Bargaining
“Run!” Fizzlepop yelled, pushing Twilight ahead of her. Thorns tore at her arms and legs as she was forced through the bramble bushes with no time to ready herself. Blood welled from the scratches, deep enough that the girl could still find the scars now when she thought to look for them.
“My glasses!” Twilight cried out, the lenses falling underfoot. She stumbled, instinctively trying to stop and go back for them, but forced forwards instead by a hand at the small of her back.
“Don’t stop!” Fizzlepop screamed.
Twilight caught her foot on a tree root, her vision blurred by tears and too many nights spent reading long after she should have gone to bed. She fell, her scratched and bloody knees exploding with pain, sharp rocks and dirt pressing into the wound.
Fizzlepop was over her in an instant, helping her up, pulling Twilight to her feet.
"We have to--" Fizzlepop started, sounding angry because otherwise, she'd have to sound as scared as she really was.
The bramble bushes they'd run through offered no cover at all, the brown bear prowling through them with no apparent hurry, the thorns not finding purchase in the beast's thick skin. It growled, so close now that it was impossible to conceive of escape.
"Go up the tree," Fizzlepop whispered.
"What?" Twilight asked, her voice low. It felt like any sudden motion or sound might make the bear decide it was time for a final, deadly strike.
"Go up the tree," Fizzlepop repeated. "Remember how your brother put the cooler in the tree so bears couldn't reach it?"
Twilight nodded and backed up to the tree, trying to get purchase on the rough bark. She couldn't quite reach the first branch. Twilight's life flashed before her eyes. She was briefly appalled by how much time she'd spent reading Rayn Round's Rockhoof Shrugged. She could have spent the time learning how to climb, instead, and she'd be in considerably less trouble.
Fizzlepop helped her up.
"Go, go!" She hissed, pushing Twilight up, both hands on the younger girl's butt, adrenaline giving her the strength to almost throw her to the branch.
The bear roared. Twilight reached down from her new perch. Fizzlepop jumped.
The weight when she grabbed Twilight's wrist almost pulled the smaller girl right back down from the tree.
"Hang on!" Fizzlepop tried to climb up. Twilight felt like her arm was going to pop out of its socket.
The bear lunged.
Something hot splashed on Twilight's face, blinding her.
Fizzlepop screamed and clutched tighter, her nails breaking Twilight's skin, leaving furrows as she was dragged down and away.
“I stayed up there until the next morning when Shining Armor found me,” Twilight whispered. She took off her glasses and rubbed her watery eyes. “Fizzlepop never came back. They sent out search parties but…”
She trailed off, unable to continue.
“I changed my name when I left Equestria,” Tempest muttered. “The Storm King was big on branding.”
“So you really are Fizzlepop’s counterpart,” Sunset said.
“I haven’t used that name since I was a foal. I’m not going to start using it again now.”
“My therapist would have a field day if she knew about this,” Twilight joked, forcing a smile through her tears and sniffling loudly.
“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Sunset said, squeezing the younger girl’s hand.
“I spent years in therapy,” Twilight continued. “The other girls at school, they didn’t… they didn’t want to be friends with me because of what happened. Some of them even started rumors that it was all my fault, and that I was crazy.”
“And your parents did nothing?” Tempest asked.
Twilight looked up, saw her, and immediately looked away. “I just… I couldn’t. I blamed myself. I thought I deserved it.”
“You didn’t,” Sunset said. “Twilight, you were a kid. It was an accident. Nobody’s to blame.”
“Anyway, that’s why I didn’t have friends until I went to Crystal Prep,” Twilight said, putting her glasses back on. “My parents thought changing schools would help, and it sort of did. I wasn’t really close to any of the girls there, but they didn’t mock me. Things were easier.”
“You’ve got lots of friends now, Twilight,” Sunset said.
Twilight smiled weakly, nodded, and forced herself to look directly at Tempest. “I’m sorry I freaked out when I saw you. It’s just that you look almost exactly like her.”
“I was attacked by an Ursa when I was a foal,” Tempest said, arms folded. “It must be one of the… coincidences.”
“You were?” Sunset asked. “Is that how you…?”
“Yes, it’s how my horn broke,” Tempest said. “It wasn’t an easy time in my life. I don’t like talking about it.”
“Your horn broke?” Twilight sat up straighter. “I’ve been meaning to ask more about pony physiology, especially with magic. How do unicorn horns work, exactly? How long did it take to grow back?”
