Talents Gone Wrong

by Starshine_Swirl

Chapter 6

"LAVENDER!" Twilight shouted, checking and rechecking every room of the library. She was almost in tears. "Lavender?! Where are you?" She dashed up the stairs and shook Spike awake. "Spike! Lavender's gone!"

Spike rubbed his eyes and pulled his pillow over his head. "Calm down, Twilight. She probably went to Sugarcube Corner or somewhere."

"No! No she didn't!" She would have left a note!" Twilight insisted, desperately dumping Spike on the floor. "Help me!"

The young dragon blearily stumbled down the stairs. "She did leave a note, Twilight! See?" He pointed to the kitchen table, which held a piece of paper, a book, and two small objects that seemed to be glowing. Teleporting over to the table, she examined the two objects. They were about the size of large marbles and had a glassy surface, but both pulsated with an iridescent inner glow that no marble had. Spike reached for them, but Twilight blocked his claw.

"Spike! Don't touch those, I don't know what they are!"

"They're just marbles, Twilight. Take a chill pill," Spike grumbled.

"Have you ever seen a marble that glowed like that? These must be powerful magical artifacts. Lavender must have put them here for us! I bet she says what they are in her note." Twilight unrolled the paper and began to read aloud.

Dear Twilight,

To make a long story short, I put a blindfold on last night and left it for a while. Now I remember everything. I want you to know, so I recorded the memories into these orbs. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the spell I used, so I left you the book I found it in, too. All you have to do is touch your horn to the orb and you'll see my memories. Use the one on the left first. Thanks for helping me these past few days, but I have to make things right.

--Lavender Dazzle

Twilight dropped the letter in shock. "I can't believe she ran away, Spike!"

"I can't believe she would just suddenly leave like that," Spike agreed. "It must be really important. You have to look at the memories! It's the only way we can find out where she is."

"Spike, I really--"

"She wanted you to; you have to," Spike said. "Left one comes first."

Twilight bent her head over the table and touched the tip of her horn to the leftmost orb. She fell unconscious as soon as the glassy orb met her horn, her head smashing into the table. She was already too deep in the memory to feel the pain as she slid to the ground.

***

Being in somepony else's memories was a strange experience. Twilight couldn't move any part of her body except her head, and when she looked down, she couldn't see her hooves or chest. It was as if she was a floating head.

Lavender was just a little filly, younger even than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She was leaving a large brick building and approaching what seemed to be a schoolhouse. Strangely, there didn't seem to be anypony around. Twilight had no idea where they were, as Lavender had never mentioned it.

The filly approached the door of the schoolhouse. She opened it a crack and peered inside, then quickly slammed it shut and pressed her body against it. Somepony began to pound on the door from inside, shouting a string of curses and threats at Lavender. Her hooves began to slip, but she leaned into the door harder.

Suddenly, the pounding stopped. Lavender pressed her ear to the door confusedly. Seconds later, with an almighty WHAM, the door literally burst off its hinges. Lavender was thrown forward, her face scraping through the dust.

The pony in the schoolhouse turned out to be a dark blue pegasus colt, somewhat older than Lavender. He made a perfect landing after flying out the door, then stalked over to Lavender. "Rise and shine," he hissed.

Lavender's orange eyes slowly opened. Instantly, her hair bristled and she flinched away. "You! What do you want?"

He smirked. "Oh, you'll see. And you'll keep seeing afterwards only if you do exactly what I said earlier."

"No!" Lavender squirmed, but the colt stomped a hoof down on her foreleg. She grit her teeth as a tear trickled down her face.

"You aren't going anywhere until you agree," he continued, pinning down her other foreleg as well.

Lavender groaned, defeated. "FINE."

The unicorn filly stood up, the pressure gone from her legs. "But you still have no power over me, Wind Raider! Get that through your thick skull before I get it through myself." She turned and began walking away, her tail switching angrily behind her.

Wind Raider's eyes narrowed. "Getting cocky now, are we? Remember who's the colt here."

"Oh? What's that supposed to mean?" Lavender stopped, but didn't turn around.

"Didn't you get it the first time? Of course not, but I'll tell you again.Fillies are made for colts to have power over. Get used to it."

