• Published 2nd Apr 2015
  • 750 Views, 26 Comments

Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch - TheCrimsonDM



Nearly twenty years have passed since the mane six first became friends, and now they have kids. Follow the story of Amber Light, Twilight's apprentice, as she goes through the growing pains of being a teenager along with her friends.

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Chapter Eight: The Hybrid

Passing the Torch
Chapter Eight: The Hybrid
Written by TheCrimsonDM

Things were moving slow again today, but at the very least Amber was finally free of her training with Princess Twilight Sparkle. Amber’s new friend followed alongside quietly. The cloak that Jade wore to cover up her face and body, only served to make her stand out more. The looks that some ponies gave the two, Amber didn’t like them at all.

It was one thing when the town was expecting great things from Amber, or wanting to exploit her connections. It was another thing entirely when they looked at you with distrust. It was no wonder Jade never left her home, if this was how everypony treated her on a regular basis. It sickened Amber to no end, and to think that she was once the very same as those ponies was even worse. Somehow Amber was going to make up for the way she treated Jade in the past.

Amber’s first goal in trying to befriend the quiet pony by her side was a simple one; introduce Jade to all of her closest friends. The second part was going to be much harder, avoiding Blackout. There weren’t many days that went by without at least one meeting, with the sour pegasus.

“So, jade,” Amber began, “What do you like doing for fun?”

It took a moment for Jade to answer but she finally said, “I like to collect gems. I try not to eat the rare ones.”

“You and my other parent would get along so well.”

“Other parent? Isn’t it just you and um… Trixie, right?”

Amber Light exhaled deeply. “No, my mom has a lover… but it doesn’t matter because she’s always gone, out doing some stupid geological expedition or something dumb like that. Why should I care if it’s their money that keeps the house going, their never around when I need them,” Amber explained, with a little more truth then she had meant to.

“Oh, I see. I’m sorry,” Jade replied quietly.

In an attempt to brighten the mood, Amber said, “It’s cool. You know what else is cool? My friend Sophie is cool.”

Amber looked around and saw the pink bubbly earth pony, bouncing along the road with a saddle bag. Spirits were always lifted when Sophie was around. Amber quickened her pace.

“Hey, Sophie, what’s up?” Amber said coolly.

Sophie’s smile widened on Amber’s approach, this was the only warning that Amber would receive. With one mighty bound, Sophie leapt into the air and landed on top of Amber’s back while shouting. “Cousin! What are you doing here?”

“I’m just walking around town with our newest friend, Jade.” Amber said, while motioning towards the cloaked pony that was standing some ways away.

Thankfully Sophie hopped off of Amber’s back and trotted over to Jade with glee.

“Hi, I’m Sophie. My interests include sewing, playing pretend, and riding my trusty steed, her name is Amber.”

“I am not your steed.”

“Like I said, my trusty steed.”

Jade looked confused. After a moment of silence Jade licked her lips and offered up a meek greeting. “My name is Jade. I like gems… and books.”

“Oh, is that so?” Amber inclined. “Well I have a few of those back at my house. What kind of books do you read?”

“Science mostly, I’ve been reading up on biology a lot lately.”

“Oh, that’s neat,” Sophie said playfully. Sophie leaned into Amber Light’s ear and whispered, “What’s biology?”

“The study of living things. Twilight tried getting me to understand it and my brain died,” Amber explained.

“So that’s how it happened,” Sophie said, referring to Amber’s dead brain.

“Hey, it was a joke.”

“Yeah, your brain was kinda a joke wasn’t it. Well I has more important things to do right now, then talk about useless brains,” Sophie joked.

“Oh yeah, and what’s that?”

“I have a stuffed animal appreciation club meeting to go to. Also mom is making me join another one of those animal rights meetings afterwards… their always so weird at those things, and I’m not allowed to eat any of the food. Tree Hugger always brings brownies and mom won’t let me eat them, it’s not fair…” Sophie complained.

Amber let out a sigh, it looked like one of her usual party members was gone for the entire night. But there was one other she could easily find.

“Where’s Hush?”

“Hushy is over at the park. He’s being all like, boring, and weird again. I don’t like it when he’s weird.”

Amber smiled at Sophie. “He might be a weirdo, but he’s our weirdo. I’ll go check up on him for ya. I’ve got to introduce our new friend to everypony after all.”

“Kay, I’ll see ya laters,” Sophie said, with great excitement as she began bouncing away. Amber was still not entirely sure how a pony could bounce on all fours like that.

Amber couldn’t help but look back at Jade and smile. The timid mare had hardly said a word since they left, but Amber had a feeling that she could break through Jade’s shell. Maybe Hushpuppy, being the resident quiet pony, could help get Jade to be more confident. It was time to go and meet the dark one.

