Promises and Secrets
Chapter Ten: Promises and Secrets
Fluttershy took a deep breath, as Angel stubbornly stood his ground, then she let it out and bit her lip. It seemed that just assuring him that Heartbreak posed no threat to her wasn’t enough: calming him would require another approach.
“Okay, Angel, maybe you’re right,” she said.
The little bunny’s ears swiveled back.
“Maybe she is dangerous,” Fluttershy admitted as she walked towards her pet. “And maybe, just maybe, I might get hurt trying to help her.”
Angel nodded and tilted his head, but didn’t look at his pony just yet.
“But...” The yellow mare stopped just a few hoofsteps shy of standing over the white rabbit, who turned and looked up at her with his whiskers twitching at the solitary word.
“Manny the manticore looked scary, but when I took care of the thorn in his paw he became a big sweetie pie.” Fluttershy lowered her head to eye level with Angel. “And Harry the bear seemed dangerous at first, but it turned out that he had been sleeping wrong, and needed his back taken care of.”
Angel’s eyes darted to the side and he bit his little lip, grumbling,
“I’ve helped a lot of ‘dangerous’ creatures, Angel,” Fluttershy continued. “Some of which I’ve faced on journeys with my friends outside of Ponyville.”
Angel’s ears drooped and he turned away. Shame leaching into his little furry cheeks as realized that he might not have taken Fluttershy’s ability with showing compassion to strange, and oftentimes, unsafe creatures into account.
Fluttershy smiled as her bunny grunted his concession; she had, indeed, faced many a peril. She bent forward more and nuzzled him in comfort.
“And if I go out, I can also pick up some extra carrots,” she suggested in a soft whisper.
Angel’s ears perked up before he turned and looked up with a wide-eyed expression with the promise of what were essentially rabbit candy bars.
“I’ll do that, but first--” She pulled her head back and raised a hoof to cover a rather large, but cute sounding yawn. “--I need a short nap...” she looked back down at Angel. “Okay?”
Angel sighed and rubbed his little face. He was still feeling very wary about the strange creature that moved into their midst by the way that he felt his foot was still lightly rapping on the floor.
But...
If Fluttershy had set her mind out to help somepony, or in this case, something, there was very little he could do to stop her. Plus, extra carrots!
He finally let out a few small grunts of understanding, but not of approval.
“Thank you, Angel.” She bent down and kissed her Angel on the forehead before walking over to the couch.
Fluffing her wings before gently settling down on the soft comfortable cushions, Fluttershy let out a deep sigh of not only satisfaction but exhaustion.
Yes, a nap is just what I need to to recover from these tiring activities, Fluttershy thought to herself before letting out another yawn. Just... one... little nap...
==========================================================
Angel quietly grumbled under his breath as Fluttershy settled down on the couch.
Sometimes, sometimes it was useful to have a pony that understood the myriad of sounds that the other denizens of Equestria made to communicate.
Other times? Not so much.
Despite that little promise, he was still fighting the urge to rapidly thump his foot against the ground at the thought of his pony going to visit that thing again.
Yes, he had just agreed that she had faced many dangers. Yes, those dangers had been more vicious animals, monsters and El-ahrairah knows what else on her adventures with the other five ponies.
Still, the yellow one is going to try to go to it no matter what I do. He thought as images of Fluttershy once again going to the den of that... thing entered his mind. He pulled down his little ears in frustration and, once again, his foot starting to twitch nervously against the ground. If there was only some way to delay her leaving! Surely then, she would put the needs of me, Angel, (and the rest of them) over that thi-
“Angel, sweetie,” Fluttershy murmured in a soft, weary voice. “It’s really hard to get any rest when you’re doing that.”
Suddenly, a small idea struck him.
Quickly, he hippity-hopped to the kitchen and in several quick trips, procured a saucer, cup, tea bag, two sugar cubes and finally (in a hilarious waddle), a full tea kettle.