Lavender faced her rival once again, glaring balefully at the hated smirk on his disgusting face. "Oh, you want power huh, you little freak? Let's wait until you can even look an adult stallion in the eye, shorty, then we'll talk."

"Say that again and you'll never look anypony in the eye again. I swear to Celestia."

"Come at me, bro," Lavender growled, pawing the ground and snorting.

The two young ponies charged at each other, one galloping, one flying. Just as Wind Raider reached Lavender, he prepared to deliver a crushing blow to her skull. Lavender saw what he was about to do and ducked, punching upward with a front hoof while he was passing above her. By sheer luck, her blow hit Wind Raider in the place no stallion wants to be hit.

The pegasus crashed to the ground, clutching his crotch. Lavender stalked over to him, smiling so wide it hurt, her mane almost standing on end. "What now, sucker?" she said, cackling at his pain. Revenge was the sweetest thing sometimes.

Wind Raider growled like an animal, losing all restraint. He pulled himself up and pounced on Lavender, punching every part of her. She was paralyzed with shock as Wind Raider bucked and stomped on her, feeling bones break inside her.

Suddenly, Wind Raider remembered his earlier threat. He poised his hoof above Lavender's left eye first. "Ready to pay me back for that?" he snarled, tracing the filly's eye so gently, before suddenly pressing down. Lavender shrieked desperately. Wind Raider continued to deliberately probe the area around Lavender's eye, reveling in her discomfort, never noticing the faint red glow around her horn or the shadow looming behind him.

Lavender smiled slightly. "What's so f--" He followed her line of sight to see the huge boulder looming behind him. Before he could even react, the red aura suddenly faded.

An almighty crash echoed through the seemingly deserted area.

Lavender stood gingerly, bruised and bleeding everywhere. She was about to leave, but noticed the crimson pool beginning to trickle from under the boulder. "I'M A KILLER!" she shrieked with anguish.

Twilight kept staring at the scene, shocked, until it faded to black.

***

Lavender now sat alone in a cell, metal bars between her and a dank concrete hallway. She kept a straight face, but every so often her mouth would tremble and a tear or two would fall from her eyes. Her right foreleg and her chest were wrapped in casts, and she had a black eye and cuts and bruises everywhere. She glanced up as the door opened, quickly brushing her lears away.

A white pegasus and an iron-gray earth pony, both stallions, approached the cell. Lavender sat up on the concrete floor, trying to look presentable.

"Hello, Lavender," the pegasus began. "I'm Sheriff Silverwing, and this is my partner Storm. We're here to talk with you about what happened yesterday."

"...okay" Lavender mumbled.

"We won't be mad at you, we just want to ask you some questions, okay?" the sheriff continued, trying to comfort Lavender.

"okay" Lavender said again.

"So, what was Wind Raider doing that made you so... upset?" he asked.

"He was making me do something I didn't want to do, and he was hurting me."

"I see. What was he making you do?"

Lavender lowered her voice slightly. "He wanted money. He wanted me to get him money..." She cringed, embarrassed.

"Ugh, colts these days," Silverwing commented to Storm, who offered no comment. "Lavender, if I may ask..." he hesitated, choosing his words carefully, "why did you use such a ...drastic method of freeing yourself?"

"I didn't know I was doing it..." Lavender sniffled. "I had never used my magic before then."

"...I see." Sheriff Silverwing's expression was unreadable. "Well, I think that's all the information we'll need. Am I right, Storm?" The gray stallion nodded. "Thanks, Lavender. We'll arrange for your release."

The filly was silent for a moment, then as the two stallions began to walk away, she stood up and waved a hoof at them. "Thank you!" she called. "Thank you so much!"

Again, the scene began to fade. Twilight realized that she wasn't really looking forward to the next memory.

Comments

[Starshine_Swirl]

Long chapter ftw. Anyway, if anyone still even reads this anymore, thanks for sticking with me! I hope I've improved with this chapter!

[Mother3Forever]

Woo! Ne wChapter!

[Starshine_Swirl]

must... Type... Up... Other... Chapters...

I NEED TO WRAP THIS UP SO I CAN START POSTING MY OTHER, BETTER FIC!