Chapter the Fourteenth: Which Hunt?
Doing His Duty
A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fan fiction
by Wolfram and Hart
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Which Hunt?
The Tumbling Sea.
Oh what memories Flash had of the place. Visions of thunderstorms, skyships, a crazy mare and her pet dragon danced in his head as he and his newfound friends glided along with the turbulent winds that blasted the rocky western coastline of Equestria
He would count himself among the luckiest stallions in the world if he never saw it again.
The forests to the east quickly degraded into low shrubbery when the trio first caught sight of the ocean. It was quite unlike what Flash had expected; instead of sandy beaches and warm sunlight, Equestria’s coastline consisted of sheer granite cliffs being battered and beaten by an angry ocean with an overcast sky that threatened rain and lightning all hours of the day. It certainly wasn't vacation material, but had its own rugged appeal if one was an outdoors-ey type pony.
Flash, Twilight, and Starlight flew low on the ocean side as to get a good look at the rock face of the cliffs. Three sets of eyes scanned along the ugly grey surface, stopping only to inspect every crack and crevice that looked like it would fit a pony. Alas, they found no sea caves matching the book’s vague depiction. Most of the significant ones only held water, salt, stone, and the occasional pirate’s treasure stash. Nothing of value whatsoever.
Eventually they had to rest, what with Glimmer unable to hold her unfair flying spell for lengthy periods of time. They swooped back onto solid ground, at least fifty feet above the roiling waves, with Starlight moaning and groaning about her head the whole way down.
“Okay team,” Twilight began just as they landed “we'll take an hour break then it's back to the hunt.”
“So we're a team, now?” Starlight asked. “What’s our team's name?”
“Team Twilight!” Flash instantly suggested.
Starlight cocked her eyebrow at the guard
“Way to be a horse shoe-licker, Flash. I think ’Starlight’s Angels’ has a nice ring to it.”
“That sounds narcissistic as hell.”
“Ladies, please.” Twilight interjected. “We should be getting close to our destination. If my knowledge of obscure coastal landmarks and history holds up and this book isn't grossly inaccurate, the cave should be somewhere between Cloudstrider’s Rock and Pegasus Cove. We have to be dangerously close by now.”
“And let us hope that the siren has not arrived ahead of us.” Flash added.
“And that the witch is in a good mood.” Starlight said. “What exactly do we plan to do when we meet this infamous Mother of Sirens anyway?”
“We talk to her.” Twilight simply stated, levitating a ragged woolen blanket and a book out of her saddlebags and draping the blanket over the grass. She cracked open the book and gingerly set it down before tucking her legs under her body and diving facefirst into the musty pages.
“That’s it? And if she's unhappy to see a group of curious ponies descended from the ones that sealed her in that oh so dark and evil lair?”
Twilight didn’t even look up from her book before speaking. “Then we do what we always do. Apply diplomacy and friendship.”
Starlight leered at her mentor, she was not amused, nor did she look too pleased with that answer, but didn't press the matter further. She elected to summon in her own blanket and laid on that on that.
Flash could see something in her body language, the way her motions were jerky and exaggerated, the way she scowled back at Twilight after lying down with her back to the princess. Twilight didn't react, she didn't even seem to notice.
‘That is absolutely, positively none of my Celestia-damned business.’ Flash warned himself. ‘Not. At. All.’ With that, he did an about-face and trotted off inland, toward the sparse bit of woods that grew about a stone’s throw away from the cliffs.
* * *
The clawing branches of the bush left a trail of flattened grass and disturbed leaves as Flash dragged the prickly bush by its stump across the forest floor. Flash winced, he was pretty sure a small splinter made its way into his tongue. He stopped to pick it out with his teeth before continuing on his way. Gracefully weaving around the trees and over the fallen logs, he slipped out of the tangle and back to the bluffs where Twilight and Starlight laid, exactly as the left them with Sparkle still engrossed in her book and Glimmer still in a bad mood.
