Crimson Mare

by Sphinx_Herald

No More Hiding

Pinkie smiles as she hoofs the cashier a few bits and sweeps the streamers into her bag. It falls in next to bag of balloons, small stack of plastic plates and some party hats. She waves and heads outside, briefly stopping under a tree to scratch the last item off of her hastily written list. Done shopping to restock her supplies back in her ‘Super Party Planner Room’ now she can enjoy the rest of the day, and greet everypony in town.

The hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and a cold shiver runs down her spine. She looks around, having only felt this Pinkie sense on a few occasions, and sure enough she spots Nova walking further down the road. Ever since their first meeting Pinkie always felt something was off with the crimson pegasus. A feeling that something about her is nothing but trouble.

Over the past few months, really since Nova’s confrontation with Twilight at the Library, rumors of Nova have spread. The main one being that Nova has it out for Twilight and the other Element Bearers. While most ponies try to look for the good in others, it’s rather hard to ignore those types of rumors.

Pinkie follows Nova with her eyes as the pegasus walks past, she’s also aware of a few other ponies looking at Nova, mostly unicorns. Nova looks angry, or at the least very annoyed. She doesn’t seem to notice anypony as she continues down the road out of town. The slight scent of smoke lingers in the air behind her, the scent sends another shiver down Pinkie’s spine.

What’s wrong with her? Pinkie thinks. A part of her wants to tail Nova and see what’s going on, see what all the mystery surrounding her is about. Yet something in the back of her mind warns her, tells her, not to go. She pushes the feeling aside, dons on a disguise, and starts following at a distance.

A few eyes glance at Pinkie as she dives behind bushes, and the corners of buildings trying to stay out of sight. Soon enough everypony just smiles and goes back to business as usual. As they start to approach the edge of town Pinkie realizes they are on the same road that leads to Fluttershy’s. It’s not long before grassy fields dotted with a few trees replace the houses and gardens. Pinkie sticks to the trees and bushes, trying to stay in cover like they do in the spy stories.

They continue walking, Nova still unaware of the pink mare following her. Her mood doesn’t seem to be improving, in fact her mood seems to be worsening as they continue walking. And as her mood worsens, Pinkie becomes more and more wary of her, worried of what she’ll do.

Eventually, they come to a path that lead off to Fluttershy’s cottage, but Nova simply walks past, heading straight for the Everfree. Why would anypony go to the Everfree Forest? Pinkie thinks as her curiosity is once again peaked. A little ways beyond the path the Everfree comes into view. A dense wall of large trees that seem to come out of nowhere. Abruptly, Nova stops just shy of entering the forest and Pinkie jump into a nearby bush to avoid notice.

Nova looks up at the trees, then starts looking at her surroundings. She seems confused, as if she didn’t even know where she had been walking. After a few seconds her eyes go back to the forest.

Pinkie watches with her head sticking out of the bush, she hears the pegasus say something, though she can’t make it out. She sees Nova starting to turn around. Quickly, she ducks back down into the bush and tries to see between the leaves without making too much noise. As Nova slowly approaches she hears her say something.

“I thought I told you not to talk to me.” For a moment Pinkie thinks it’s directed at her, but when she looks she doesn’t see any signs that Nova even knows she’s there. Is she talking to herself? As Nova walks past she glances back over her shoulder at the forest, stopping for a brief moment next to the bush. After a heartbeat Nova looks forward again and starts down the road. Pinkie lets out a quiet sigh of relief.

Then the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end again, and a shiver runs down her spine. She feels a growing feeling of dread in her gut, something's very wrong. “Shut up, already,” Nova says, a sharp edge to her voice. What’s going on? Is she arguing with her-- The thought quickly dies when a few small flames ignite along Nova’s back and wings. “Shut up! Just shut up and leave me alone!”

A mix of fascination, terror, and horror spreads though Pinkie. The flames, although small, burn bright and seem to only being growing. However, Nova doesn’t seem bothered, or doesn’t even seem to notice them. Then Nova freezes, just stops mid-step, and Pinkie’s instincts begin screaming at her to run. "Don’t you dare mention her!” Nova shouts stomping her hoof down. There is a bright flash and and the loud crack of an explosion as the flames grow and a cascading wave of fire flows out from her.

