Wilmont

by gmen15

The Soccer Star

The Soccer Star

Carl's Dream

Carl woke to a bright light that burned into his eyes like a fire. He quickly shielded his vision with his hand until his vision would return in full force. Once he was fully awake, and he could see again without hurting his eyes, he found himself in a grand, white hallway lined with stained-glass windows and underlain with a red rug. He knew that he’s seen this hallway before, but from where he couldn’t remember.

The other thing he noticed about it, besides its larger-than-life feel, was that the hallways seemed rather…animated, like it had come out of a painting…or cartoon.

"What is this place?" he asked no one in particular.

"This is Princess Celestia's Castle, Carl."

Carl turned around to see Twilight standing right behind him with a nervous smile on her face.

"Sorry, she sent me another letter and asked me to take you here. I hope that isn’t a problem.”"

“No, it isn’t.” Carl said as he looked around, taking in everything that surrounded him. It was, indeed, Princess Celestia’s Castle. Specifically, he was in the hallway that the mane six found themselves in when they first met Discord, back when he appeared as nothing more than a moving, talking image on the stained-glass windows.

"So, wait….am I really here though? Or is this a dream?" Carl asked as he continued to look around.

"This is a dream in that it occurs in your minds, but this conversation is very real."

Both he and Twilight turned to see a familiar alicorn with a white coat almost as blinding as the walls around them, a stunning rainbow-colored mane and tail, and a warm smile on her face. Carl's mouth fell open when he saw Princess Celestia, in the flesh, standing behind him. Almost out of instinct, Carl got onto his knee and bowed forward to her as if he were one of her loyal subjects, even if she wasn't technically his ruler, he had a hell lot more respect for her than any politician in the U.S. government or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed with a grin on her face, running up to the princess and throwing her hooves around her neck in a hug.

Princess Celestia chuckled and hugged her back, "Twilight Sparkle, it's good to see you again. How is my star pupil doing?"

“I’m fine, Princess.” Twilight said, looking up at her mentor with happy eyes.

Princess Celestia looked down at Twilight and gave her a smile. They broke the hug.

"I'm aware that five of the six elements have been accounted for."

They both nodded, Carl's nod was a little slower than Twilight's through, as he was still in shock at what was happening, and his head was down in a bowed positon. When the Princess saw that he was still kneeling in a bow-like position, she chuckled.

"Carl, you don't have to bow to me, after all I'm not your ruler."

"I know…though I should say," Carl said as he slowly began to stand up, "if you were our ruler, Earth probably wouldn't be as screwed up as it is."

"I wouldn't count too much on it." She said with a chuckle, "I've been observing your world for quite a while now, and based on what I’ve seen, I can say that I probably wouldn't make much of a difference."

"Still, you'd be better than any of the leaders we have now." Carl said.

Princess Celestia chuckled, “Well I appreciate your compliments.”

Carl suddenly remembered something, "Oh yeah while I'm here, I want to thank you for helping me out with the…you know…cop that was chasing us." He rubbed the back of his head nervously. He felt completely unworthy to be in her presence. “If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t have been able to make that car teleport away.”

“Wait, Carl you performed a teleportation spell?” Twilight asked, to which Carl have her a small nod. Slowly her expression showed a joy the teen hadn’t seen from his pony partner since he met her. “Wow, you’ve got to tell me these things when they happen, a non-unicorn or alicorns performing a spell? That’s fascinating.”

Carl smiled, loving how enthusiastic Twilight always seemed to be with learning new things. “Don’t worry, I will.”

Carl then looked up at the Princess, “Thanks again, Princess Celestia.”

"Don't mention it," she said warmly, "but I shouldn't be the one you should thank here, Carl. After all, you and Twilight were the reason your magic worked."

At this statement, Carl shut his eyes and clenched his teeth nervously having a bad feeling about where this conversation was going. Twilight looked at the Princess with curiosity. "What do you mean both Carl and I? I wasn’t there.”