“Anypony hungry?” Flash asked with a forced enthusiasm, instantly drawing the two out of their respective trances. “I didn't think to pack food for a spontaneous adventure so I did a little foraging.”
“A little?” Twilight chuckled, eyeing the wild blackberries that he scrounged up. “That's enough to feed a bear.”
“Or three ponies, Your Gr-”
The princess glowered at him the moment that the “G-Word” started to roll out of his yap.
“Your Gra-aaah-”
Flash caught himself, his hooves flying to cover his mouth. He tried to swallow those words like a large clump of particularly dry hay.
The two mares watched Flash expectantly as he clutched his muzzle tight, beginning to sweat profusely as the urge to utter that one little syllable became overwhelming.
“Gr-g…”
‘Can't say it. Can't say it. Can't say it. Can-’
“Your Grace!” Flash blurted out, his breathing labored like he had just sprinted a lap around Equestria.
Twilight said nothing, instead she pursed her lips and shook her head at the poor pegasus.
Starlight laughed. Not with him, but rather at him.
“Just eat the berries please.” Flash hung his head, defeated by his own obsession with good order and discipline.
Flash gave himself a mental pat on the back as both of the mares went to work on his finding, picking off the fruits with telekinesis and gingerly popping them into their pie-holes. He had a few for himself, sitting down between them and sharing out at the lulling calm of the countryside. The waves crashing into the shore and the ever present whine of the summer cicadas were the only noises that broke the quiet.
“So where is this “other place” you were talking about?” Flash asked out of the blue.
The princess’s eyes went wide. At once Twilight nearly choked on her food, sending a wave of panic through the guard. “Princess, are you alright?!”
Cough. “Yes, I’m-” Another cough. “I'm fine, really.”
The pegasus breathed a sigh of relief.
Twilight made a show of coughing up and spitting out purple glob as she regained her composure and her breathing slowed. “It’s really nothing that important.”
Flash hummed. “On the contrary, it must be quite special to hold witches so powerful.”
“Well, yes. And no.” Twilight shoved her face back into the book, pretending to read. Flash had watched enough ponies lie in his lifetime to notice that something was odd about the princess her relationship to this “place”.
Starlight made her own voice known. “I'm actually curious too. You've never told me about fighting some weird siren ponies before.” She furrowed her brow, turning back to give Twilight a sour face. “What makes this place so super-special that you have to keep it a secret from your own Celestia-blessed student, of all ponies?”
“I'm not keeping a secret!” Twilight replied, beads of sweat beginning to form on her forehead. Her lips crept upward into an unnatural and incredibly guilty smile.
“You're a worse liar than Applejack.” Starlight said with a voice as plain as a brick wall.
The smile dropped like a sack of dead kittens. Twilight groaned as she slumped over to rest her chin on the open book. “Fine.” she muttered. “I guess I can't hide it forever.”
She sat up straight and put a hoof to her chest, taking in a deep breath and slowly moving it away from her body and toward the ocean as she exhaled steadily.
“Well, I suppose I should just say it. This place is another reality, a parallel plane of existence that can be traveled to through a magical portal that I created.”
At this point Flash wasn't even surprised.
Starlight’s mouth was agape so far that the sweet smell of berries on her breath drew flies.
“A portal?!” the unicorn echoed. “You built a portal to another plane and you didn't tell me about it?!”
The princess shrunk back. She didn't have the heart to look her pupil in the face. “I'm sorry, I just, umm....”
“I can't believe you!”
And so the manure storm began. Oh boy, Flash really did it done it that time. ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ he mentally flogged himself for asking the wrong pony the wrong question at the wrong time.
“I really can't believe you!” Starlight repeated, rising to her hooves. “I’ve dedicated all this time to you and your stupid lessons in friendship and this is what I get? You made greatest magical discovery in the past, what, thousand years and you don't even want to tell me about it! Out-rutting-rageous!”