As Angel began assembling the various things he gathered, Rat lazily patted his full belly, peering down from his perch.
“What is Angel Bunny doing?” He squeaked out.
Angel only replied with a dour glare in the rodent’s direction that conveyed the message of ‘mind your own business!’.
“Fine!” Rat put his tiny hands up in the air in defense and rolled his little yellow eyes. “Whatever, Rat is good!” He huffed, letting out a tiny burp.
Angel lightly tapped the pony’s shoulder before sheepishly offering her up a hastily prepared cup of tea.
“Oh?” Fluttershy turned over to see what her cherished, loving pet had done before sniffing the air. “Chamomile?” She smiled and took several long, quiet sips.
The rabbit set the cup down when his pony was finished and then hopped up onto the couch to pull on the window chain.
“Oh, thank you for-” Fluttershy smiled before she covered her mouth as yet another squeaking yawn came out. “-the tea, Angel.”
She smiled as the little ball of white fluff drew the curtains, darkening the room for her. “Just don’t let me sleep--”
He then hopped back over and fluffed her pillow the best he could with his little bunny arms. ”--for too long...” She murmured, falling into a much deserved rest.
=============================================================
Dust motes playfully danced in the narrow beams of multicoloured light that found their way through the stained glass windows of the Canterlot library.
There was a quiet ambiance built upon the smell of ancient forgotten tomes, the feel of parchment, the sounds of pages quietly turning, and of students whispered conversations mixed with the soft clip-clop of hooves as they made their way from place to place seeking out old volumes, scrolls, and the daily minutiae of their lives.
Despite there still being daylight, off in a darkened and sequestered corner of this perhaps all too cozy of a place a purple unicorn was struggling not only to find the answers she so desperately sought, but to also stay awake.
She was failing on both accounts.
As Twilight rested her head upon her hooves, staring at the contents of a book her eyes began to glaze over and suddenly, she found herself tumbling forward!
Just as she was going to plant her nose nicely betwixt the pages in a most painful manner, a voice that sounded a great deal like Heartbreak’s shouted Hey! Twilight! Wake! Up! and she caught herself by slamming her hooves against the table.
She attempted to reinvigorate her senses by taking a deep breath through her nose before rubbing her eyes, only to hear a librarian pony make a harsh ‘shhh!’ from behind one of the shelves.
“Sorry!” She whispered before turning her attention to the stacks of books before her.
On her right was everything that she had searched through. Books and scrolls that were obviously about cutie marks and their history. While they were great as reference material for as long as the nation of Equestria existed, they were less than stellar in their explanations of how ponies first acquired said marks.
Muttering, she glanced over to her left which contained several stacks that she still had yet to go through. Books and tomes that she had read in the past, to be sure, but where about more abstract concepts and methods by which some ponies had earned their marks.
Reaching forward to the top one of the left hoofed stacks, her foreleg involuntarily twitched suddenly and her elbow spasmed into a stack of loose scrolls she had gathered, sending many of them bouncing around the table and few others falling to the floor.
As she let out a lamenting sigh at the newly created mess, the librarian pony quickly popped out from behind a bookshelf and once again shh’ed her, before ducking back to her shelving duties.
Twilight covered her mouth to conceal a small, surprised ‘eeping’ noise. Making a smaller, more stealthy sigh, she rubbed her temples and quietly mulled over the information that was currently available to her.
Alright Twilight, what do you know? She asked herself, as she opened a small stylized purple notepad whose pages were starting to look worse for wear.
Well, I know that when it comes to everything I’ve read in the Library of Canterlot regarding cutie marks and their origins, thus far, there’s nothing about: evil marks, replacement marks, marks that change, or even living marks! She eyed a foal’s book of old mares’ tales. Well, nothing save for the one story of the filly without a mark and that-
Just then, her stomach interjected it’s own thoughts with a quick and sharp gurling reminder that it needed to be filled.
