Marching Towards Harmony

by TrackdNTraild

Ch.9: An Unwelcome Reunion

Author's Note:

CWs: Violence, vomiting, toxic relationship details
Been wanting to write this chapter for a while! Hope you guys enjoy it. It was fun to write, even if it doesn't have the highest word count.

Admittedly, this chapter was a little forced, so if the pacing seems completely fucked that's why. I'm still happy with this plot point, I just don't think this is my best writing personally. Regardless, it's here for you all to read.

This chapter is essentially a remake of a story that I had written under the image that inspired this plot point. It has an old design of Cherry Jelly, but it's still canon to this universe. I didn't include it in the story specifically because of it being an old picture.

As Mystic was forced to find out, a suddenly influx of serotonin may not be the best thing in the world. She felt even lower than before she had eaten the cake, with all the artificial joy running out of her system as she walked further and further from the venue. At some point, she found herself wandering back to the train platform that would take her back to PonyVille. As she arrived at the location, she broke out of the dissociative state she had found herself in, and was made aware of where exactly she was.

With how her thoughts had been running amok in her head, she hadn't even realized her reality until now. She blinked and looked at her surroundings. Her pain is dull, overshadowed by her confusion and the need to remind herself that she is a real pony. She taps her hoof on her armour, relieved to hear the gentle thudding it produces. What happened to her just now?

She shakes her head, deciding to ignore the confusing situation as she spreads her wings. Before she can take off, she has to calculate the distance she is going to travel. Her doctors had told her she can only fly so far and for so long before it becomes dangerous. It was a precautionary measure taken due to the painful inflictions caused by her horn and wings developing.

She decides that she would be better off returning to PonyVille for the day, and deduces that she can afford to travel the distance. Plus, almost every pony and creature was situated in Canterlot for the coronation right now. She'd be lucky to be by herself. She holds her breath, flaps her wings and throws herself into the air. She is able to exhale safely when her wings beat down hard enough to allow her to fly.

She points in the direction of PonyVille and flies over the train station to make the journey. She hadn't flown in some time, and she forgot how nice it felt. Even if she could only do it for a short time, enjoying the breeze against her coat was nice. She could feel the wind flow across every little hair, and cool off even more through the cracks and curves of her armour.

With her hair flowing in the wind, she was reminded of the weight resting atop her head, firmly tucked between her ears. Her bright teal magic lit up around her crown, and she lifted it off with a sigh. Holding it out before her as she flew, she stared down at the amethyst inlaid upon the crown and glared into the eyes of her own reflection. Once more did Twilight's words and Skyla's offer creep into her mind, eating her from the inside out.

She wasn't being pressured to make the decision now, but she was pushing it upon herself. She knew she would forget about it until the deadline, and she wouldn't even think about it until it was almost time to give her answer. It was something she had become used to doing, and it was something she didn't like about herself. But, she still did it anyways. It was for reasons even she did not know.

She sighed, focusing her magic to teleport the item back into her pocket dimension. She was going to be miserable if she continued to think about it when she didn't really have the desire to. At the very least, she felt lighter without the crown pressing into her head. She lifted her head as the edges of PonyVille came into her sights, and she began her descent to the ground.

She landed closest to the town's outskirts and settled on a dirt path. Folding her wings against her sides, she began walking down the path in silence. She prayed that no ponies would dare to speak with her right now. She really wasn't in the mental state to have a conversation.

She let her eyes wander as she entered the city. Like she expected, not many ponies were walking around. Most, if not all of them, were in Canterlot for the coronation. She assumed the ponies still littering the streets had left after the crowning, or never attended to begin with. Now, she was more than thankful she wasn't wearing her crown; she didn't want to go through her entire speech again.

She grumbled something as she walked down the line of houses surrounding one of the many fountains scattered around. It was pure gibberish what she said, and even her mind was a jumbled mess, so much so that she forgot what she was complaining about seconds after she had said something. She knew she was just thinking about that stupid decision again, and she hated it.

She couldn't distinguish whether she was annoyed with the decision itself, or annoyed with herself. Either way, the scowl it brought to her face made her feelings obvious, regardless of how well she tried to mask the emotions in her eyes. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she wandered aimlessly. She had no set destination, and she was looking for nothing. She wasn't sure what she wanted or what she was doing right now.

She came to a bridge over a river, one that had been replaced during a particularly ridiculous episode that her mothers' friends had told her stories about. The bridge looked like it had been taken directly from Canterlot, and it was completely out of place in the small town setting she had found it in. Though she hadn't even been born when it was brought here, it gave her a sense of nostalgia.