"Please don't tell her I was thinking romantically about her, please don't tell her." Carl thought over and over in a panic, pleading that the Princess would say something, anything else other than give away the true feelings he had for Twilight. He didn't even want to think about the little purple unicorn knowing what thoughts triggered his magic. He didn’t want her to know how he really felt about her. Carl knew that Twilight already had an idea about his feelings for her, but if she found out it was thinking about her that powered him to harness his magic, she would never let him live it down, for better or worse.

He knew that he was close to telling her before James called about Caroline's death. But after that interference, his brain revoked the decision-making process from his heart, and began to fill his head with multiple negative "what if" scenarios, most of which involved how weird him dating a cartoon pony would look to others, especially his mother and sisters.

Finally, the Princess answered her student’s question, "You brought Carl's faith in magic back, and it was that faith that gave him the ability to teleport the car."

"THANK YOU PRINCESS CELESTIA!" Carl thought, letting out a sigh of relief and relaxing his clenched fists.

"Oh really," Twilight said, turning to Carl, "I didn't know I helped you recover your faith in magic so quickly."

"Oh yeah, you did." Carl said very quickly and nervously. "Very much so in fact. Thank you Twi."

That's when Twilight shot Carl the most disbelieving look imaginable, her eyes half closed and her face serious.

"Uh-huh, No problem Carl," she said. Though it was clear she didn’t buy a word of what Carl was trying to sell her.

"Shit." Carl thought. But he put on a fake smile to make it appear as if he had nothing to hide. But if anything, it made him look more suspicious and Twilight, being the clever girl that she was, took note of this. She could see right through his “poker face” and knew there was something he wasn’t telling her. Something secretive that most likely had to do with his relationship with her.

"Sooooo," Carl said, turning back to face Princess Celestia, "why did you summon us here anyway?"

"I just wanted to meet you face-to-face as we’ll be working together for a while. Also, you must find the Element of Generosity quickly so that you can search for the necklaces and crown that represent the elements and defeat Discord once and for all, thus saving both your world, and possibly ours."

Carl nodded. Even though he thought the meeting was somewhat pointless, as everything the Princess said had been common sense, he decided to act like it was profound. Because in reality, meeting Princess Celestia in person…or pony…was worth the dream invasion Twilight performed on him.

Carl then spoke up again, "We've actually been looking for Louis Clarkson in my yearbook but there isn't anyone with that name."

"Hmmm," Princess Celestia said, thinking over the situation for a brief moment, "I'm not exactly sure, then. Sorry I can’t help you out. But it has to be someone in Wilmont, and you must have met them before, at least once."

“Okay,” Carl asked, "I have another question, sorry if I seem like I'm pestering you Princess Celestia."

Princess Celestia giggled, "I don't mind Carl; ask away."

"Thank you. I was wondering if you could use magic like Twilight to search out the element."

"I'm sorry, I can't. If I use such a large spell, Discord will pick up on it and know who the Element that I'm searching for is before you can get to him." Princess Celestia said, “and besides, most of my spells are blocked so I can appear on Earth in non-physical forms, such is in your dreams or projections, and even those only have the ability to last a minute or two.”

Carl nodded, "Good to know."

"Anything else that you'd like to ask?"

"Not right now."

"Just remember, I am always watching over you and your friends"

"Thank you very much for everything Princess Celestia." Carl said before he kneeled back down to show his gratitude. Hoof steps approached his bowed form and he felt somepony put their hooves onto his shoulders. He looked up and saw that he was directly under the Princess, who was giving him a kind smile.

"You can do it, all you and the other five have to do is believe in what you stand for."

Carl nodded without blinking, unable to avert his eyes from the Princess for even a second.

"Yes Princess."

"And," she said with a sly smile on her face before leaning into Carl's ear, "Your feelings aren't wrong and you shouldn't hold them back. Don’t be afraid to let her know how you feel."

Carl looked up at the Princess in shock as she smiled at him and winked knowingly. Carl gulped and looked over at Twilight, who had an inquisitive look on her face. Carl sighed and gave her a small nod.