***

Ponyville park wasn’t much to look at. There was a lake, a bridge over a stream leading the lake, a few benches and a couple of trees. It wasn’t very big, but considering the luscious fields that surrounded all of Ponyville, they didn’t have any real need for a park. It was usually just a place to hang out at. There was one more thing in the park though, there was a gazebo, and considering the poor shape it was in, Amber didn’t trust it.

This is why Amber felt a little nervous when walking under the gazebo, because as usual Hushpuppy was hanging out in the gazebo. Jade followed as Amber’s silent guardian. Hushpuppy had a little journal with him. He was writing his deepest thoughts into the book, Amber marveled at how he could write so proficiently with his mouth.

Since Hushpuppy had failed to notice Amber, she decided to have a little fun. She leaned in over his shoulder and said, “Wow, that’s pretty good.”

Much to Amber’s amusement, Hushpuppy jolted upright and slammed the book shut. He looked at Amber Light with fear ridden eyes and said, “T-t-this is just practice. It’s nothing really.”

“Oh yeah? Then what is it, really?” Amber turned his words against him.

Hushpuppy looked away shyly as he muttered, “It’s… just a thing...”

“Hushpuppy,” Amber said, gaining his attention. “This is Jade. She’s our newest friend, and I think it would be cool if you shared some of your work with her. You like poetry, right, Jade?”

“Sure?” Jade replied nervously.

“Good, let’s hear some. Lay it on me?” Amber said, while lying down on her belly.

“I’m not writing poetry right now. Besides it’s not even finished… Actually I don’t think it will be finished. The world is too miserable for me to get away with something like this.”

“Oh, really, it must be good. Let me hear it.”

Hushpuppy released a long sigh; he knew that he wasn’t getting out of this. There was no arguing with Amber Light once she set her mind on something, and right now her mind was on hearing Hushpuppy’s new work.

He cleared his throat and spoke in a gentle voice. “The world is so cold, with no place to guide me. I found myself lost in the desperate attempt to escape the dark’s suffocating grasp. Yet as I stood on the precipice of disaster, overlooking my own end, I saw the faintest of light in the setting of the sun.

“A small glimmer of hope came to me as I stared longingly into her dark blue mane, her eyes sparkled with a radiance that I had never seen. All of the world’s darkness, for a moment, seemed far away as she smiled at me, and then she was gone. Her coat mixed in with the twilight sky, and she vanished from sight. Yet, I knew that I might see her again, and if I could only glimpse at that beauty one more time, I could fight against the darkness a little longer.”

“Um, what was that?” Amber asked politely. It certainly wasn’t his usual poetry, it sounded much more like a story of some sort, romance maybe.

Jade actually smiled at him and said, “You do know that she has a marefriend… don’t you?”

Hushpuppy’s face turned red and he looked away. “You don’t know that. Twi- er, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Wait, did you just-“ Amber began.

“SHUT IT!” Hushpuppy interrupted.

Jade shrank back a little from the shout. Hushpuppy saw her fear and quickly looked ashamed of himself. He shook his head slowly and spoke gently, “I didn’t mean to yell. I just don’t want to talk about this okay.”

Jade didn’t reply, neither did she relax.

Hushpuppy looked away shamefully. “I really didn’t mean it… please, don’t be upset.”

Jade relaxed a little bit, and Hushpuppy glanced at her with nervous eyes. He smiled softly.

Amber butted in. “Hey, Hushpuppy, don’t worry about us judging you or anything. I was just wanting to introduce Jade is all.”

Hushpuppy looked at Amber, and for a brief moment Amber caught a look of pain in his eyes. She knew that she needed to push him a little, in order to figure out what his deal was.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll get mad at me…”

“What’s wrong? I won’t ask a third time.”

“Promise me that you won’t be angry.”

Amber glared at him for a moment then relaxed. “I Pinkie Pie Promise, that I won’t do anything bad, no matter what you say.”

Hushpuppy’s response came so quickly that she barely caught it. “I’m in love with your teacher!”

For a moment Amber stared at him in utter silence and then to everyponies shock, Amber broke out into a fit of hideous laughter. It took a few minutes before she could calm down enough to explain. “I’ve known about that for ages. Seriously, who did you think you were kidding. Even Twilight could pick up on it, and she’s dense. Besides she’s already dating somepony in secret, albeit it’s not a very well kept secret.”

Hushpuppy looked a little disappointed.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll just lock you and Colors up in a room sometime. You won’t walk straight for a week afterwards,” Amber half joked, because she wasn’t sure if Color Splash would really control herself around Hushpuppy if given that opportunity.

