Chapter Eleven- Rising Tensions (Part 3)
Sorry this took a lot longer than I thought it would. Was originally gonna have this finished by Tuesday before the holidays, but got busy with work and didn't have time. So first of all I want to say that Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Second of all I want to let you all know that I've made some slight changes to the first arc. Just extending by one or two chapters more.
And last but not least... I want to thank Unamusedwaffle for helping with editing this chapter and we now have a brand new COVER ART!!! Made by the amazing MCShelster
Edit: I completely forgot to mention this but this is probably my favorite and most emotional chapter I've written so far for Beyond Infinity. I honestly cried writing this one... So you guys also get tears from me. Enjoy
Chapter Eleven- Rising Tensions (Part 3)
The whole way back, Marcus’ nerves were firing constantly. His head was swimming with thoughts of what Death had said to him about “seeing” ponies differently. It was enough to make him sweat, but even worse was the huge pit that weighed down in his stomach the moment he set hoof in Sugarcube Corner. Looking at the staircase going upstairs, he couldn’t help but feel dread as his cheeks heated up.
“Sometime in the near future, you’ll start seeing things differently,”
She’s wrong… She’s wrong, I’m a human. I ain’t gonna see Pinkie any differently. You’re just going on a walk as FRIENDS and nothing more. I mean, we’ve only known each other a few weeks!
Seeing the logic in his own argument, Marcus trotted up the stairs to the hallway leading to both his and Pinkie’s rooms. Filling his lungs with air and exhaling, he made his way over to Pinkie’s door.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK…
“Whooooooo is it?~” he heard Pinkie sing.
“Hey, Pinks, it’s me,”
“O-Oh, give me a second, Coaly!”
THUD!
“Is everything okay in there, Pinks?”
“Just dropped something, it’s not important. I’ll be out in a second,” Pinkie replied as the haphazard sounds of shuffling and movement continued for a few more seconds before her door swung open. He noticed that she had a nervous grin on her face, her mane was a little messy and her cheeks were red. “S-Sorry for the wait! Whatcha need, Coaly?”
“Actually, I was wondering if you still wanted to go for that walk like we talked about earlier? But I understand if you’re busy and all, I can just-”
“N-No, not at all! Just gimme me a minute and I’ll meetcha downstairs!” Pinkie shouted, slamming the door in his face. Marcus blinked.
Ooookay… I guess I’ll just wait downstairs for now, but why was she acting so weird- Wait, remember it’s Pinkie being Pinkie. You never know what’s going through that girl's mind, but… she did look a little weirded out by me.
Pinkie Pie leaned against her door with a goofy grin plastered on her face as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. Her face was completely flushed as she pressed her hooves against her cheeks.
He was serious when he asked to go on a walk together? Just the two of us?! Is this a date!? No come on, Pinkie Pie, you are just two friends going out on a walk together. It’s like my walks with Sombry, just me and Coaly going for a walk together… alone… JUST as friends.
She paused for a moment when the thought of "just friends" came to mind. She couldn’t explain what that awful feeling was, but she ignored it promptly as she quickly grabbed a pink and white striped scarf and wrapped it around herself, before taking a quick glance at her wall mirror.
A frown began to form on her face, before glancing down at her makeup kit that Rarity had given her for her birthday last year.
It wouldn’t hurt to make myself look a little prettier, would it?
Marcus could barely keep his hind hoof from rap-tap-tapping the edge of the booth he was sitting at. He forced himself to take a deep breath as he glanced at his phone for what felt like the fifth time in simultaneously three minutes and two hours. But it had only been fifteen minutes.
Get a hold of yourself! You have nothing to worry about, we're only going for a walk around town… It’s not a date or anything like that, I just need to tell her the truth about what I really am and it'll make things so much easier.
Unfortunately for him, Marcus never got the chance to finish that breath of his. For not a moment later, the creaking of the old wooden stairs caught his attention from across the room. Down stepped Pinkie, his unfinished breath caught in her grasp.
He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t breathe, or how on Earth she even held his attention like that, but she did. He couldn’t put a finger or hoof? on what it was specifically; was it her confident stride? Her almost reflectively pink mane she tied up that momentarily blinded him? Her-
No! This is NOT happening! Friends! WE'RE JUST FRIENDS!
“Are you ready to go?” she asked.
"OH! Y-Yeah, definitely," Marcus said, feeling blood rush to his cheeks as he turned his head away from her. “*Ahem* Uh… S-Shall we? Heh…”
“Yeah… lead the way,” Pinkie replied awkwardly. Marcus also happened to notice that her cheeks were slightly red for some reason.