"Good. Now if you excuse me, I need to have a word with my student." At that, Princess Celestia walked back over to Twilight. Carl bit his lip and waited patiently as they talked to each other. He began to think everything over in his head, from stopping Discord, to finding the last element, and, of course, to the feelings he had for Twilight. He didn't know what to do about it. Clearly Princess Celestia knew, which didn't really surprise him as she was inside his head when he used the spell. But he didn't know if he could actually ever go through with telling Twilight how he felt. It made him feel uneasy and it seemed too…weird.

He knew that Ryan and Alex had crushes on their partners; hell, Alex and Applejack were making out in the mall after only knowing each other for a short time, after they knew their true identities. He knew that he had romantic feelings for Twilight, but he wasn't sure how he could tell her. After all, no matter how often he got lost in her eyes; the thought that constantly popped up and scolded, "What the hell is the matter with you? She's a purple, animated pony from another dimension, and you like her? SHAAAAAMMMMEEEEE!"

He wished he could just follow his heart rather than his head this one time in his life, but that was much easier said than done. Carl snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Twilight trotting over to him after talking with the Princess, a smile on her face.

"Hey Carl, you ready to head back?"

"You mean wake up? Yeah, I'm all set if you are."

The Princess walked over and smiled at them both, "When you two wake up, it will be morning. Don't worry about being exhausted. Even though this conversation really happened, it is still technically a dream, and your body will still feel well rested."

“Thank you Princess Celestia.” Both Carl and Twilight said in unison, making both blush. Princess Celestia held her hoof to her mouth and laughed. She then closed her eyes and her horn started to glow. Everything started to turn a bright white, even the air around both Carl and Twilight seemed to disappear into the bright, white void. Moments before everything disappeared into the nothingness, Carl heard Princess Celestia’s voice inside his head.
"Remember to embrace your element."

---

Reality
Carl's eyes shot open as he looked around to see that he was back in bed, the morning sun slowly creeping in through the venetian blinds that were covering his window. He looked over to his right to see Twilight lying next to him. She was awake, and looking at him with happy eyes.

"So, I take it that the dream was real." Carl asked.

Twilight giggled. "Yeah, sorry about that, but I couldn't let you know that I was taking you under like that. The spell wouldn't have worked on you if you knew what I was doing. Your subconscious would have stopped it."

Carl chuckled, "That's really cool, Twilight.”

Twilight blushed, "Yeah, I-I guess it is.” Once she spoke, Twilight put her hoof up to her mouth, “Oh, I hope I didn't sound too self-centered."

Carl laughed a bit, "Not at all."

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked.

"Yes I am. Geez you sound like you did when Trixie was showing off and you were too afraid to do anything because you didn’t want to seem like a braggart.”

They enjoyed a nice, hardy laugh for a second before Carl looked over at the clock on his night-stand to check the time. When he saw that it was ten, he felt a sudden sense of urgency rush through him.

"Aw geez it's ten, come on Twilight come on let's go get some breakfast."

Twilight nodded and they both got out of Carl's bed. Carl stood up and stretched his arms out over his head, letting out a huge yawn.

"Hey Carl, is it okay if I use your bathroom, I need to freshen up a bit." Twilight asked meekly.

Once Carl finished his yawn, he nodded, "No Twi, go right ahead."

Twilight smiled in gratitude and left the bedroom. A few seconds later Carl heard her scream as if someone jumped out from behind a door and scared the living daylights out of her. Carl ran out into the hallway and towards the bathroom to make sure Twilight was okay. He pushed the door open.

"Twi, are you…?" he stopped when he saw what had frightened her. In the bathtub, with that clichéd green facial mud on her face and cucumbers in her eyes, was Rarity. Carl had to do everything in his power not to burst out laughing at the hilarious sight. Rarity removed one of the cucumbers with her hoof and looked at Twilight, who gawked at her soaking friend whose appearance in the bathroom, while not frightening in itself, had taken her by surprise.