Grimacing, she floated the box of donuts that she had gotten from Pony Joe’s. Upon biting down on one she realized that it had gone a bit stale. Popping the top of her closed-top cup coffee for dunking, she found herself greeted with a cold, black gloop rather than a morning pick-me-up.
“Ugh,” she groaned while swirling the cup about in a desperate attempt to impart some semblance of life to the liquid inside.
“There has to be something I’m missing from all this,” she moaned, casting her gaze back to the mound of books that she had gone combed through in the past weeks she had been here.
“‘The Mark and the Mare’,” Twilight quietly read aloud as she floated several titles from both left and right sides to her reading level. “‘Historical Cutie Marks Through the Ages’, ‘Your Cutie Mark and You’, ‘So You Want Your Cutie Mark’--” She took a double take at one of the books she had picked up. “--‘Seek Starswirl: The Cutie Mark Edition’? How did that get in there?”
She shook her head at the colourful looking ‘find-the-thing’ book meant for colts and fillies before almost floating the book back to a shelf behind her for the librarian to reshelf. A momentary flicker of how much fun she had with such books as a young filly came to mind and stopped her from doing so. “Maybe I’ll save you for later...” she said, smiling as she set it aside.
Looking away from the fond fillyhood memory, Twilight rolled a quill on its tip against a piece of parchment.
Normally she would be devouring book after book, making notes about particular items of interest, bullet points involving cutie marks of historical significance. But, something about all this seemed more…. draining than it should have been and the notes that she had made were more akin to chicken scratch on random scrolls.
“Alright, Twilight,” Her personal pep talk began, once again. “Everything you got seems to point to first contact with...” she let out a heavy, irritated, yet quiet sigh, before her eyes momentarily darted in the direction of the Canterlot gardens. “...Discord in Equestria, and then things get sketchy.” she pulled the scrolls that contained various notes and scribbles. “I mean, ponies still have cutie marks, but, there’s still no pinpointing exactly where or how they first acquired them!”
Twilight blinked and tapped her chin worriedly. “Wait, did that make any sense or am I just repeating myself?” She shook her head and took a slug of the remaining bitter-sludge-in-a-cup before pulling down a heavy looking book. “Maybe ‘Equestria’s Field Guild to Cutie Marks and Their Meanings’ will shed a bit of light on the subject...”
As she opened the mammoth tome to do some hardcore studying, she spied something black and slick looking sticking out between some pages further ahead.
“That’s not right...” She said before giving the black corner a tug to see if it was attached to what she was currently reading.
What slipped out was a magazine with two mares enthusiastically playing with a beachball in a sparkling pool of water on a hot, sunny summer day.
“Cutie Marked! Learn about these cutie marks and their origins in Equestria!” Read the title of the magazine.
Twilight gave it a puzzled look before turning it over. “Huh, there’s no library barcode.”
After spending only a few more moments worth of mental energy on it, she shrugged and placed it next to ‘Seek Out Starswirl!’
It’s worth a shot. Must have gotten misplaced before they could register it in the system. She reasoned, before reopening the tome before her and quietly reading to herself.
‘Chapter One: What’s in a Mark?
‘Cutie marks are a physical representation of a pony’s special talent manifesting themselves once the pony finds out what that special talent is. Usually this talent is discovered when the pony is young; however, there is no set time in a pony’s life where they can acquire their mark.
While these things are taught to ponies at a young age, powerful unicorn scholars think that there might be more to cutie marks than merely a pretty picture to adorn one’s flanks. Though research is limited, some have come to believe that the cutie marks themselves are concentrated magical spells that harken back to times of old.
Researchers of this line of thought also tend to come to the conclusion that these spells are not only created by tapping into the innate primal magic of Equestria but by combining the experiences of ponies who possessed similar marks in the past with ponies living in the present, thus creating something completely new.’
Twilight felt as if she already knew most of this, but decided to reread that section of the page over a few times, mulling over its possible meanings in regards to the current situation.