She found herself stood on the bridge and staring out into the river below. It was a cliche she had seen written in books plenty of times. At some point, some pony always found themself at the edge of a bridge. They stared out at their reflection like they were looking for a part of themself they couldn't find. Or that would be the moment when a pony would show up to clear their woes, and dispel the bad thoughts in their head.

Mystic wasn't sure she had that luxury right now. She had wanted to be alone, but now that she was, she wasn't sure if she wanted it anymore. She sighed and continued walking over the bridge and out onto the other side. Yet again, she was wandering with no destination in mind and no place left to go. What the hell am I doing? she thought to herself.

"Mystic?"

She was pulled to a stunned stop as a voice rang out behind her. It was a familiar voice, one she hadn't heard in so long. It filled her with a burning anger, a genuine fury that she hadn't felt since she was in college. She turned to the side and glared back at the pony that had called for her.

A pink mare, whose bubbly brown and pink mane curled around her head like a cloud, stared at her from the edge of the bridge. Her forest green eyes were filled with shock for just a moment, but when their eyes met and she blinked, contempt and anger pooled behind her pupils. She snorted, adjusting the fishnets against her front right leg before she walked a few hoofsteps in Mystic's direction.

"Get back, Cherry Jelly," Mystic hissed as she pinned her ears.

"Mean as ever, aren't you?" Cherry said with a sarcastic smirk. "So, you're back in PonyVille, hm? Skipping out on your coronation as always?"

"The coronation already happened," Mystic bit back curtly. "Didn't you attend it?"

"Only because my loving sister dragged me there," Cherry grumbled irritably. "My whole family was going. I figured I might as well come to be kind to them."

"Oh I just feel so sorry for you having to care about other ponies," Mystic said in a whiny tone. "Alright, let's cut the bullshit, what do you want?"

"Nothing," Cherry hummed as she came to a stop beside Mystic and came dangerously close to leaning against her. "I just wanted to come see what my darling ex-marefriend was up to."

"I thought I told you to get away from me," Mystic hissed as she quickly stepped to the side furthest from Cherry.

"Yeah, you sure have said that a lot over the years," Cherry hummed, the corners of her smirk threatening to turn into a scowl of her own.

"And I mean it," Mystic said. "Look, I'm not in the mood to deal with your shit, so leave me alone."

Mystic turned on her hooves, and began walking down the path. Her ears twitched as hoofsteps followed her, and a growl rumbled in the back of her throat.

"What's the matter, Mysty?" Cherry whined on purpose. "You really still want to avoid me after everything? You know, that's really rich coming from you… you always did have a habit of avoiding your problems."

"Yeah, and you're one of them," Mystic snapped at the mare.

"Aw, you're making me cry…" Cherry chuckled darkly as she pointed to the two black teardrops tattooed on her cheeks.

"Yeah, I believe that." Mystic rolled her eyes. "Did our petty little break up make you turn emo or something? I thought you were all about 'always be positive' and all that."

"I come all the way back to PonyVille from Dodge Junction on my day off to see my ex get her stupid princess coronation, and this is the attitude I get?" Cherry hissed with gritted teeth.

Mystic knew that Cherry Jelly was trying to get under her skin. Cherry had always been like that, pushing her to the breaking point or pulling her into situations she never asked to be involved in. Mystic hated to admit that this mare was ruffling her feathers, and she was fighting to keep her horn from fizzling.

"If you're going to keep being a bitch, then you should be prepared to suffer the consequences," Mystic said as she stopped and turned to the punkish mare. "You know I love to insult ponies that I don't like very much."

"I know you haven't changed very much, that's what I know," Cherry growled. "I thought some time apart would change your attitude and maybe you'd realize you were in the wrong too, but you're still blaming the break up on me, aren't you?"

"Because it was your fault!" Mystic snapped, flaring her wings at her sides. "You were always a pushy little bitch who had to have things your way. Even when I was experiencing paralyzing pains in my entire body, you always told me that a smile would fix it."

"Well you being a dick doesn't make things any better!" Cherry snapped back with pinned ears. "You always bitch and moan about how much pain you're in, but every time I would try to distract you from it, you'd yell at me! You did it from the day we got together!"

"If I had known things were going to go like that, I would've said no to you," Mystic hissed. "You don't get me. I don't think you understood me at all."