"Twilight, dear, can you please shut the door, I can feel a draft coming in." she waved her hoof towards the door.

"R-Rarity? Um, what are you….what are you doing?" Twilight asked. "And where did all of that cosmetic stuff come from?"

"Well darling, I found this facial mud in that cupboard over there. " she said pointing to the cupboard that was directly underneath the sink of the bathroom. She then turned to Carl. "I hope it isn't a problem Carl, I only used a little bit."

"No, it's not a problem." Carl shrugged, "I mean, it's my mom's, but if she asks I'll say Lisa used it. That way you don't get in trouble, and she does. Besides, I love to get Lisa in trouble, it’s awesome."

Rarity nodded and put the cucumber back over her eye.

"Thank you dear." She lay herself back against the tub and let out a sigh. Twilight, however, had a very irritated look on her face. She wanted to freshen up, and it irked her that Rarity was hogging the bathroom in this manner. Sure, she could use the sink, but she also had to actually use the bathroom, and there was no way she was going to go with Rarity in the same room as her.

"Um, Rarity, I kind of need to use the bathroom."

"Just give me a little longer Twilight. You can't rush perfection you know."

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned to walk out when Carl stepped in her way. She looked up at Carl with a confused look. He was grinning from ear to ear, like he had something hilarious planned. He got onto one knee and whispered into Twilight ear. As she listened to what Carl was saying, giving the occasional nod to let him know she understood what he was getting at, a mischievous smile slowly appeared on her face. Once Carl was done talking to Twilight and stood back up, she walked over to Rarity with a smug look on her face.

"Rarity, how much longer will you be?"

"Mmmmm, perhaps another ten, fifteen, no…thirty minutes? Forty? Well perhaps an hour or so would do."

"Yeah, I don't think so." With that Twilight closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. Slowly, Rarity was surrounded by a purple aura before being lifted out of the tub. The cucumber slices fell off and she opened her eyes to realize that she was levitating.

"AHHH! Twilight! Put me down this instant!" she screamed, flailing around like a mad-pony, suds and water sprayed from her fur. Twilight slowly levitated the terrified, white unicorn over the open toilet bowl that happened to be right next to the tub. Water dripped off Rarity’s white fur and into the open bowl. When Rarity saw what her friend was holding her above, she shrieked and started to flail around even more, like she was truly on the brink on losing her mind.
Carl couldn't help but laugh as if it were the single funniest thing that he'd ever seen. Then again, he was hard-pressed to come up with a time in real life that made him laugh as hard as he was right then.

"I'm sorry Rarity, how much longer is it going to be?"

"Twilight, please stop!"

"How much longer!?!"

“Twilight!”

“How long!?!”

"Five minutes, okay! Five more minutes, that's all I ask. Now please, get me away from that disgusting bowl of shame!"

The phrase "disgusting bowl of shame" sent Carl into such a laughing fit that he fell onto the bathroom floor, clutching his sides as it felt like his laughing was causing his ribs to break. Twilight nodded and slowly brought Rarity back into the tub, gently lowering her back into the water. Once back to her original position, Rarity huffed and crossed her arms.

"I hope you're happy, if I look like repulsive today I'm putting the blame on you." She said, pointing her hoof at Twilight accusingly.

Twilight shrugged it off and patiently waited as the queen to get done with her beauty soak in the tub. Carl looked down the hall at Lisa and Anna's rooms and tapped Twilight on the head.

"Hey Twi, I'm gonna go wake my sisters and Spike up."

Twilight nodded and Carl went off to Lisa and Anna's room. When he entered, he jumped back at the sight of Lisa and Spike sleeping right next to each other, Lisa's arm draped over Spike as if he were a stuffed animal. Anna was still asleep as well, but Carl didn’t take note. The sight of his older sister and the baby dragon was almost as humorous to him as Rarity flipping out over the toilet was.

