Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades

by Makitk

37

The five 'love-challenged' ponies in the room fell over at Pinkie's suggestion to Starlight Glimmer, and I had to pick myself up from the ground from that while trying not to choke from laughter.

The others were less amused by it and, while Blaze was giving her signature deathglare in Pinkie's direction, Moonshine instead took it far more personal.

"Oh, you think this is a joke, do you?" she sneered, standing up and walking up to Pinkie Pie in a threatening manner.

Starlight Glimmer's horn sparked to life and she pushed Moonshine back again to keep some distance between her and the pink Earthpony.

"Look, I know how you feel; I have made some bad decisions in my life which put me on the wrong side of things as well," Starlight started.

"I never had a choice to begin with," Moonshine exclaimed loudly, her own horn suddenly bursting with energy which she launched in a strong beam at Starlight Glimmer.

Starlight easily deflected the attack, having barely moved from where she stood, the beam crashing into the wall near her instead.

"Everypony has a choice, Moonshine," the pink Unicorn suggested calmly. "I thought I had no choice either."

Another blast of magic erupted from Moonshine's horn, but Starlight turned fully into it and sent her own magic to meet it. The two beams of energy exploded in mid-air with a bright flash, and I had to look away from fear of getting blinded.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Moonshine shouted, jumping forward to close the distance between Starlight and herself for her next attack. "You're just some dumb pony. Your books don't even mention us properly!"

Starlight moved to prepare for this next attack, but a different magic beam flew past her and hit Moonshine straight in the barrel - sending her flying back into the side of the large bath.

Blaze walked up over to stand beside Starlight Glimmer, her eyes burning with fire. "This is not the time or place to do this, Moonshine. You need to stop this!"

Moonshine crawled back on her hooves, but a blue glow manifested around her as Starlight caught her in her magic and she was pinned down to the ground instead.

Starlight looked sideways at Blaze, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know what's going on, no. Maybe we can sit and talk about it instead of fighting?"

"In any case we can't stay here," Oval offered up from where he was sitting. "It's different for you ponyfolk, but if we're found out here in this place with half the walls missing, there will be questions we can't answer!"

A snap came from Moonshine, and as I looked at her getting up, her horn glowing menacingly, I realized she had broken out of Starlight's grasp on her.

Starlight looked as surprised at this as the rest of us. "That's not supposed to happen," she stammered.

"I've studied in your Canterlot's royal archives," Moonshine snarled, the glow around her horn growing ever more fierce, "I have picked up a thing or two about your unicorn magic that few others know about."

Starlight Glimmer was starting to look worried, and Blaze's stare on Moonshine hardened. "Sturdy, take the kids and run," she ordered through clenched teeth.

"Damnit," Oval cursed. "Pearl, follow me!"

I watched as Oval and Breeze made a run for the door, but they then skidded to a stop as the hallway behind it disappeared to make room for a formless void.

"We're stuck," Oval shouted back to Blaze, "there's nowhere to go!"

Starlight took a quick look at the door, then frowned at Moonshine. "Starswirl the Bearded's Chamber of Solitude? I'm impressed, but all it does is allow us to talk this out without interruption."

Moonshine grinned wickedly at Starlight's admonishment, and I backed away from fear of her turning her attention back to me. I caught a glance at Pinkie Pie from the corner of my eyes, and noticed her backing away as well, while her body was shivering all over.

"Well, since you like it so much, have fun in the void, pony," she sneered, and the contents of the bath behind her lifted up over the edge and washed out around and past her like a wall of water - moving straight toward Starlight, Blaze, Breeze, and Oval.

Blaze set her hooves down a little farther apart on the ground, her horn blazing energy as much as her eyes as she used it to set a magical wedge in front of her to part the wave with.

"Sturdy, behind me," she shouted.

Oval practically jumped forward with little Breeze held in his forelegs, the both of them crashing down behind Blaze as the wave hit her magic and flowed past them at great speed.

I could not see Starlight Glimmer in all this, but the water rushed out of the doorway into the void until the bath had emptied itself fully, taking with it all that had not stood firmly mounted on the ground or walls.

As the torrent finally died down, all the furniture which had been placed near enough to the entrance had disappeared from the room, except for one lounge chair which had hit it at an angle and was now wedged stuck in the doorway.

Pinkie and I had only been saved by the fact we had been standing farther into the room, me because of my fear response at seeing the evil look in Moonshine's eyes, and Pinkie Pie due to her Pinkie sense.