Starlight’s face flushed few shades redder, and she was gritting her teeth at that point. Flash instinctively crept beside Twilight, tensing his muscles and preparing himself for the worst.
“It was for the safety of everpo-”
“Don’t give me any more of your excuses!” Starlight let out a shrill cry of frustration. “You expect me to take what you say in blind faith, but how can I believe you when you keep secrets? You know what? I'm sick if this. I was better off on my own playing by my rules.”
Twilight said nothing, she merely stared at Starlight with a hurt expression that made Flash want throw the offending pink unicorn off the cliffs.
“Goodbye, Princess.” she said with a voice that bit like ice. Then she turned tail and galloped away. Both Flash and Twilight’s hearts leapt into their throats when Starlight threw herself off of the cliff, but settled quickly as she rose again, enveloped by that familiar blue aura.
Flash watched with a knife in his heart as Twilight held her head low and cocked her ears back.
He had really screwed up this time.
* * *
She had found it.
The place that Twilight described from the book was only a half hour’s flight away. It wasn't exactly hidden, what with the grand stone arch carved with arcane runes that marked the entrance to the sea cave. Honestly, it was a miracle that nopony before her had found the place.
Or rather, more accurately, nopony had come back from it.
The place gave Starlight Glimmer the chills. Both figuratively and literally. The only light that penetrated the long corridor leading deeper into the cliffs shone through a crack that she could barely fit through getting in, and even that faded with each pace she took.
The floor of the cavern was a coarse mess of seashells fragments, washed-up kelp, and slimy wet sand. Her hooves made a sloshing and sucking sound as she moved them in and out of the stew of sea debris.
Starlight grumbled out a long string of ranting and raving that was nigh-unintelligible all the way through; saying this and that about her mentor and the rest of her precious little perfect friends who could do no wrong. How aggravating they were. She became a bit too absorbed into her monologue and lost her footing on a largeish rock hidden by the sand. She was planted face first into the muck.
Starlight parted herself from the squishy cocktail of sea junk, her mane caked with sand and seaweed. She let off a rapid-fire series of four, five, and even six letter words so foul they would make the saltiest of sailors uncomfortable. They echoed several times off of the wet walls of the cramped cavern.
It wasn't likely that she would be able to sneak up upon the witch at that point.
Using her magic, Starlight excavated the sand from her mane with a strong wind spell centered on herself, splattering the stuff all over.
Continuing on with a simple light spell illuminating the way forward, Starlight navigated the twists and turns as the slopes of the floor crept further downward. The tunnels began splitting off in many directions, going to and fro aimlessly, sometimes leading to dead ends or looping around. Starlight chose her paths at random every time a fork appeared, assured in the idea that she'll eventually find the right way.
“Having fun in my maze?” A mature feminine voice emanated from behind her. Starlight twirled one hundred and eighty degrees, putting on her war face readying a spell. Alas, there was nothing but more cave behind her.
“Where are you?” Starlight demanded.
“Here. There. Everywhere.” the voice answered cryptically.
“Yeah, disembodied voice. Real scary, lady.”
Starlight cautiously trotted on, keeping to her method of randomly chosen directions. She went on in silence for a few minutes more before the voice came again.
“Hmm, what will the mare do?” It asked nopony in particular. “Don't know which way to go, every path looks the same as the last? Oooh, you must be feeling a little lost by now?” It cackled madly.
What was this, a Nightmare Night funhouse?
Starlight soldiered on, paying no heed to her mocking.
“Poor little Starlight.” It cooed. “What shall become of you? How long have you been wandering my home? I wonder where Twilight and that little puppy following her are? Why, by now it’d be impossible for them to find you he-”
“Are you going to narrate everything I do?!” the unicorn screamed.
There was a long spell of silence.
“Bah, you're no fun.”