"D'awwwwwwwww." Carl thought mockingly, a mischievous grin, similar to Twilight's a few moments before, growing across his face. He whipped out his phone and quickly snapped a picture of the two.

"This will come in handy when I need to convince Lisa to do something she doesn't want to." He smiled as he walked out of the room and purposely shut the door loud enough to wake both Lisa and Spike from their slumber. Anna also woke up, but she was so groggy that she didn’t notice either Spike or Lisa sleeping the way they were.

As Lisa and Spike slowly came to and saw, they noticed the position that they had slept in. They looked at each other, eyes wide in horror.

"Spike, um….why are you so close to me?" Lisa asked nervously.

Spike, with a similarly nervous look replied, "I-I don't know…why is your arm on me?"

The quickly drew back and looked away from each other, turning beet red and rubbing the back of their heads in embarrassment. Both were breathing deep and fast, as if they had run a marathon.

"Errrr…" Lisa began, but couldn't bring herself to say anything more.

"Uhhhh…." Spike replied. Eventually, they calmed down enough to look back at each other, but they were still blushing in humiliation. Lisa pointed at Spike.

"This moment never happened, got it?” Lisa asked.

Spike mimicked a zipper going across his mouth to show that his lips were sealed about the matter.

“What never happened?” Anna asked groggily from her bed, turning to face her sister, her hair a mess and her eyes baggy.

“Nothing, just get up squirt.” Lisa muttered as she moved to the edge of the bed and hopped off, followed by a still-blushing Spike.

Soon, everyone was up and downstairs in the kitchen eating a quick breakfast. Spike was talking with Lisa and Anna, and Twilight and Rarity were going on about some girly stuff. Carl, meanwhile, was still mulling over who and where Louis Clarkson was. Twilight noticed how Carl appeared to be deep in thought.

"Carl, what are you thinking about?" Twilight asked.

Carl looked over at Twilight, "I want to figure out where and who this Louis kid is."

"Well do try to hurry up. I feel absolutely dreadful waiting to meet him when everypony else has met their partners." Rarity complained.

"I'm trying Rarity; do you think it's that simple? We've been lucky with the other four being my friends or people I've actually heard of. But this is someone that I don't remember meeting at any point in my life. Besides, I’m searching to the best of my ability, and it's not like the name is going to pop up out of thin air."

"Found him." Lisa said as she tossed Carl the newspaper. The paper partially landed into his bowl of cereal and milk, dampening the edge of it. Carl looked up at his sister with a shocked expression. She shrugged and pointed to the newspaper. "Page three, there's an article on a Louis Clarkson."

Carl sighed and picked the newspaper up off of the table, some milk still dripping from the corner that had landed in Carl's cereal. Carl noticed it wasn’t the whole newspaper that Lisa had given him, rather it was only the sports section.

He opened it up to the third page to see a large, blown-up image of an African-American teen wearing a red and white soccer jersey that says "Cardinals" and was number 10. The title under the name says, "ST. MARY'S STAR PLAYER COMMITS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA".

Carl kept reading and his eyes widened, "Holy cow it is him."

"That's Louis?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah; no wonder I've never heard of him. He goes to a completely different school."

"He does?" Anna asked, "but I thought you said that all six of you were from going to be from Wilmont."

"He is from Wilmont, but he goes to a private school instead of the public school that the rest of us go to."

"May I see him?" Rarity asked; her eyes wide in anticipation. Carl nodded and handed the newspaper over to her. She took it with her magic, which was a blue aura as opposed to Twilight’s magenta-colored one, and looked at Louis' picture. Her excited face quickly became even more so as she saw her likely elemental partner.

"Oh wow, he's so….handsome." she said in such dreamy way that it made Spike turn red in the face.

"Let me see that." An envious Spike said before he grabbed the newspaper away and looked at Louis' picture.

Once done, he tossed it to the ground with a fake lack of impression.