"Haha, you are so fucking sad, Mystic," Cherry laughed as tears of anger filled her eyes. "You live off of your own misery and then you're surprised why no pony wants to be around you. If I were you, I probably would've killed myself early on. The world would be better off without so much constant bitching anyways."

Mystic dug her hooves in the dirt from Cherry's words. Her scowl pulled back into a snarl and fury burned behind her pupils. Her wings were shaking as anger pulsed through her body, so much so that even her horn ignited. Cherry had glanced up to see the sparks emanating from her horn, but that only widened her smirk. That was an obvious show of her true intentions.

She had only come here to start a conflict.

"You're awfully worked up, Mysty," Cherry teased. "I thought her highness was supposed to keep up her calm and composed demeanor around her subjects? You look like you want me dead."

"Maybe I do right now," Mystic said through grit teeth. "If you don't want this to escalate, then you should just go back home. You don't want to see what happens if you don't."

"Oh, I'm so scared," Cherry groaned, rolling her head and her eyes. "What, you think I can't take a little fight just because I'm an earth pony, right? You think you're better than me just because you have alicorn magic?"

"Leave," Mystic said firmly, practically commanding the mare before her.

"No," Cherry said defiantly. "In fact… I think you should hit me with your best shot."

Mystic was so tempted to take the offer right then. She forced her wings to fold at her sides and her lips to conceal her teeth as magic spurted from her horn. She squinted at the mare, who stared back at her with an innocence in her eyes. She batted her lashes and turned to the side, and raised on hoof to circle her flank tauntingly.

"Take your shot, Princess of Friendship," Cherry cooed disdainfully.

Mystic had enough. A rumbling growl reverberated from her throat as she snapped her head down, her horn parallel to the ground. She gave the mare no time to react as a sudden burst of magic was expelled from her horn. Light like the sun illuminated the surrounding area as her magic flew through the air at lightning speed. She wasn't even able to catch Cherry's sudden surprised stare as the magic collided with her.

The mare was forcefully flung backwards, slamming into a tree at full force as magic pulsed through her body and a yowl of pain was expelled from her throat. Dust blanketed their surroundings from the collision, and the magic creating enough wind to rip a line through the path as it traveled forward. Mystic lifted her head as sweat began rolling down her face, and her horn became red hot.

Through the dust, Cherry fell to the ground at the base of the tree. She attempted to get to her hooves, only to yell out in pain as magic pulsed through one of her legs. Her leg slid from underneath her, limp as if it were dead. Once again she pulled herself to her hooves, using the tree to support her limp limb. She snapped her head to the side, tears pooling in her eyes and anger an undying flame within them.

Cherry glared at Mystic in a way Mystic had never been looked at before. She had cast that glare to other ponies in the past, but never had such unfiltered rage directed at her. She could barely process it as a sudden warmth began to roll down her face. She shut one eye as it dripped over it. It forced her to lift a hoof to wipe away the substance.

She extended her hoof to see what it was, and felt her eyes widen. It was blood.

Blood was dribbling from her horn down her face, and it was quick moving. She turned her head as she stared at her hoof in shock. She held her breath after a gasp as a chipped piece of her horn fell to the ground in front of her. Nausea began to pool in the bottom of her stomach as a painful surge of magic echoed through her horn. She yelled out in pain and stumbled backwards, clutching her head in one hoof.

She had never experienced pain like this before. It was different from the aches that she was used to, and for any pony else it might not even hurt as bad as it did for her right now. She rubbed her head furiously as if that could somehow dull her pain and stop the bleeding, but the blood continued to roll. She looked around in a panic, as if she was looking for a way to fix this.

It didn't stop the nausea that creeped up her torso from her stomach, and was soon quickly expelled into a nearby bush. She coughed as the horrible taste filled her mouth, and her entire body began to shake. She had only experienced an event this severe once, when she was still a highschooler. She felt as though she had broken the bones in her horn.

Another piece of her chipped horn fell into the bushes she had thrown up in. She stumbled backwards, and her vision began to turn spotty. She felt her ears ringing as she looked around in a panic. Her world was fading, something that she had only ever experienced in dreams. Her head was spinning and she could feel her body swaying as she stumbled backwards.

Her vision began to darken as her blinking became slower and black dots faded into her blurry world. Eventually, her eyes rolled back and she collapsed on her side. She felt heavier than ever, like she was being crushed by thousands of weights. The last thing she saw before everything went dark was a pair of pink legs speeding off into the distance, yelling out something that she couldn't quite catch through her muffled world.