Starlight rolled her eyes and went on… and on...and on. Celestia’s tears, when did this thing end? It couldn't naturally extend this far into the earth, could it? Star had been walking for a good thirty minutes. Her hooves were starting to hurt. It was like she was going in circles!
Wait a second.
Starlight stopped in her tracks.
“Ha!” the voice cheered. “Give up yet? You'll never find your way in, but if you agree to leave this place now, I'll ensure that you find you way back to the surface safe and sound.”
“Nah.” was all that Starlight said.
At once the pink unicorn’s horn crackled with sky blue energy. Starlight grit her teeth and let loose a bolt of power straight into the tunnel ahead, painting the wet walls of the cavern in her signature color for a brief moment. It traveled several feet before it impacted upon some kind of shimmering sphere of magic, which was barely visible to the naked eye before it reacted with the bolt of power. There was a sound like shattering glass that pierced the cavern, then the sphere was no more.
“Hmm.” the voice pondered. “I thought you'd never figure it out.”
“It was a clever trick.” Starlight admitted. “Teleportation was never my thing, really.”
‘I bet Twilight would have caught it.’ She thought, making herself cringe.
Starlight walked past the point where her bolt stopped and entered a much less cramped space. The room extended far beyond the scope of her light, which faded away deeper into the blackness with every foot. The inches of mushy sand quickly became inches of seawater as she waded further in.
For a moment, Starlight swept her head to the side, and when her eyes returned forward, her heart skipped a bit more than a beat. What had been nothing several moments prior was suddenly something, right out of thin air.
Before her was a simple oaken table planted right there in the shallow seawater, complete with a modest table set for serving tea and a fancy candle chandelier seeming to on a brass chain that seemed to hang by nothing but air. Sitting contently at the end opposite of Starlight was a mature emerald-green earth pony with a silky mane colored like winter wheat and done up in an elaborate bun secured by what looked to be fish bones. She calmly sat and sipped on a piping hot cup.
“It's been some time since this old home has had a proper guest.” The mare said. Starlight was not surprised to find that her alto voice matched the one from earlier.
Starlight didn't immediately move or speak. She stood and stared at the aged mare, searching for the appropriate response.
“Oh come now,” she peered at Star through a pair of intellegent pink eyes, “I am a witch, not a barbarian. I can be civil. Now have a seat before the tea gets cold and high tide comes in.”
And so Starlight took a seat. Or rather, it took her. A simple wooden chair appeared behind her in a puff of white smoke. Before she could protest, the chair moved of its own power and swept Starlight up, nearly pinning her to the table.
The witch made a small motion with her hoof and the tea set came to life, pouring Starlight a steaming cup of what smelled to be jasmine.
Star eyed the floating cup. “I'm not much of a tea kind of pony.”
The witch gazed at her with blank eyes for a moment longer than Star found comfortable. “Suit yourself.”
With another wave of a hoof, the tea vanished.
“Interesting friends you have, Starlight.” the witch bagan in a pleasant tone. “A pampered purple princess and her humble, yet admittedly handsome guard.” She wiggled her brows seductively at that last part.
“H-how do you know all this?” Starlight asked softly.
“The sea has ears and the waves carry whispers. All one needs to do is learn how to listen.” The witch paused. “Oh, and this too.”
Poof. The teaset save for the cup that the witch held were whisked away into the darkness and replaced by something else. It was a big, luminescent sphere of glass the size of a pony’s head on a golden pedestal.
“A little scrying every now and again helps to stave off boredom.” she said. “And look what we have here!”
Star peered deeper into the orb. She saw a swirl of colors and vague shapes for the first few moments, but they soon organized themselves into a moving image. It was Twilight and Flash! They were walking through the same passages that Starlight was minutes prior.
Starlight tore her eyes away. She didn't want to look. Just seeing Twilight again so soon made her blood boil.
“They should be joining the party in a few minutes by the looks of it!” the witch hummed to herself. “You must be eager to see them again.”