The force of the blast slams into Pinkie knocking her back. Pinkie groans her ears ring and eyes water. The air is hot and dry, dust and smoke linger in the air. With some effort she rolls onto her stomach and lifts herself up. A dull pain throbs in her shoulder, quick check shows she has only a few scratches and bruises, but nothing serious. She looks around, luckily it seems the bush she’s in didn’t catch fire, a few broken branches but that’s it. She does however, see the glow of fire coming from the road.

Looking out of the bush, she sees Nova standing in a shallow crater. Flames lick at her sides, but she doesn’t seem bothered by it. The ground under her, and a good few feet around her is scorched. Several fires dot the crater, and a tree next to the road is now ablaze. Nova breaths out a long stream of dark smoke from her nostrils and starts scanning the area. Her gold-orange eyes pass over the bush Pinkie is hiding in. Once she’s fairly certain no one saw that she continues down the path, smoke trailing along behind her for a few feet.

Pinkie just sits there, trying to process what she watched. Several ponies come up the road from town and gather around the crater to see what happened. After half-an-hour Pinkie notices the crowd and decides it’s time to go. And she takes off in a run toward the library.

*****

A sigh passes through Twilight as she flips to the next page in her book. Her eyes quickly scan down the page. With a frustrated groan she closes the book and opens a different one. “Are you alright?” Spike asks poking his head out from the kitchen.

She looks up from the book happy for the interruption. “I’m fine, just feels like I keep hitting dead ends. None of my books, or the new ones from Canterlot have any mention of the of the Tree of Harmony, let alone the chest. I just wonder what it means…”

“Twilight, you’ve read all these books hundreds of times. If there was anything in them about the tree I’m sure you would have found it by now.”

“I guess you’re right. But, I still can’t help but feel like I’m missing something,” she says scratching the back of her neck. She smiles down at Spike. “Thanks anyways.”

Then an urgent knock at the door catches their attention. “Twilight, Twilight, there’s a problem!” Pinkie shouts from outside, continuing to knock on the door.

Twilight and Spike glance at each other, a mix of confusion and concern, then head for the door. Twilight opens the door with her magic and Pinkie bursts in not waiting for the door fully open. Her coat is spotted with soot and dust, and she has a few bruises on her back and side. Twilight freezes when she sees her friend, but regains her composure almost instantly. “Pinkie, what happened?” Twilight asks rushing to her friend’s side and checking is she’s okay. She levitates a chair over to them for Pinkie to sit on.

“I-it’s Nova, she… she caught fire. I don’t know how, but she caught fire and blew up.”

Great, what did Nova do this time? “Okay, calm down, everything’s alright. What do you mean she blew up?”

“I don’t know, one moment she was shouting at herself and then the next there was a ball of fire where was she was standing. But, she was fine, she just walked away as if nothing happened.”

She pats Pinkie on the back. “Alright, how about you head home and get some rest? I’ll go have a chat with her, see what she has to say.” She had better have a good explanation for this… With that she turns and heads for the door.

“Twilight?” Pinkie speaks up once the door is open. “Be careful, I don’t know what she is, but my Pinkie senses tells me she’s bad news, she’s dangerous. We weren’t far from Fluttershy’s when it happened, any closer and… Just be careful, okay?”

“I will, I promise.”

Twilight heads out the door and takes to the air heading toward Nova’s cave. A little way off to the side she sees the faint trail of smoke hanging in the air. That’s actually really close to Fluttershy’s, but Nova wouldn’t have hurt her, right? As she thinks this her hoof goes to throat, where Nova had burnt her. No, she is dangerous. She has threatened me, put my friends in danger. And the longer I try to find out her secrets the more ponies that are put in danger. Either I get answers, or I take action. If she does run… it might be for the better.

A few minutes later she lands at the entrance to the cave. A wave of unease passes through her as she looks into the cave. Taking a deep breath she heads inside. The air inside is hot, and only grows hotter as she walks through the short tunnel.

Further in, Twilight sees Nova sitting on the ground in the center of the chamber staring out at one of the corners of the cave. Twilight pauses when she sees her, pushing back another feeling of unease and trying to get over the growing feeling of dread in her gut.

“I never meant for any of it…” Nova mumbles. Twilight’s ears perk up at the sound, she can barely make it out. It was quiet, almost as quiet as Fluttershy.

