.

“Twilight come on!” Rainbow Dash continued, pulling on Twilights arm. “There’s a fight on the field and I can’t pass up an opportunity to see Hoops and Dumbbell get their butts handed to them!”

“With all due respect dear, how likely do you really think that is considering who they’re picking on even ignoring that the odds are in their favour?” Rarity asked with a roll of her eyes.

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll take any chance now hurry up! Applejack said that Scorpan actually fought back for once!”

“Wait, who?” Twilight demanded.

“Scorpan. You know, tall, weird eye, Firefly’s step-brother? Come on Twilight, you’re slow today.” Rainbow Dash responded without turning around only to be slammed out of the way by a sprinting Twilight. “Woah, what’s with her?”

Twilight muttered apologies as she zoomed past students, knocking books out of hands and barging people out of the way as she went. Before long she came to the edge of a large crowd that had formed near the school field.

“Hey Twilight, ya seen Rainbow Dash anywhere? Ah told her there was a scuffle goin’ on, figured she’d be wantin’ to see it.”
“On, her, way.” Twilight panted, out of breath from her run. “Can we get through the crowd in any way?”

“Surely can.” Applejack smirked. “Hey Big Mac!”

Twilight wheeled around, along with most of the crowd, to search for Applejacks big brother but was pulled back by Applejack with no sign of the larger apple sibling.

“Told ya Ah could get you upfront.” Applejack had indeed managed to push both of them to the front of the crowd in the confusion.

Twilight inhaled and narrowed her eyes as they landed on Scorpan; his yellow eye no longer seemed snake like but otherwise it was undoubtedly him. He had hisfists raised and his knees bent slightly in what seemed like a defensive pose while he was glaring at two large, jock looking boys with their own fists raised. They reminded Twilight distinctly of the Pegasus bullies who had taunted Rainbow Dash at the Best Young Flier competition.

“Come on freak, you gonna throw a punch or what?” The taller of the two jocks taunted.

“Yeah tell him Dumbbell!” The other sniggered.

Scorpan for his part looked more annoyed than intimidated. “I’ll let you decide which one of your faces I break first then.” As both jocks scoffed at the threat Scorpan’s fist lashed out, sinking his knuckles into Dumbbell’s face. There was a horrible crack as his nose broke.

“Hey get off my friend!” Hoops swung clumsily at Scorpan, who side stepped the jock’s punch and grabbed him by the wrist, twisting his arm painfully behind his back. Hoops yelped in pain and Scorpan brought his elbow down onto his head; Hoops crumpled to the floor and didn’t get up again.

Scorpan turned slowly to face the now silent crowd. Almost instantly his eyes found Twilight.

“You and me. We need to talk.”

****************

It appalled Twilight to see that the Equestria High Library was so empty but given the circumstances she wasn’t about to complain; she already had doubts about simply “talking” with Scorpan after everything she had seen him do but if either of them was overheard there would be awkward questions.

Scorpan led her to one of the library’s tables near the back of the room and sat down. Twilight took the seat opposite him, scowling at the mismatched eyes of Scorpan.

“Okay Twilight I know you are powerful but how the hell did you do this?” Scorpan whispered.

Twilight only scowled further.

“What do you mean what I did?” She hissed back. “It was your stupid crown thingy that hit us with that spell, why don’t you tell me what the hay is going on?”

“You really think I had anything to do with that?” Scorpan scoffed. “I’ve got no magic of my own Twilight, all I had is a bag of magic tricks, any magic sending us to who knows where is on you.”

Twilight didn’t respond instead thinking back to the moment where the crown had activated.

“Scorpan, what was that crown and what was it supposed to do?” She asked.

“None of your business.” Scorpan snapped immediately.

“Twilight crossed her arms and glared daggers at Scorpan.

“This isn’t the time to be petty Scorpan, you can bluff and swagger all you like but in the end you’re just as lost as me here, so pull your head out of the sand and tell me what the hay you were doing in the Crystal Empire!” Twilight slapped a hand over her mouth, realising she had raised her voice considerably. Scorpan quickly glanced around but still there seemed to be no one nearby to overhear them.

“Look Twilight this isn’t about being ‘petty’, trust me if I even told you why I did what I did you probably wouldn’t believe it anyway. Besides I need you to actually help me, what good does scaring you stupid do for me?” Scorpan retorted, raising an eyebrow as Twilight laughed mockingly.

“Me? ‘Scared’? Scorpan, I have faced down the Princess of the Night herself driven mad with power, I have been put through Tartarus by the living embodiment of chaos and lived to fight another day, risked everything I had to save my brother on his wedding day while stopping an invasion and then I was entrusted to save an entire empire from an ancient tyrant. I did all that long before I became an alicorn, so don’t you dare assume that I’m some weak filly scared of the Headless Horse and hiding under my pillow!” Twilight had raised her voice again and for the first time Scorpan’s face had changed; he looked somewhere between impressed and bemused.

Scorpan looked into the young girls eyes and saw the same determination and valor he had once seen so often in the eyes of Firefly. He sighed and hesitated before speaking again.

“Fine then. I still don’t think you’re going to be able to just sweep it away like you think you’re going to.” Twilight nodded for him to continue. “But you’ve earned the right to at least know why I did what I did.”

“Enlighten me.” Twilight deadpanned.

Scorpan visibly bit back a retort then continued.

“I think I need to start from the beginning for you to understand...”

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Have you ever considered submitting this story to Equestria Daily? You can find out how to do so here.

[ObsidianPony]

3119981
Not really, and there's a few reasons why.

1) It's cancelled.

2) I'm not particularly proud of it, I might remake this at some point.

3) I don't want to waste my breath. I have never held EqD in very high esteem and certainly even less so when I heard some of the stories from other users.

If I am going to submit something to them it would be something I have more confidence in, this was more just a fun little idea before Equestria Girls actually came out that I lost the motivation to finish.