“If Heartbreak isn’t a pony... is she even con--” Just then, a tap on her shoulder accompanied with a curt sounding ‘ehem!’ created yet another interruption that tore the tracks from under her mind’s train of thought
“I’M STUDY--” She loudly stammered in a moment of shock, before turning to see a light grey mare with a brown bun and thick black glasses jumping back in shock. “--ing...”
Quickly, a librarian’s muzzle and hoof ducked out from behind a bookshelf to, once again, let out a long, irritated ‘shh!’ to Twilight’s sudden outburst.
“Sorry!” Twilight whispered back before putting a hoof on her chest in order to calm her heart down. “Oh, Raven. It’s just you.”
“Yes... It’s me, Raven.” She replied, matter-of-factly before adjusting her glasses. “Uhm, you asked me to come and poke you around five forty-five?” She asked, taking out her clipboard from her elegant royal blue saddlebags. “Yes, says here, five forty-five.” She confirmed looking back up at Twilight. “Well, I’m here to-” Just then, a flabbergasted expression fell on her face as her gaze fell upon the mounds of books and scrolls behind the unicorn.
Twilight bit her lip and tapped her hooves together. “It’s all for research, I swear. I know it’s a bit much, even for me but-”
“Even this?” Raven chided, plucking the magazine off the table with a further flustered look coming over her face.
“Oh, that?” Twilight blinked, confused by the abrupt shift in the normally calm and poised pony’s tone. “Uhm, I found that between the pages of ‘Equestria’s Field Guild to Cutie Marks and Their Meanings’. It didn’t have a barcode so I just assumed that it just got mis-.”
“Confound that Zus!” Raven cursed under her breath as she cut off Twilight’s words.
“Is there something wrong?” Twilight innocently inquired as she pointed at the cover. “It says ‘See the Origins of These Cutie Marks from all Over Equestria!’”
Raven pushed up her glasses before looking around anxiously. “It’s some little colt’s dirty plot mag,” She explained in a hushed tone through her teeth, her eyes darting about to assure herself that no students were within earshot.
It took a moment to register, but Twilight felt the naïveté about what was most likely contained within the covers of the magazine leave her. She bit her lip and her eyes darted away from Raven before she swallowed hard and went flush in embarrassment.
“Oh... I’m sorry, I didn’t-” Twilight began, pushing the magazine away with the tip of her hoof.
Raven shook her head. “It isn’t your fault, Miss Sparkle. We’ve had a rash of these as of late. I believe they are related to our-” she looked around before tucking the magazine away into her saddlebag. “-current situation...”
“Current situation?” Twilight inquired, tilting her head to the side.
“With Princess Celestia-” Raven began as she ran a hoof over the spines of the leaning tower of books that had been gathered. She bit her lip as she lingered upon one title in particular. She glanced back Twilight before finishing her thought. “-and the new, diplomat?”
Twilight blinked slowly. “You are going to have to forgive me, Raven, but--” she paused, realizing that perhaps she would have to watch how she phrased her words. “--I wouldn’t think that the Diplomat would be affecting things happening in Canterlot, seeing that she’s currently-”
“-Elsewhere!” Raven quickly squeaked out, pulling her hoof away from the stack of books. “Yes, that may be the case, however-” the mare coughed and peered behind a bookshelf. “-her sudden appearance made a bit of an impression on the citizens of our fair capital and stirred up quite a few questions.”
“Questions?”
“Oh Yes,” she replied. “General things such as ‘Who is she?’, ‘Where is she from?’, ‘Why did she steal my bike?’” Raven picked an errant scroll off the ground and tucked it into her saddlebags before covering her mouth and speaking in a low whisper. “‘Why did I get flashes of depression when she bumped into me?’, ‘Why was she taken to Celestia, bound and bridled?’” she continued, her hoof returning to the book that she had spied in the stack. “These and many other questions have been percolating for the last four months.”
Twilight blinked and stared at the large tome in front of her with a lost, dazed expression. Had it been that long? March, April, May, June... four months. Jeez, has it really been only four months? It seems more like almost four years ago since that night she came crashing through my window...