I noticed Starlight Glimmer standing behind Blaze and the others, and she shook her head in disappointment. "You remind me so much of myself," she spoke softly. "I see now why Twilight wanted me to come with Pinkie Pie."

The Earthpony waved a little flag in her right hoof at hearing that, smiling brightly. "Well, someone's gotta be the magical defense, duh!"

Blaze stood panting, having exerted herself already, and Oval moved to her side to offer her something to lean against. Breeze rushed over to Pinkie and me instead, and I quickly pulled her in close against me.

"Little sister, you're strong with magic yourself, why aren't you helping mom?" I asked, but Breeze shook her head at me.

"Changeling magic; yes, but my Unicorn magic is weak and glitchy," she revealed. "It's a wholly different technique."

"So no beads of sweat?" I wondered down, to which Breeze had to chuckle weakly at remembering my magic training.

"Maybe I'll try teaching you how it works if we survive this," she suggested as a shiver ran through her small form.

Moonshine spat at the ground where she stood before the empty bath, while Starlight took a step forward - now standing a nose ahead of Blaze from where I was standing.

"Nice dodge," Moonshine decided, trying to hide her disappointment that her plan failed.

Starlight Glimmer smiled weakly at Moonshine, her horn letting go of a very thin, but very fast-moving dart of pink light instead. In the blink of an eye it had crossed the distance between Starlight and Moonshine, hitting the latter straight in the forehead - just below the base of her unicorn horn.

I watched as my angry Changeling sister went cross-eyed, took a step back, and then froze halfway through her next step back.

"You are not the only one who read the scrolls in Canterlot's archives, Moonshine," Starlight spoke softly, then turned to face Blaze. "How are you holding up?"

Blaze did not dare take her eyes off of Moonshine, and neither could I. As we watched, Moonshine's already-pale white coat hardened, the individual hairs merging into one smooth surface. Blue veins appeared across her coat, while her mane and tail hardened in a similar fashion.

Within a few short moments Moonshine had turned to stone.

Her body was a white marble with blue veins, but her mane and tail looked more like a very deep blue sapphire. Her eyes stared blankly ahead of her from a face showing just the inkling of the realization of what hit her before its effects took a hold of her.

"Ooh, she's pretty," Pinkie Pie cooed, but all Blaze, Oval, or I could do was stare at the newfound statue while we stood in deep shock.

Was this what a regular Unicorn could do to us? In the show I had only seen this happen with the magic from the Elements of Harmony or that strange chicken thing from the Everfree Forest. It made me wonder just how powerful Starlight actually was.

The Unicorn in question walked over to the statue Moonshine had become since Blaze had not answered her, and looked her in the eye.

"The spell won't last too long, but in the meantime she is entirely powerless, and forced to stand still, watch quietly, and just listen to what goes on around her," Starlight explained to us.

"It gives us some time to talk about what is happening here exactly," the Unicorn continued, turning to look straight at me. "Because I have the feeling there's more going on than just a family feud."

Comments

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Her, from the perspective of someone with little to no idea the true extent of magic, I can see such a confrontation terrifying. A temporary and safe petrification spell sounds useful though.

[tsaukpaetra]

Every time you think to press shift-1 (make an exclamation mark), think to yourself: who is shouting this? Who is greatly astonished? Exclamation marks should rarely be used outside of dialog here in the story, it just sounds weird when every other sentence ends with one.
Anyways, Starlight being the voice of reason? That's where Moonshine should start realizing just how much she done messed up. Just as long as she doesn't go dumb when the imprisonment spell wears off.
If Starlight sings" Light of your Cutie Mark" though...
Keep going! ;)

[tsaukpaetra]

7505503 oh! Hey there!

[Makitk]

7505552
Exclamation marks are generally also used to denote the fact the situation is fairly emotionally laden. Doesn't mean someone is shouting, but there's no other mark that I know of to exclaim "this is a very exciting situation and everything's kinda happening real fast and overloading everyone".

[tsaukpaetra]

7505729 to use an overused meme in fiction writing, show, don't tell. If the exclamation mark is the only thing that's telling the reader that the situation is emotionally charged, we need to see more. This isn't a Dwarf Fortress action log, don't be afraid to describe things!

[Makitk]

7505738
Well, I removed most of them. I hope this makes it better to read?

[tsaukpaetra]

7505808 yeah, just keep practicing using your descriptions. At least you're not resorting to sliding in emoticons.