Did she put on makeup? Is that why she's embarrassed? There's no way she'd be embarrassed around me, right? Oh god, did she put the makeup on for this walk with me? Nah, that can't be jt… She just wanted to look nice for herself! Not for me or anything like that.
He tried to justify to himself before calling out to the Cakes.
“We’ll be back in a little while, Mr. and Mrs. Cake!” he shouted. Only after hearing an "Okay" from Mr. Cake did they both head out the door of Sugarcube Corner. “So, any place in particular you’d like to go to? A favorite spot? Or we could just go around for a little while?”
“Pfft… I don’t mind us just walking around town. Really, I just like everything here in Ponyville so it’s always difficult for me to really pick a favorite place!” Pinkie replied, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof as she let out a giggle.
Marcus immediately turned his gaze away from the party pony as he tried to get his flushed face under control. He wasn’t sure why this was suddenly happening. A few hours ago he could look Pinkie and pretty much everypony in the eye and not get so flustered. Now, he could barely look at Pinkie’s cute face without getting embarrassed-
Stop! You are only acting like this now, because of what Death said. Remember Marcus, you are a human, not a pony. You are taking her out because you trust her… It’s time.
With his mind set and strength in his resolve, the two of them made a turn around the corner of a building, only for him to collide with something metallic, and hard, producing a dull thump..
"Ooof! Ow!"
"You okay, Coaly!?" Pinkie asked, cringing Marcus could only stumble backwards, a grimace adorning his face as he gripped his stomach.
"Y-Yep!" he croaked.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry! Didn't mean to hit you," a voice of drizzled honey oozed into Marcus’ ears. Looking up, he saw a brown stallion with a long black mane and tail with a red streak going through it towering over him. He was wearing a white apron whose pink ice cream cone graphic heavily clashed with his coat. Marcus tried to distinguish his cutie mark, but it was hard to see it. Perhaps that was because of how late it had gotten? Either way, the stallion had a look of concern on his face for a moment that suddenly changed to astonishment. "Oh! You're that new prince that everypony is talking about, right?"
"N-Nononono! Not a prince," Marcus quickly rebutted sheepishly. That earned him a giggle from the party mare beside him.
"Well, I must say, I wasn’t expecting to meet you anytime soon. It's truly an honor to meet a new alicorn. My name is Mocha Cone, and I am the owner of this fine cart," he introduced himself, his hooves gesturing to his whole cart that now filled Marcus’ vision. He swore to himself it wasn’t there a second ago, before noticing the stallion extending his hoof out towards him.
"Well… uh… it's nice to meet you, too,” he sputtered out, reaching to shake his hoof. “but why are you-"
"Ooh Oh! Can I get a chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry cone, please?! Oh! And get a triple chocolate scoop cone for Coaly here! It's his favorite!" Pinkie blurted out, jumping up and down excitedly. Fortunately, he seemed to handle…Pinkie, quite well. Her reaction thankfully only elicited a chuckle from him. Marcus, however, couldn't help but look at Pinkie astonished by how she remembered that. He only briefly mentioned liking chocolate ice cream when he was telling her about his time back home. And that was weeks ago!
As the ice cream stallion began to open his cart and pulled out an ice cream scooper. That was when Pinkie looked up towards him, she couldn't help but tilt her head as she gave him a smile. "What’s with the long face, Coaly?"
"It’s just- Y-you actually remembered?" Marcus answered, completely taken aback by what she had said.
“Well, of course I remembered, silly! What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t remember their favorite flavor of ice cream?” Pinkie answered, even though it didn’t feel right to have the word “friend” come out of her mouth when it came to the alicorn.
“Well-”
“And here you are my lady, and for you… your majesty,” Mocha said, floating the pair of cones to them wrapped in a deep orange glow.
Huh? How’d he- Was he a unicorn the whole time? But I didn’t see-
“Mmm… This is so good! You gotta try it, Coaly!” Pinkie said, licking her ice cream.
Marcus couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he let out a chuckle before taking a lick of his own ice cream cone. “Wow, this is really good! Hey, how much does-”
“Oh, there’s no need for payment, it’s on the house. Think of it as an apology for bumping into you.”
“But I bumped into-”
“Ah, ah, ah, no buts!”
“Thank you, Mocha Cone! Tell Mrs. Cone I said hi!” Pinkie thanked before skipping ahead. Marcus started to follow her as he wondered how she held the cone in her hoof while skipping.
“Yeah, thanks for the cones!” he called back before hurrying ahead.
“No problem! Come back anytime!” Mocha called back with a broad smile.
The clattering of Marucs’ hooves against the rough dirt road came to a slow as he caught up with Pinkie.
“That was nice of him.”
“Yep! What a great friend!”