“It didn’t grow back,” Tempest said, her jaw tight. “I helped a warlord conquer Equestria specifically for the promise that he would help me find a way to fix it.”
“Oh,” Twilight said, shrinking so quickly she could have raced Fluttershy in a battle to retreat away. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I made my own choices.” Tempest touched her forehead. There was nothing there, but it still felt tender and sore, somehow, like a phantom pain of a cracked tooth. She folded her arms again like a shield against the world and especially against other people.
“I’ll tell the girls to cancel the camping trip,” Sunset said.
“Sunset, don’t ruin their fun.” Twilight let go of her hand. “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean we have to do everything together. I don’t want to, I don’t…”
“They care about you as much as I do, Twilight,” Sunset whispered. “They’re not going to make fun of you. We all have things we’re afraid of.”
“You should go with them,” Tempest said.
Twilight blanched. “What? No! I can’t! I--”
“You need to face your fears.” Tempest raised her chin. “After I was mauled, my friends abandoned me because my magic was uncontrollable and dangerous. I know what it’s like to be mocked because you’re hurting. Do you know how I got over it?”
“I have a sneaking suspicion it involves facing your fear.”
“I came back years later, and I faced my fear. I have the Ursa’s head mounted in my airship cabin. I led a force of soldiers to capture and enslave the ponies who had mocked me when they were foals and made sure they saw me as they were sold into slavery. They paid the price for going against me, and they will never, ever forget--!”
“Tempest!” Sunset hissed. “People are staring!”
Tempest had gotten to her feet at some point, and people around the library were watching. They’d started staring when she’d begun an inspirational speech and kept staring when it turned into ranting and raving.
“Shhh!” hissed the librarian.
“Sorry,” Tempest mumbled, sitting back down.
“I don’t think I want to enslave anybody,” Twilight said.
“I eventually regretted it,” Tempest said. “I’ve been trying to find all of them and free them. Princess Twilight has been kind enough to say I’m spreading the magic of friendship, but the truth is I’m working to fix my mistakes.”
“And the Ursa?”
Tempest leaned back. “It was something I obsessed over for years.”
Sunset nodded. “And it became more of a symbol than a real enemy, and by the time you confronted it, you were left unfulfilled and empty because you’d spent so much time thinking about this one thing that you never considered what would come after?”
“No, it was the best day of my life.”
Sunset looked pained. Tempest decided that meant she didn’t understand, so she continued trying to explain herself.
“I spent a long time letting the fear and nightmares control me,” Tempest said. “Even the constant pain wasn’t as bad as seeing that Ursa every night. Fear gets under your skin in a way that nothing else does.”
Twilight nodded.
“Because I was afraid I threw myself into other things. I learned to fight because I felt in control as long as I was crushing someone with my hooves.”
“That sounds like an incredibly unhealthy way of dealing with your problems,” Sunset said.
“The point is, I got over it.”
“You also worked for an evil warlord to conquer Equestria and enslaved dozens of ponies.”
“More like thousands of ponies.”
Sunset considered telling her that enslaving more ponies wasn’t better just because the number was larger by several orders of magnitude, but she’d learned several friendship lessons about forgiving and forgetting and the importance of not asking too hard to be punched in the face.
“Most of whom have been freed,” Tempest quickly added, because as much as Sunset was trying to keep from saying anything, her face was a billboard advertising her disquiet. “And I won’t do it again. I promised.”
“Anyway, instead of facing her fears and being traumatized, I can call the girls and we can figure something else out,” Sunset said. “I know Rarity had some ideas about a day trip to the city and staying in a fancy hotel and spa.”
“I’ll go camping,” Twilight said, quietly.
“You don’t have to--”
‘Yes, I do,” Twilight interrupted, more firmly, her hands clenched into tiny fists of determination. “Tempest is right. I need to face my fears.”
“Okay.” Sunset smiled. “That’s really brave of you, Twilight.”
Sunset looked up at the racks of guns.
“Twilight, this isn’t what I thought you meant when you said you were going to face your fears.”
Twilight ignored her and kept paging through reviews on firearms instead of asking the expert behind the counter, because she trusted anonymous masses far more than she did someone who had money on the line. Besides, he was busy, because Tempest was asking him questions and rapidly becoming less and less impressed with his stock.
“You don’t have any spears?” she asked, arms folded. “How are you supposed to go hunting without a spear?”
“Well lady, unlike yourself, most people prefer something more modern,” the clerk said.
