Tears for the Pearl

by The Lord Thunder

Chapter 13

The rest of the day they traveled, to another small village nearby, only to find no leads and head off to the next town. Once the sun disappeared, the ponies put on their sweaters and Twilight raised her hoof and called for them to make camp in the foot of a narrow canyon. Pinkie, the only one who hadn't brought a scarf or sweater, wrapped her forelegs around her chest, shivering for warmth, the chattering of her teeth indicating she wished she’d packed warm. “Twilight, why didn’t you tell me it was gonna get this cold?”

Twilight rolled her eyes while Applejack facehoofed. “We did.”

“We’re in the desert!” Pinkie shrieked. “Why is it so cold?! Deserts are supposed to be hot!”

Rarity stepped up to Pinkie and patted her on the shoulder. “There, there, Pinkie. We’ll get a campfire started.”

The ponies selected a quiet spot in the canyon that provided them shelter from the chilly wind. They anchored their tents to heavy rocks and chose a cavity in the canyon wall as the spot for a campfire.

Applejack twisted a stick between her hooves until smoke began to rise from the pile. A few tiny sparks then the wood ignited, lighting the cavity in a warm red glow. The ponies sat close to enjoy its heat – all except for Pearl, who stood some distance away, warily eyeing the flames.

“Now there’s how ya start a campfire, ya’ll!” Applejack said proudly.

Everypony voiced their agreement. Pinkie Pie reached into her bag and pulled out eight thin metal rods and a bag of marshmallows.

“You know you have a dragon with you, right?” Spike grumbled. “I could’ve started it quicker.”

“Fire breath is cheatin’,” Applejack countered.

“Eh, fire’s fire,” Pinkie said. “It roasts marshmallows all the same!” She passed out the skewers to each of the ponies and dragon sitting around the campfire, then impaled six marshmallows on hers and held them over the flames.

“The perfect campfire is an Apple family tradition!” Applejack bit back.

“Hey Pearl, come sit with us!” Starlight offered.

Pearl hesitated. She wanted to, but with that fire… “That’s okay, I’m fine over here.”

“Don’t you want some marshmallows?” Pinkie asked. She scooped up all six from her skewer with her tongue and swallowed them in one gulp. “They’re good!”

“No, really. I’ll just stay over here.”

The pink pony hopped up with a very sticky smile and bounded over to Pearl. “Come on! It’ll be super-duper fun!”

“I don’t want to,” Pearl answered more insistently. Don’t lose your patience, Pearl. They’re you’re friends...

“How come, sugarcube?” Applejack asked. “You’re shivering. The fire’ll warm you right up.”

“It’s not because I’m cold.”

Pinkie grabbed Pearl by the hoof and tugged. “Come sit with your friends!”

“No!” Pearl yelled. She yanked her hoof away and backed up a step. All eyes were on her now.

Rainbow Dash joined Pinkie and Pearl, hovering above them. “What’s up with you?”

“I hate fire!” Pearl screamed.

The other ponies went silent at Pearl’s rare outburst, but their eyes begged for an explanation. Pearl sighed, allowing herself a moment to calm down, then with great effort followed Pinkie and Rainbow back to the campfire and took a seat next to Pinkie. Pearl tilted herself away from the flames, feeling as though they might reach out and grab her.

“Why are you so afraid of fire?” Twilight asked.

“What’s the matter, darling?” Rarity asked. “You can tell us.”

Pearl huffed, staring blankly at the flickering ground. Dark memories poked at her mind. “When that… thing took over, I would sometimes wake up surrounded by smoke and ashes. When I see fire, I think about the things that Seed made me do. All that carnage and destruction, all of it caused by fire.”

“It’s true that fire can be a mite dangerous,” Applejack said, “but we wouldn’t be here today if ancient ponies hadn’t figured out how to make good use of it. They depended on fire for survival.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Of course. You just have to keep safety in mind.”