For several seconds-or hours, Marcus couldn’t tell the difference at this point-the sound of dirt crunching beneath their hooves and the ambiance of Ponyville was all that was shared between them.
Marcus could feel a pit slowly opening in his stomach as each second ticked by. Sure, their mouths were currently preoccupied with the ice cream, but come on!
The creaking of a wooden door sounded nearby. A light gust blew from behind them, as if coaxing them farther along.
Finally, a resounding ‘CRUNCH!’ emanated from Pinkie.
“So, you said you wanted to talk about something?” she asked in a weird way where her words themselves sounded as if they were stumbling; like they were pulled along too quickly by the word in front of them.
“Yeah… Actually… the thing is I haven't exactly been honest with you Pinkie, or with anyone really-
“Anypony,” she corrected.
“Bless you, but let's not get off topic. I’m trying to tell you that I'm not who I say I am,” he said, having a sudden tightness in his throat constricting his breathing. He mentally braced himself, waiting for any sign of mistrust or caution from her.
Instead, he saw her look up at him with concern. Feeling her place a hoof on his cheek, she began to speak. “Coaly, it’s okay. I'm not going to judge you or say anything to anypony and… I had a feeling you were probably going to say something that involves where you're from right?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Well, it's been a few weeks and you've barely mentioned anything about yourself. Like where you were from, or if you had family, friends, and all that stuff,” she paused for a moment as she collected her thoughts. “I guess this is about you wanting to go back home.”
Marcus avoided her gaze as he slowly nodded to her. Feeling his eyes start to water up, he did his best to hold himself back. That struggle became a bit easier as he spotted the bridge over the river where he had once comforted Pinkie.
“Do you mind if we talk by the bridge? I… I want to get everything off my chest and-” He was cut off by Pinkie’s hoof grabbing hold of his.
“Then let's get moving, Coaly!” Pinkie said, giving him a gentle smile rather than her usual eccentric one as she pulled him along towards the bridge.
All the while, the small pockets of moisture at the edges of his eyes threatened to spill over, and the constrictions in his throat grew and grew, like a snake finishing off its meal. It almost felt like he was being strangled at one point, and maybe he was, in a way.
How long has it been since I properly expressed…anything? Anything like this at all?
Once they were on the bridge, Marcus couldn't contain it any longer as tears began to pour out from his eyes. He started to shake as he lopped him head onto the railing and his mind began to race.
She's going to hate me, she's not gonna be my friend after I tell her the truth.
“Coaly, whatever you need to tell me, I pinkie promise that I'm not gonna hate you or stop being your friend,” she said, smiling at him Luckily, she was able to ignore that fluttering feeling in her tummy when she saw his obscured silver eyes.
“How'd you know I said-”
“Because you muttered that out loud, silly, hehe…” Pinkie said, letting a giggling when he replied with an: “Oh” “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Thanks, Pinkie, that means a lot to me actually. Okay…” Marcus said, trying to retrieve his thoughts from the torrent of emotion crashing through him right now.
“Pinkie, I wasn’t always a pony… I used to be something else. I… I wasn't born here in this world. I was born on a world called Earth, in a little town with… m-my f-family.” Marcus stammered, feeling ready for more tears to come out, but he forced himself to continue. “All I wanted to do was… be like my d-dad and help people… but… oh god… Oh god… I'mimim… I'm…”
Marcus began to cry, just letting it all out. He felt Pinkie’s hoof stroking his back as he just continued to let his tears flow freely. He tried not to think about it too much when he had arrived here in Equestria, and for several periods of time, he couldn’t; there was always something to worry about! From Death’s assignment and cryptic words, to meeting Fluttershy and her friends, royalty, Sombra, Infinity Stones?! It was all too much! But now that he was telling someone the whole truth, it finally dawned on him how painful these memories had become.
His parents, his sister, and his friends back on Earth are beyond him now.
“Pinkie… I… I was… I was…”
“Coaly… it's okay…I'm here for you…” Pinkie said, hugging him from behind while still stroking his back.
“Pinks… my… real name is or… was Marcus Phillips… and I was killed back where I came from… I died on Earth.” He finally said it and he was ready for her to leave him or call him “crazy” or “liar” and despite it hurting, he did feel a little relief finally coming clean.
*Sniffling*
Marcus' eyes widened when turned his head back to try and see the party pony, but he could only see her beautiful mane as her grip around his waist tightened. He soon began to feel something a little wet and warm on his back.
She was crying.
“M-Marcus… Is that really… your real name?”