“More modern?” Tempest looked around. “What, like these knives? They’re tiny. Don’t you have any proper vorpal blades or flaming swords?”
“Hey, just what you see, pal.”
Tempest sighed and looked over the racks, eyes sliding over the unfamiliar shapes of the firearms and seeking something, anything, that she actually recognized as a weapon. And at the far end of the rack, she found it.
“Is that a crossbow?”
“That there is a Barneigh Raspberry. Top of the line, just came out last year.”
“May I?” Tempest asked. The clerk passed the unloaded crossbow over, and Tempest found true love for the first time. The weight of the deadly weapon in her hands lifted the weight on her heavy heart, the composite and titanium like a part of her own body that had been missing even longer than her horn.
“Are you okay?” Sunset asked.
“I need this,” Tempest whispered.
“Excuse me,” Twilight said. “I’m interested in the Marelin 1895.”
“Full length or carbine?” The clerk asked, keeping an eye on Tempest. It was the same eye he used with anyone who walked in and might be a psychopath - they were perfectly welcome as long as they spent money and didn’t drive business away.
“Carbine, please. According to my data, it’s still quite accurate within a hundred yards.” His hand closed on a gun, and she cleared her throat. “The one next to it with the rail system, please.”
The gun was passed over to the teenager. She looked it over and hefted the weight in both hands, calculating.
“Just so you know, gun like that isn’t great for hunting,” the clerk warned. “Range is pretty low for a rifle.”
“We’re going camping,” Twilight said, distantly. “I was thinking more for self-defense.”
“Oh!” The clerk smiled. “That’s perfect for you then, little lady. Fast-firing and with less kick than a shotgun so you won’t hurt yourself.”
Twilight nodded and handed the rifle back. “I’ll take it.”
“Great. I’ll just need your ID to check your age and do a quick background check and you’ll be good to go.”
“My age?”
The clerk pointed to a sign.
“You must be eighteen or older to purchase firearms and ammunition,” Twilight read. She looked at Sunset.
“What?” Sunset asked, arms folded.
“You brought your ID, right?” Twilight asked, sheepishly.
“Twilight, I’m not going to…”
Sunset trailed off at Twilight’s expression. The girl looked like Sunset was threatening to kick her talking and often-neglected dog. It was the kind of expression that would have made Sunset feel bad even before she’d been hit with a beam of concentrated friendship and rainbows.
“Fine,” Sunset said, reaching for her wallet.
The clerk cleared his throat and looked significantly at Tempest.
She was licking the crossbow and whispering to it seductively, trailing a finger along its thick, sturdy stock.
“Gonna be honest, after seeing that I am not gonna ever be able to sell that to anyone else. You molest it, you buy it.”
“Do you take credit cards?” Sunset sighed.
"You will never be able to have your revengance unless you internalize the Killing Intent," Tempest said, emphasizing the capitals. "It's a difficult lesson to learn. Ponies don't have a predatory instinct. We're herd animals, prey. We can kill when we're backed into a corner. To go out and hunt something down, to kill, that's against everything in our makeup."
She paused, regarding her audience.
"I assume it's broadly similar for humans."
"Actually humans are apex predators," Twilight corrected.
Tempest gave her a look. Checked her own hand for hidden claws, felt around in her mouth for fangs, and thankfully stopped before checking the growths on her chest for venom pores.
"It's true," Sunset said. "They hunted a bunch of animals into extinction before they even invented the written word."
"Then this should be easy," Tempest said. "Today, to prepare yourself for the trial ahead, you will learn how to look an enemy in the eyes and destroy them."
She pointed to the deadly foe, thankfully restrained at the far end of the makeshift firing range they'd set up in the quarry.
It looked back at them. It had black eyes, dead eyes, like a doll's eyes.
In fact, they were a doll's eyes. Tempest had tied a teddy bear to a stick.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Twilight said.
"This whole thing is a bad idea, but if you're going to have a gun, you'd better learn to use it safely," Sunset retorted.
"She's right," Tempest said. "A warrior and her weapon need to be one. You have to trust your blade--"
Twilight raised her hand. "Gun. I have a gun."
"--Trust your gun as if it was an extension of your hoof."
"Hand."
Tempest huffed, folding her arms. "I'm trying to teach you how to look a sentient being right in the eyes and end their life, but if you'd rather sit here and not murder anyone today, that's fine."
“No, no, I’m all about murder!” Twilight assured her.
“Good. Now, look at the enemy.”
Twilight looked directly at her foe, ten paces away, a tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff.