The unicorn crossed her hooves across her breast and scowled. “Hardly.”
The witch felt a wicked smile creeping across her face.
“I see, I see…” the Mother of Sirens nodded sagely. “They'll never understand, you know.”
Star cocked an eyebrow at the mare. “Understand what?”
“Being anything other than a goody goody two-horseshoes.”
Starlight huffed. “Hit the nail on the head, sister.”
“They bow to laws and rulers like blades of grass to the wind. Always following somepony greater than themselves, never once stopping to think that they are the ones who could be great. It's a shame, all this wasted talent. The orange one could be a famed warrior if he wasn't seeking to please his princess like a puppy starved of affection. Twilight Sparkle could rule over all of Equestria herself, like the sisters, if only she wasn't so busy brown-nosing them. And you, Starlight…”
Suddenly, the witch kicked back her chair and slammed her front hooves on the table, nearly knocking the glass ball off of its pedestal. “You could be the same pony you used to be, only better! I can see it in your eyes, I need no enchanted crystal to know what I know about you. You want to lead again. You want to be the pony making all the rules. You want your freedom back.”
Starlight stammered unintelligibly “I- I- uh, I-”
“I can give you want you want. No need of these arbitrary rules to follow, no silly lessons of “friendship”, just pure magic. The likes of which you've never known! I've learned so many things over the years, it's all just bursting forth from my head! I need to pass these things on to a student, let the secrets of true witchcraft leave this infernal cave!”
“Starlight!”
The two mare’s attention were shifted to the entrance of the chamber as Twilight and Flash came galloping in, their hooves making large splashes as they waded through the saltwater.
“My my, you were quick to figure out my little.setup.” said the witch. “In fact, you are just in time to say farewell, as your protege shall be studying under me.”
With another wave, Flash and Twilight were instantly teleported to either side of Starlight, forceful wooden chairs pressing them to the table just as they did to her.
“What's going on?!” Flash demanded, struggling to push himself away. “I'm stuck!”
“Starlight, what's happening?” Twilight pleaded.
Starlight just glared at her.
The witch laughed a dark, humorless laugh. “Seems like the student detests the master. Tell me, Starlight, what has Twilight taught you about magic? What spells have you learned that you didn't know before?”
“Not one spell.” Star muttered, choosing neither to look at the witch, Flash, or Twilight.
“Well, seems like you're an inadequate teacher. All this time, and your pupil is no more learned than she was before you “redeemed” her.” The witch shot the princess a smug grin. “Don't worry, I'll be sure to avoid the mistakes you made.”
That was it. “You know what?!” Star shouted.
Everypony gave pause.
“I don't need a teacher.”
Her horn suddenly flared with an intense aura. With a flick of her forehead, Starlight sent a wide wave of raw magical force forward, knocking over the table, the crystal ball, and even the witch herself. The objects quickly dissipated into nothing, leaving but the four of them in the expansive cavern.
At once the witch was enveloped in Star’s aura. She levitated the stunned earth pony to eye-level.
“I'm going my own way. I don't need you,” she whipped her head back to scowl at Twilight “I don't need you, either. I'll make my mark on the world without the help of a perfect princess or a siren with an overinflated ego. Now, I came here for one purpose and one purpose only. Where is your daughter?”
The siren was silent. Oh, what a bad move that was. She began shaking her like a poor ragdoll. “Where is she?!”
“She's already there!” the witch cackled. “I gave her a head start! She's back to the portal, and if my crystal ball is correct, she should have a special little surprise in tow. A pompous, blonde, surprise of a unicorn!”
Flash’s throat suddenly found itself very full of heart. “Please tell me it's not-”
* * *
“Twilight?” Blueblood called, his voice bouncing off of the crystal walls of Ponyville’s super magic friendship fortress, or whatever it was called. “Hello? Spike?”