“I suppose that the whole situation would seem rather... suspect for an outside observer.” She conceded, her gaze still a thousand yards away.
“That it would, indeed,” Raven nodded. “What is even more suspect, at least to the general populace who isn’t in the know, is that these questions have been met with few, if any, answers.That silence has only caused rumors to propagate. A few citizens who were already prone to acting in rebellion have been going around and pulling a series of generally harmless, but irritating ‘pranks’ designed to test the boundaries of Canterlot’s hard set rules and regulations. Most of which amount to nothing but rule breaking.”
Twilight covered her mouth as she failed to fight back a tired yawn. “What sort of rule breaking?”
“‘Cross the street at crosswalks’, ‘Show the Canterlot guards their due respect.’” Raven grumbled, quickly pulling a book out from the stack next to Twilight. “‘Don’t bring unregulated reading material into the library...’” she cleared her throat before tucking it into her saddlebags.
Twilight blushed and gave an uncomfortable chuckle. I must really be out of it to not have seen two pieces of... that sort of material among the things I gathered...
“As you can imagine--” Raven paused and adjusted her mane (which had become slightly frazzled and curled from the various subject matters covered with Twilight in such a short period of time), “--one of those has caused a great deal of irritation with many of the guards. As such they have been eager to hear any news regarding your... shall we say ‘progress’ with the diplomat.”
Twilight paused and found herself wide-eyed at where the conversation had turned. Perhaps it was the long hours in the library, or the last slug of day-old coffee, or just the lack of any decent sleep; but, the whole of this conversation just seemed completely out of the blue.
“Oh!” she quietly gasped at realizing that she ought to respond to the question she was just asked. “Our ‘diplomat’ is doing fine and progressing along quite well. Learning the, uhm, rules of our land and how to achieve ‘harmony’ with its citizens.”
“That is most wonderful to hear,” Raven replied, a calmed smile appearing on her face. “I mean, I should have assumed as such, seeing that you are here in Canterlot.”
“If this is all for a report to the Princess,” Twilight began, clearing her throat. “Then I should let you know that our Diplomat is actually the reason that I am here and that I am studying on a particular subject that I hope will further assist her in finding harmony here in Equestria.”
“Oh, yes... I’ll be sure to include that,” Raven replied nodding and slowly backing away. “Well then, don’t let me keep you from all of this, then...” She paused at the end of a bookshelf and turned back to Twilight. “Also, I am sure that I don’t need to remind you that, in a half an hour, the library is going to be closing for the night.”
“Already? But I haven’t covered--”
Raven tapped on the frame of the bookshelf with a hoof, “Normally the librarian would advise you to gather up any books you wanted to check out at this time; but--” As she pushed up her glasses, the light glinted off them. “--I’ll inform them of the importance of your research and convince them that that you can let yourself out. I do apologize for taking up so much of your time with our little conversation.”
“Don’t think anything of it.” Twilight replied, letting out a sigh of tired relief. “Just, thank you so much for your understanding.” she said before letting out a large yawn and returning to her book.
“Not a problem, good luck in finding what you’re looking for,” Raven paused before turning the corner. “Oh, Miss Sparkle?”
Twilight turned her head, exhaustion clearly still chipping away at the unicorn as she replied with a ‘hmm?’
“Thank you for assisting the library in finding ‘reading material’ that most of its patrons aren’t ready for just yet.”
Twilight only responded by biting her lower lip and squeaking out a ‘You’re welcome!’ before sharply turning her attention back to her book.
==========================================================
Before wishing them a goodnight before leaving the library. Raven thanked the library pony at the front desk after explaining the importance of Twilight’s research. As the library doors closed behind her, she took out her clipboard and eyed her saddlebags one last time.
“Nope,” She curtly stated out loud. “Neither you or any of us are ready for this sort of ‘reading material’ just yet...”