Closing her eyes, Pearl took a deep breath to compose herself. “You’re right. As long as I have my friends here with — ack!” Pearl shrieked when a ball off fire zoomed in front of her face. She fell over on her back, her heart pounding as her chest heaved with rapid breaths.

“What?” Pinkie Pie asked, holding a flaming marshmallow on a skewer in front of Pearl. “Don’t you want a marshmallow?”

“Pinkie!” Twilight snapped. “What did Fluttershy just say about safety?”

Pinkie flashed a cringing smile, then blew out the flames. “Sorry, Pearl.”

“You —” Pearl panted, hoping to regain her breath, “you don’t shove something on fire in front of a pony’s face! Don’t ever—” Pearl paused to again catch her breath, “don’t ever do that to me again! I can’t lose control over-over…”

A sudden sharp pain pulsed through her. She yelped at this, her thoughts suddenly turning to horror.

“What’s wrong, Pearl?” Fluttershy asked.

Pain shot through her body again, stronger this time. Pearl’s head throbbed. “What’s happening to me?” she moaned, wrapping her forelegs against her chest.

The others all rose and approached her.

“Pearl, what’s going on?” Twilight asked. “Is it the Seed?”

Waves of agony like electric shocks coursed through Pearl’s body now. “I don’t know! It hurts!”

“Oh, this isn’t good,” Spike said.

Somewhere beneath her wall of pain, Pearl felt a dark, malicious presence threatening to overtake her. Violent thoughts. To see these ponies broken and defeated-no! Those weren’t her thoughts!

“It’s the Seed!” Pearl yelled. “Everypony get out of here!”

A familiar red aura began to surround Pearl.

“W-what do we do, y’all?!” Applejack asked.

“We must help her!” Rarity yelled back.

“But how?!” Rainbow shouted.

They know too much a voice seemed to whisper into Pearl’s mind.

Pearl gnashed her teeth and anchored herself, struggling to keep hold of herself. “Get out of here before —”

Destroy them! Destroy them all!

“No!” Pearl yelled back. “I won’t do it!”

Starlight took a step closer. “Pearl, listen to me! You have to fight it. Don’t give in!”

I said destroy them! They’ve learned too much!

“Get out of my head! You don’t own me!”

You can’t resist me forever, my little vessel of destruction. Those ponies are a threat to me. To us. They must be eliminated!

Pearl tensed her muscles as she looked to the other ponies. Twilight and Starlight had spells prepared in their horns. Applejack and Rainbow Dash took up defensive stances while the others looked on in fear and dread.

Eliminate them all — eliminate — eliminate — eliminate!

A small piece of her felt an uncontrollable urge to do it, but as she looked to her friends she saw sorrow in their eyes, pleading for her to come to her senses. She owed them so much — too much to let this creature within her have its way. Pearl braced herself and, as if the others had lent her their strength, she shook her head and fought to drive back the darkness and the pain. The Seed fought back in kind, trying to root more of its influence in Pearl’s mind. Screaming, she chose her most logical option: flee.

“NO!” she cried, running into the night.

My vessel, why do you resist? Why are you hiding?

“How-how are you talking to me?”

You always were good at hide and seek as a filly, weren’t you?

“How...” she wondered as she continued to gallop as fast as her legs could carry her.

I’ve been inside you for a long time. I know all about you. I’ve learned your ways, your thoughts, your language. I’m a part of you. Or perhaps, you’re a part of me?

“A... part of you?”

You can’t resist me forever. We can cause so much destruction together, vessel.

“Why are you so obsessed with destruction?”

For a moment, the Seed didn’t answer, then spoke to her again like a whisper in her ear. I am a weapon. I was created to destroy.

“I won’t let you hurt them! I don’t care what you are, I’m not a killer like you!”

If they’re going to be such a hindrance, then maybe you need another case of amnesia.

Pearl gasped, her grip on the Seed loosening. “All those years ago, when I was a filly...”