“Nova?” Twilight asks.

The pegasus doesn’t move, doesn’t anything else, just sits there staring at the corner. Twilight sighs and heads around her so she can, at the very least, look Nova in the face.

“What’s going? What’s with the crater outside Fluttershy’s house? And I don’t want some half-ass excuse, tell me what is really going--” She gets in front of Nova and stops. Nova continues to stare, her eyes slightly glazed over in some sort of daze. It’s as if Twilight isn’t even there.

“Nova?” Twilight asks, it’s not unusual to find Nova in a daze, but this seems worse than usual. She reaches out and shakes Nova slightly. A response, Nova shuts her eyes and shakes her head. Her golden eyes open, quickly focusing on Twilight, going from a confused gaze to an annoyed glare. She feels the temperature raise a few degrees. Once again, a feeling of unease passes through Twilight, but she remains unfazed.

Twilight sighs, “I’ve had enough of this, Nova. The secrets you keep trying to hide, the danger you put everypony in, the danger you put Pinkie in. I want answers, now. I want to know what you are, why you can use magic, why you’re here. You promised me answers, it’s time to--”

Nova turns and walks away. “Please leave me alone, I’m not in the mood,” she says, her voice tired but still with a certain edge to it.

“No!” Twilight shouts stomping her hoof onto the ground. Nova stops and faces her again. “You’re never in the mood, you’re always angry or sad. That’s not getting you off the hook this time. Ponies saw the crater you left outside Fluttershy’s, Pinkie saw you make. You could have seriously hurt her. You can’t possibly believe you can remain hidden much longer, soon everypony well know what you can do.”

Silence hangs in the air for a few moments, then Nova turns back to the outcropping letting out a long sigh. “Please leave me be.”

“No, I’m not leaving until I get some answers.”

“Leave me be,” Nova say again. The air in the cave is starting to becoming unbearably hot, but Twilight can’t leave, she still needs answers.

“Not until I know whether I can trust you. While you’re--”

“Just leave me alone before I hurt you too!” Nova shouts turning around and stomping her hoof on the ground. A sharp bang echos off the walls, causing Twilight’s ears to ring. Several small red cracks radiate outward from Nova’s hoof, steam and smoke wisping up from them. “You can’t trust me, and now you know. Now, leave me.” With a huff of smoke and steam she heads back to the outcropping.

Twilight watches her walk away, she considers staying and pressing some more. She can’t just let Nova off, not this time. Something’s wrong, I need to find out what. But, she turns and walks toward the entrance, her eyes sting from the heat, and the air burns in her lungs. If Nova won’t talk to her, there is always another option, one that should have been taken a long time ago.

She paces the on the carpet in front of the large double door. The pristine white walls of the palace are familiar to her, but they do little to put Twilight to ease. How do I explain this to her? I’ve known Nova for six months, but I’ve never mentioned her so far. Where do I even begin? This was a mistake, I should head back and… no, I need answers and Celestia is the only one who’d answer them.

After a few minutes she finds her hoof rubbing her throat, a dull pain throbbing there. For a moment her mind flashes back to when she first found out of Nova’s power. The rage and fear that burnt behind Nova’s golden-orange eyes.

Thoughts continue to pester her until she notices the doors to the throne room open and a noblepony walks out, somewhat disgruntled. Twilight sighs and head into the room.

Celestia smiles as her pupil walks in. “Thank you for seeing me, Princess Celestia,” Twilight says giving her mentor a quick hug.

“Of course, though the letter you sent was a little… vague about what you wanted to talk about,” Celestia says returning the hug in full.

Twilight sighs and scratches the back of her neck. “Yeah, sorry about that, it’s been a rough day.” Once again, she rubs her throat.

“Is something the matter, are you hurt?” Celestia asks her voice edged with concern.

I came here for answers, I suppose it’s time I stop avoiding the subject. “Well, do you know anypony by the name, Nova Hearthfire?”

Author's Note:

Still not dead! And, as I said, new chapter. I'm sorry if it's not quite as good as the previous ones, again it's been slightly over half a year since I last wrote. So, my skills, which weren't terribly great to start with, have rusted. Anyways, hope you all enjoy. Until next time (and there will be a next time),
-Sphinx