“Center the target and pull the trigger,” Tempest ordered.
Twilight looked down the sights. The teddy was helpless, just like she’d been all those years ago. She swallowed, nervous, the barrel of the gun wavering left and right.
“Pull the trigger!” Tempest snapped.
Twilight pulled.
The gun jumped in her hands, slamming into her shoulder. The shot went wide, hitting the sand and rock behind the stuffed bear.
Twilight groaned and lowered the gun.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered.
“You don’t have to,” Sunset said. “Trust me, sometimes the hardest and most important thing you can do is forgive. You can look at this as an opportunity to grow and leave your past behind and make new fr--”
“You can’t do it,” Tempest said, cutting Sunset off. “Not unless you hate it. You have to really feel the rage in your heart, Twilight!”
Twilight looked at Sunset, then at Tempest. “I’m not sure--”
“You hate that bear, don’t you?!”
“Yes?”
“That sounded like a question! I want an answer! Do you hate that bear?!”
“Yes!”
“Let me see your war face!”
“My what?!”
“Your war face!” Tempest snarled, giving Twilight a look that could have sent a dragon running.
Twilight tried to snarl but just kind of snorled, which was entirely different and a mistake not just on the page but on her face.
“You have to get pumped!” Tempest yelled. “You have to get mad! If you’re mad you won’t be scared, you won’t hesitate, and you won’t show mercy!”
“Right!”
“Get out there and show me!”
Twilight screamed and ran towards the bear, wielding the gun like a club.
“That’s the spirit!”
Tempest watched for a few moments.
“Maybe a little too much spirit. You can stop.”
The screaming and beating kept going.
“We’ll just let her wear herself down,” Tempest decided.
You could see a place on a map. A small town on the edge of Equestria, near the places where wild things roamed. There weren't guidebooks written on it, but if there were, they'd say things like 'a quaint town where parents should keep more careful watch over their foals.'
Tempest had already finished consulting the map, though. She'd planned out the attack on the most detailed map she'd ever seen of the frontier area. She could trace her whole journey away from home, the woods she'd passed through, the place where everything had gone wrong.
You could see a place in your memories, the way it used to be. Buildings that loomed over you, the local general store where a Barnyard Bargains stands now. The mocking laughter of foals echoing down the streets.
There was a wall down the middle of Tempest's memories. On one side of the wall, she was a happy filly with friends and a future and even a family. She couldn't see that side from where she was now. That wall divided the past and future and spanned decades. Her family was on the other side. She couldn't even remember their faces.
What Tempest liked the most was seeing a place from the bow of a floating warship. Ponies like little pastel-colored ants wandering through the winding streets, only a few even noticing the dark fate looming overhead.
It was a view that let her look down on the masses like they'd looked down on her. The town was spread out like a map, but real enough that she could reach out and touch it and make them remember what they'd done.
"Put us down in the town square," Tempest ordered. She turned away, done looking. "I want them in chains by the time I return from the hunt."
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I love it and I'm 100% with it.
It's like a comic version of Fractured where Twilight had a crush on Drax.
Ha! Nice one.
I'm going to be the pedantic gun guy and point out that a Mar(e)lin 1895 uses a .45-70 round... which is a biiiiiig boooollet, and would kick about as much as a shotgun, if not more, considering the kick increases with bullet mass. A Mar(e)lin 336 would be less likely to knock little SciTwi off her feet. That one is available in smaller calibers.
That said, Twilight has good taste.
lol
And with this chapter I think we are safely diverged from Fractured Sunlight!
You molest it you buy it. Love it!
... Twilight buys a gun... Great...
So much for Fractured Sunlight, and it was going so well too.
+1 internet cookie for the Winnie the Pooh reference
There is so much goodness here I don't even know where to start. Damn.
Well, at least the comedy and the tragedy have united into deranged psychopathy now.
Oh ye gods... working on getting Twilight murderous intent and anger. Do you want Sith Midnight? Because this is how you get Sith Midnight.
...Don't answer that question please.
This diverges from Fractured Sunlight, in I think the most comedic and enjoyable way possible.
y.yarn.co/583e8911-94c2-4cbc-a4ab-2d2cbcf9104b_screenshot.jpg
Black like a dolls eyes...
Nice reference and even better story. It’s hard to get me invested into a story and you’ve gotten me to chapter three!!
The comic relief is really nice here, ngl. Also it's kinda hard to not giggle?
This is not at all how I expected this to go, and I love it.