Such a shame, too. It took much of my strength. I could have taken control of you much sooner if I hadn’t been forced to such measures.

Pearl refocused her thoughts, fighting for control of herself. The Seed was toying with her, trying to weaken her focus. Tears ran down her face as she hid herself in a shallow cave to catch her breath.

The ponies you care about will be like strangers. You will lose all memory of them.

Pearl heaved a crying sob and buried her face in her hooves. “No. somepony, please help me!”

***

Twilight and the others caught up with Pearl, farther back in the canyon, just in time to catch the end of her unique conversation. They started toward her when Pearl lifted a hoof in warning.

“Stay away!” Pearl yelled. “Don’t come any closer!”

“We’re your friends, Pearl!” Twilight shouted back.

“Yeah!” Rainbow said. “We’re not going anywhere!”

“It’s trying to… wipe my memory! It wants to-to destroy you all!”

Twilight gasped. The Seed must have wiped Pearl’s memory as a filly. As a measure to protect itself, perhaps. Protect it from what? Wait, her parents – yes, that’s it! “Pearl, look at us!”

Pearl heeded Twilight’s words and lifted her head, her eyes glowing a fiery crimson.

“Think about how we’ve helped you. Think about the good times you’ve had with us. Think about home, your adoptive parents! The Seed fears us, fears them, because it needs to feed on hate and fear. Friendship, peace, love — it can’t handle that!”

Pearl’s mouth cracked open as she stared at them for a few silent moments. Her eyes suddenly became narrow and focused. “I won't let you hurt my friends!” She let out a shrill, animalistic scream that echoed across the canyon walls. Rings of power coursed through her horn.

“Get down!” Twilight shouted. She and the others did so, dropping low and covering their heads with their hooves.

Towering rays of light burst around Pearl and shot to the sky, lighting the area in a blinding white display of power. The cavity she hid under disintegrated upon contact with the magic columns and the ground beneath Pearl cracked and webbed out to where her friends were lying prone. It was almost like being caught in an earthquake.

Bits of stone hovered around Pearl, suspended in mid-air from the force of whatever it was she’d just done. A blast of wind buffeted the area, sending the rocks flying over Twilight’s head and, at last, the light faded. Pearl dropped to her belly and reverted to her ordinary form, but the very ground underneath her had buckled and depressed.

“Whoa,” Starlight breathed, “what power…”

Pearl pulled herself up to her knees and front hooves, letting out slow, shallow breaths with her mane matted against her face. Tears streamed from her eyes. “Finish me. Quick, before it comes back!”

Twilight bit her lip, fighting tears herself. A promise was a promise, but...

“Quite the light show!” Came a familiar voice. Discord popped into existence, theater lights from somewhere above illuminating him. “You really should take that one on the road, my dear. You’d be the hit of Equestria.”

Pearl’s breathing slowed. She stared perplexed at Discord for a moment, then the mental switch flicked in her eyes. “I remember you, at the castle.”

“Discord?” Fluttershy asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, it goes against my nature as the Lord of Chaos, but perhaps I’ve come to help.”

“Help?” Pearl breathed. She stood up. “I thought… I thought you said you couldn’t help me.”

“And I still can’t. I won’t bother you with the details, but it turns out I can help your parents, your real ones.” Discord materialized the journal they had found in his paws. “Quite the read. They really should have this back.”

“You can help me find them?” Pearl asked, hope in her voice.

“Technically, I’m forbidden to tell you but —” Discord began tearing small pieces of paper from the journal. “Oh dear, this poor book is just falling apart.”

Discord floated above them, tearing off pieces of paper as he left that marked an obvious trail. Now Twilight levitated the group in a bubble, flying and following as Discord moved ever faster.

“Thank you,” Pearl said.

Discord kept up his trail-marking, acting as if he hadn’t heard a thing. “You really should tell whoever left this book behind that it pays to keep things in proper storage.”

Twilight allowed herself a slight smile as she and the others followed Discord. What a mysterious creature he was...