“It’s not supposed to be anymore… Coal Obsidian is my name now, but… I still see myself as Marcus… It’s going to take time for me… to accept Coal as my real name,” Marcus replied, shutting his eyes tightly between sobs. “There is more… The real reason I'm looking for the stones is because I need to restore the lost souls of this world. Fixing what's missing is what's gonna get me a permanent body.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“If I don't… find all six of the Infinity Stones…Then my body will turn to dust.” he said, hearing a gasp from her.
“N-No… Nononononononono! You can't turn to dust! Why?!” Pinkie shouted.
“I made this deal with Death… I have ten years to find them all Pinks… it’s why I'm here right now. I'm alive and breathing because of Death. If I can get all those stones… If I can use them to fix what's going on in this world and save those missing souls, then afterward I can use them to get my old body back and I can go back home,” Marcus declared, wiping his tears as he sniffed.
Pinkie honestly didn’t know what to think at this point. This stallion who has treated her kindly, been helping her and the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner, who stood up for her had been going through all of this on his own. It was unbelievable, but the way he spoke of his home and what he'd gone through, it wasn’t something he could just make up. Those tears, that pain in his eyes, and sobs of anguish were proof enough for her that he was telling the truth.
It was heartbreaking to hear to the point that she'd been crying for this poor soul and he was still trying to help! Yet when he said going back home to his world…
… Didn’t that mean she wouldn’t see him again?
“Coal…um… Marcus? Oh, um… What do I call you now?” she asked, pulling away from him as she moved to sit next to him.
“It’s okay to keep calling me Coal Pinkie, it’s something I gotta get used to…” he replied, actually facing her and giving her a small grin.
“Then… Coaly, this is a lot and I know that it's important to you and I want to help you, but… can you promise me that you'll always come back to me- to us! All of us, your friends here in Ponyville and to come party here with us? It'll be a lot of fun and there will be cake, balloons, games and and-” she stopped suddenly when a hoof gently pressed against her lips.
“Pinks, I promise to come back… but it's not like I can leave anytime soon. I still have five more stones to look for. We're friends-No… Best friends,” he declared, despite how red and puffy his eyes were, he still looked at her with determination with a smile on his face that sent her heart afloat.
Pinkie felt her face start to heat up suddenly as one thought came to mind for the party pony.
He really has a handsome face. she thought, before trying to cover her reddened cheeks with her hooves as she turned away from him.
“You okay, Pinkie?”
“YEP! ALL FINE HERE!” Pinkie shouted as she looked away from him. Marcus couldn’t help but give a confused look before he shrugged.
“Ahem… A-Anyway, thank you for listening, Pinks, but you can't tell anypony about what you heard tonight. If they knew what I was really doing… I'd probably get locked up for the rest of my life… ten short years, but it's still my whole life currently,” Marcus explained, scratching the back of his neck.
“Consider it a genuine Pinkie Pie promise, Coaly! Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! That's two Pinkie promises from me, and I expect you to keep yours Mister!” Pinkie stated very clearly, poking his chest.
“Yeah, and I promise that no matter what, I'll be sure to come back to all of you… Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Marcus said, only this time he didn't jab himself in the eye.
The two started laughing as they both stood up and started their trek back home to Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie suddenly got ahead of him as she skipped with every step. Marcus was about to suggest something before he suddenly found himself noticing something quite appealing.
He found himself staring at her bouncing rump, the way it moved and how round and firm-
STOP! For the love of god!? What is up with me!? This is Death's fault, it's because of her that these thoughts are happening. I never even saw Pinkie like that before… Her pretty face and round-OH COME ON!
He couldn’t stop his face from turning a bright red as he tried shaking those inappropriate thoughts about his friend away.
Forget making it to 10 years… how am I even going to make it through one?
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What I really enjoy about this is it’s hard to write a serious Pinkie Pie love story so you hardly see any of them. Sure you’ll see a clop fic here or there, but it’s hard to find a fic where Pinkie’s in a serious relationship and still remains true to her character. This story does it so well as well
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Thank you, that's something I really wanted to try and change since Pinkie is always getting the short end of the stick when it comes to romance.
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Well so far so good, you definitely deserved all those featured tags. I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes as famous as say the story, “Past Sins”
Edit: I just realized looking at the new art and remembering something that happened in the last chapter I think I might have just figured out where another stone may be. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing the author may be knowing what I’m talking about if I’m not.
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Thanks for the kind words :)
Yes, fall for the cute pink pone. She has cookies.
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21 my friend.
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Maybe it is a generic beginning, but I can say that I'm having fun writing this story.
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Better cookies than cooties :p
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I'm having fun reading it
Update?
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It’ll be updated when I finish writing arc. I am very close to completing it :)
Hey, this chapter was posted on my b-day!
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Well I hope you enjoyed reading it :)