"Pfft. He's not that cool." He said, rolling his eyes in apathy, when in reality seeing his image made him die a little inside. Carl grabbed the paper from Spike and opened it back to the article.

"Well there’s an entire article here.” Carl said as he looked over at Rarity, “Would you want to know more about him?"

"Oh yes! Definitely! I should only make sense that I know about who I’m going to be working with" She said with an enthusiastic grin, leaning forward on the table with interest.

"Okay, here's a little bit of the article."

Carl cleared his throat and began.

"Louis Clarkson, a rising senior at St. Mary's Holy Catholic Academy, has just committed a year early to The University of North Carolina's soccer team for the 2013-14 season. He was named to the All-New York State soccer team earlier this year after breaking the Section III record for most goals in a season. Also earlier this fall, Mr. Clarkson led team to victory in the Section III Championship. St. Mary’s advanced to the State Semi-Finals, where they lost 2-0 to the Brighton Barons. Clarkson currently lives with his Aunt and Uncle as his parents were killed in 2003, while doing charity work in Somalia. To this day, people will see Clarkson point to the sky after each goal and victory that his team has in honor of his parents. Today, you can find Louis in the Wilmont Public Library, studying for one of his many AP exams, or up at Wilmont Park playing a pick-up game with his friends, which he does almost every day in the off-season."

Carl stopped reading and looked up. Rarity's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open, "H-his parents died?"

"I guess so."

"What is it with this place?" Spike asked. "It seems like everypony is either getting bullied, has dead parents or parents that are abusive…er no offence Carl. Sorry if I insulted your Dad."

"No you didn’t man. Most families don't have these issues; it's just us elements for some reason." Carl said. "So I guess it’s time we pay Mr. Clarkson a little visit, eh?"

Everyone nodded. And Carl turned to his sisters.

"Lisa, Anna, Spike; you three stay here. If the Princess sends any more letters, call me up and let me know."

They all nodded and Carl turned to Twilight and Rarity, "Girls, we're going to go to the park. The article said how he always plays pick-up games there with his friends during the off-season and right now it is the off-season for soccer. So I’m thinking that he might be down there now."

The ponies nodded and Carl stood up, "Okay, I'm going to call Alex and Pete to see if they want to come."

"What about James?" Rarity asked. Carl didn't look up, he just sighed and shook his head, "He can't today; he has some…family problems. That reminds me I've got to call him to make sure everything…."

RING RING

Carl looked down at his pocket, where his ringing phone was vibrating. He pulled it out, without looking to see who was calling, he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey dude, it's Ryan. What are you guys doing today?" Ryan said on the other end.

"Hey, um, we're going to get the Element of Generosity. I think we found him."

"Okay cool, we're coming with you."

Carl paused for a moment before he finally answered, "Ryan, you and Rainbow Dash have to stay at your house. If you leave Discord's men are going to…"

Carl stopped when he heard a quick conversation going on between Ryan and a girl with a familiar tom-boyish voice, obviously Rainbow Dash. A couple of noises were as the phone changed speakers so now somebody else was on the other end.

Or somepony else…and she was not pleased.

"Carl, this is Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash said in with a hint of annoyance.

"Fantastic. Good to know when Ryan doesn't want to argue with me, he makes you do it." Carl muttered with disdain. “That’s really mature of him.”

"Look here Carl; we are bored out of our minds. Do you have any idea what it's like for a pegasus to be cooped up in a house most of the day, especially when that pegasus is me!"

"Look Rainbow Dash you…"

"No one is looking for us! If they were don't you think they would have tried to get us yesterday? We've been patient and cooperative up until now. Today, we need to get out otherwise I’m going to start climbing the walls!"

Carl rubbed his temples, "All right, fine. You can come with us today. I'll call you to let you know when to meet at the mall. First we need to get Louis."

"Who?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"The Element of Generosity."

Comments

[GoodwinGamerJack]

Something bad happened to each of the known elements that counteracted each of their, elements.
E.G, Pete was countered by fear and anxiety, James by jealously and unreachable expectations.