She then proceeded to tuck Starswirl The Bearded’s Book of Unfinished Spells, (and the scroll that she had pinched from under Twilight’s nose), further out of sight before looking at the clipboard in order to see if she had any further duties to do before the day had ended. “Not ready at all.”
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Good to see you back again.
As I always say. Slow progress is better than no progress
instead of adapting her to harmony completely trying to harmony her so called "chaotic nature" I wonder if she changing the game as well in the name of friendship and the world itself? and Celestia doesn't like that nature much since strife make progress very much not harmony but it important and kind of human nature to change and adapt to the world while influencing it back more mature in a character's growth given the unforgiving nature of heartbreak world and it very much unfair situations in that life, I think the ponies have been babied a bit thanks to magic and immortal ruler to certain flavors of life they freak out a lot when things go wrong or not happening as expected and over the top answers happen and the situation gets worse.
8368603
Dude, it's the equivalent of a porn magazine.
But yeah, good to see that Jet is finally done setting up another chapter of Heartbreak's story. Not that it's fun for Jet, I imagine... Having a ponified, gender-swapped version of yourself that's been evicted from an alternate reality show up on your doorstep and demand that you publish their life 's story? That'd be kinda traumatic, in my opinion. Good chapter, though
Hmm... Raven. Why do I get the feeling that Celestia isn't the only master (or should I say mistress) she serves.
It has been four years. More or less.
8369157 They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so would a picture in a picture be worth one million?
8369261 The meta humor is very meta.
And it's nice to see you too, passive-aggressive-down-voting-my-own-comments-on-my-own-channel bot.
8370545
The painting shows ones inner self, does that mean a picture in a painting is how one truly perceives themselves? What does that say of a mirror in a painting?
Goddamn it, well, there goes another story I need to catch up on, forgot the plot(Damn stupid goldfish memory). Also, you're back!
8370971
Thanks for the update to the story!
Unfinished spells? Hmmm, thats what Twilight used to become an Alicorn. Are we seeing a major divergence from the canon plot here?
Speaking of derailing the canon plot, you know who could be a godsend for HB? Starlight Glimmer. If I have my timeline right she hasn't started her own village yet or done anything with removing cutie marks. HB and her ideas born from a different society could be of interest to Starlight.
8377614
*starts to chuckle a bit, this chuckle turns to a laugh, and this laugh goes to insanity before back to a chuckle*
Oh, Val... you act as if I haven't thought about where all the pieces in -my- story are...
It will be interesting to see how much of a divergence this timeline is
Well necromancy does seem to be in fashion at the moment...
Hello again.
8404562
You're back?!
We must necro this fic.
It was never forgotten, but it's hard to keep up with updates, just keep writing...
8533537
Oh... I'm still working on it. There's something coming... I just don't know how all will react to it though... But ya know what? Fet what others think, right? It's going to happen sooner or later.
Discord's in the Details, but don't lose sight of the big picture!
I love your story's and I'm hoping everything will end will for poor H.B
So... close... to answers...
Fluttershy's gonna make H.B. look like an angel before this is done, isn't she. "Well, it's true that she came down with a terrible flu during the week I was supposed to mind her, after I lost track of her for a few... days. But it's okay, I took good care of her—well, at least the hospital did. But I took her home, at least! Of course I didn't do much then other than sleep. But I was considering the next morning whether I should make some moves on her, since she really is a very attractive pony. Then she just got upset when I asked why she got kicked out of her military. I guess she's okay, because I just left her after that to care for my little animal friends. And um...I may have lost track of time again, so now the week is over. Does anypony know what Heartbreak has been up to the past... um... week?"
8629078
Oh, Ferret. You're so silly. Nice to see you up and about again. Two chapters are coming soon.
8631069
Thanks! Good luck with the chapters.
Where? WHERE?!
P.B. You should know better then to use parentheses.
8629078
Don't forget. FluttershyxH.B. OTP
I don't like thieves. Time to hunt and beat her up until she divulges the stolen material.