Now it was Hushpuppy’s turn to hide from plain sight as she shrunk back into his jackets hood. Clearly Amber was on a winning streak with embarrassing the poor earth pony. She decided to stop teasing him and get some more information from him.

“Where is Color Splash at?”

“Why would I know?”

“Because you two are actually pretty close friends, all jokes aside.”

Hushpuppy was quiet for a moment before he admitted, “She’s at Rarity’s doing some detail work on a sign for her. Apparently Color Splash is getting paid this time.”

“Good, then that’s where we shall go.” Amber stood up and energetically said, “Come on, Jade. Let’s go say hi to your mom.”

***

The boutique was pretty normal, save for the new sign out front that showed a picture of a pony being devoured by a monstrous dress. Clearly, Color Splash was already at work. Amber Light stepped inside and found exactly what she expected to see; a pissed off Rarity staring down Color Splash’s muzzle.

“Fix it,” Rarity demanded.

“But it’s a work of art, you can’t fix art,” Color Splash tried to defend.

“I don’t care, it makes me look bad. Now fix it!”

“It’s a representation of how a pony could become so easily devoured by the world of fashion that it ruins them. Fashion is a monster disguised as a pretty dress.”

Rarity stomped her hoof into the floor and growled. “I do not care. Fix it now. I paid you to fix my old sign, not destroy it.”

Color Splash let out a huff and turned around. “Fine, I thought that my work would go unappreciated, that’s why I also did that one there.” Color Splash pointed a hoof to another wooden sign, this one covered by a white sheet.

Rarity stomped over to the sign, gently pulled the sheet off with her magic, and froze. A wide smile grew over her lips, and her eyes sparkled with delight.

The sign was very nicely painted, with blue trim. The image of Sweetie Belle wearing one of Rarity’s dresses was on it. There was something majestic about the way Sweetie Belle looked, almost as though Color Splash had managed to put the real Sweetie Belle into the painting.

Rarity looked back, pleased. “You made the other one just to tease me didn’t you?”

“Hey there’s no rules against an artist having a sense of humor,” Color Splash replied, with a shrug.

Finally both Color Splash and Rarity noticed the two new ponies watching them. Amber waved a hoof at them, Jade shrunk back.

Rarity frowned for a moment before saying, “Thank you for walking my little Jade back home, Amber.”

“Pfft, no problem. We’re friends now, so it’s cool. Oh and Color Splash, Jade’s our newest friend,” Amber said.

Shocked, Rarity could only stare in amazement at Amber.

Color Splash smiled and said, “That’s nice. We’ll have to get together at the club house sometime. First off I need to get some supplies.”

“Wait, is that why you’re doing commissions again? To get money for our project?” Amber asked.

“Yeah, next I’m going to do something for The Princess herself. Should be fun.”

Rarity finally pulled herself together and jumped into the conversation. “You said you were friends with my Jade? My daughter, Jade?”

“Um, yes. Is that so weird?”

Rarity galloped over and flung her forelegs around Amber Light, which was a bit awkward considering how much taller Amber was then Rarity. “Thank you, Amber. Thank you.”

Amber returned the embrace and said, “I couldn’t help it. Jade’s pretty cool. Aren’t you, Jade?”

Jade shrunk down a little. “Not really…”

“I’ll have to work on her self confidence, but aside from that, she’s awesome,” Amber said happily.

Rarity finally let go and smiled. “Ok, well you two have fun. I’m going to put this new sign out front and get rid of that nasty old one.”

Color Splash and Rarity left together, and that left Amber and Jade alone. Or so they thought. When a purple dragon, nearly as tall as Color Splash, stepped out from the kitchen, both ponies jumped slightly. Spike smiled at the ponies, showing off his sharp teeth.

“I heard that my daughter made a new friend?” Spike asked.

Amber nodded. Spike didn’t scare her, mostly because of all the time she’s spent with him. After all it was Spike that introduced Amber to comic books. Being Twilight’s student also forced Amber into a position where she had to get to know the dragon on a personal level.

“So, who wants nachos?” Spike asked, his tongue flicked out hungrily.

Spike’s nachos were famous in Ponyville for being the best. After a particular interview with The Princess of Friendship, ponies would come down to Ponyville from all across Equestria, several times a year trying to purchase his recipe or simply to try out the nachos for themselves. Spike made a modest fortune off of this trade, although his recipe did require a dragon’s fire, so nopony could truly replicate it.

Both ponies instantly shouted in excitement, “ME!”

That was all Spike needed to hear before running off into the kitchen. Having the world’s best nachos, and gaining a new friend, all in one day. Life was kind to the tall unicorn.