A very purple and very scaly head popped around the corner as the prince wandered the giant tree. “Hi Blueblood. Twilight's out looking for some super evil pony that escaped another world. Usual stuff. What can I do for ya?”
Cotton Swab faked a sad tone. “Aww, no afternoon tea with the pwincess? Too bad.”
BB shot an irritated glance at his bodyguard. “Another interesting day for her. Oh well, I was looking forward to a safe and dull afternoon. Perhaps you'd fancy a few hooves of poker, Spike? I know Twilight has to have taught you a game other than chess and “Organize the Bookshelves”. Though, she never was one for gambling.”
Spike was about to answer when Cotton nudged Blueblood with a hoof.
“Heads up.” She said, pointing down the corridor behind them. It was a lone mare at the very end, with a coat like pink lemonade and a wildly colored mane done up in two pigtails that nearly dragged the floor. Around her neck hung an ornate diamond-cut ruby. That had to be worth a pretty copper bit.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” Cotton said in an authoritative voice, positioning herself in between the mare and BB.
“Relax,” the prince said “I don't recognize her at all.”
“Well that's a relief!” Cotton immediately dropped the guard attitude. “I wasn't in the mood for shooting lasers anyway.”
“Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a mare of wealth and taste.”
Wait. This mare, was she… singing?
“Excuse me?” Blueblood asked.
“'I’ve been around for a long, long year, stole many a colt's soul to waste.”
Her voice, it was haunting. Disturbing, even. Yet still at the same time, beautiful. The two ponies and one dragon were left speechless. They could hardly even move.
“And I was 'round when Nightmare Moon had her night of dark and pain.”
Luna’s tears, Blueblood felt so tired. Her voice made him want to doze off right then and there. In fact, he did. All he could focus on was that lovely voice. All things seemed to fade away. The castle, Cotton, Spike, even the mare herself, all but the song that she sang.
Soon, he couldn't even hear the words, just the sound.
Finally, all that Blueblood knew was blackness.
“You're mine now.”
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah
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Well looks like their having a devil of a time trying to resolve this crisis...
Wait, Starswirl created the portal, Twilight just modified it.
7566773 IIRC in RR she built an entirely new one, didn't she?
7567320
Nah, the original portal was at the center of the device she constructed. She just made it so that she could open it up whenever she wanted.
7567640 Haha wow, my memory of EQG is kind of shaky. Looks like I have some editing to do. Ah, doesn't change the story much. i.e. Glim Glam would be pissed that Twilight went to a parallel dimension and didn't say a word to her about it.
There is something wrong with the formatting of this update. Everything is centered.
7569453
The last two chapters were done on a smartphone. I miss WiFi. Should be fixed now.
7569537
Oh well
Like student like teacher. Celestia lost Sunset. Twilight loses Starlight
Was honestly a little surprised at Starlight's sudden Face-Heel-Turn. Then again, this seems to be another instance of Starlight's paranoia twisting her perception of reality: She's angry about Twilight not teaching her magic, when the object of her studies was and always has been friendship.
Hm, is anyone else hoping someone on the other side of the portal decides to take a more pragmatic problem solving approach this time around? Maybe Big Mac can grab a shotgun or something for a last minute save.
7571096 ...And yet it still makes more sense than the show. Hm, maybe we should add Starlight to the "problem solving" list as well while we're at it.
7573041
Just a heads up, I like 80s action movies. A lot. This will reflect in the rest of the arc.
7592255
Just remember, 1980 was the release of this movie...
Maybe Sentry will live up to his namesake.
Can't wait to see the next chapter, I am surprised that Blueblood somehow get involved in this story; what did he do to get the sirens ticked off at him all the way in the other dimension over a thousand years before he was born? Still somehow I thing this story art will probably end up with Twilight thinking that Flash if gay for Blueblood for all the trouble that he got into with her when he was working outside the clock all that time.
Well, this escalated quickly.