Perturbation
Author's Note: I apologize for such a late chapter release! I DID warn you that this could happen. See, I'm in a play, and it saps away a lot of my time to write. Like, nearly all of it. I finished this chapter around midnight my time.
----Shards of Hatred ----
---- Chapter III: Perturbation ----
Twilight Sparkle dodged around the ponies that seemed to crowd the street, her horn flashing as it unleashed a teleportation spell to get her past the groups that she couldn’t sidestep. “Excuse me! Sorry! My bad!” She shouted the phrases of apology behind her as a particularly unlucky pack of pegasi found themselves on the ground after the unicorn had barreled through them. The angry voices that rose up behind her were lost to the wind as she continued to gallop madly to the library, where her quills, ink, and parchment would be.
The library appeared before her, the ancient oak’s leaved stirring in some faint breeze that gusted along its boughs. “There it is!” She pushed her hooves into the ground even harder than before, shooting forward at a speed that Applejack would have been proud of. The poor door was no obstacle to her as she magically blasted it open with a bolt of light strong enough to send a crack through the middle of it. Head swiveling wildly, Twilight frantically searched for the writing supplies she needed so desperately.
“I don’t believe it, I’m out of ink!” Tossing aside yet another drawer that had yielded her no results, Twilight frantically pulled out another of the containers and rifled through their contents were her eyes as a foal would in a toy store; seeing everything but focusing on nothing until they found the toy they sought. “I thought I had told Spike to go get some! Ugh!” She tossed her head angrily before stopping herself in mid-jerk. “Oh, he was going to do that until the Princess sent that urgent letter telling us to all go to Canterlot.”
Twilight froze for a moment as she stared stupidly at nothing, her mind working to catch up with what she had said. “Canterlot! That’s it!” Before she was halfway out of the doorway, the lavender librarian was already running back into the library. “Wait, I need to get my stuff!” She looked over in alarm as her hoof scrabbled against the rough wood that was under the hook that hung beside that door. “Wait, where is it?” She very nearly began to tear apart the piles of books and shelves that she had thrown to the floor in her frantic search from before until she suddenly remembered where her beloved saddlebag was. “Oh yeah,” she let out a nervous laugh before walking over to the laboratory door and pushing it open, “I forgot I left it down here.”
Igniting her horn, the unicorn descended into the darkness that was only slightly fended off by her faint light. “Now, where did I—AH!” Her question was answered almost immediately as she tripped over the sturdy bag, which nearly always had some sort of book inside of its flap. “Guess that solves that problem.” Getting up, Twilight brushed away the small bits of dust that had found their way onto her coat. “Now time to get to the train station.”
Just as she turned away, a small sparkle winked at her from within the blanket of black that surrounded her. Her magic seemed to glow a darker shade of purple as she reached out towards the table with a hoof. A strange, excited feeling in her gut ran rampant as she grabbed the small, black stone and stuffed it into her bag beside the book that resided there. Unbeknownst to the lavender unicorn, arcs of black lighting flickered briefly around her horn before subsiding. “All right, time to go ride a train!” With the uneasy feeling in her stomach somewhat lifted for some strange reason, Twilight began to gallop down the street in the direction of the Ponyville Train Station.
Rainbow Dash flapped her strong wings a few times as she struggled to gain enough altitude to pass over a tree’s reaching branches. She winced as the rough leaves scratched against her coat as she flew by them. “Gah, not again.” As hard as she was trying, the cyan pegasus couldn’t manage to keep herself steady. The feeling of guilt that was gnawing at her insides hadn't gone away as she had hoped it would; as most of the unhappy feelings that found themselves in her heard did when she took to the skies. It intensified to the point of a dull pain that throbbed in time with her beating heart.
Barely dodging another tree, Rainbow finally allowed herself to gently coast to the ground. I’m in no shape to fly right now. The prismatic mane that Rainbow Dash possessed whipped through the air as she shook her head violently in an attempt to clear it. Though her eyes stared ahead, Rainbow Dash’s mind was rooted in the past, thoughtfully mulling over the events that had occurred just that morning as she was doing her usual weather duties.
”Sorry, but that’s all the rain you’re getting, buddy.” Rainbow Dash pushed away the half-full raincloud, a flash of miniature lighting rumbling inside of its depths at her touch. “I’ve got another farm to water.”
“B-b-but my crops! They need more water! They won’t live without precious water!” The older stallion’s eyes were wide with panic as he stepped closer to Rainbow Dash. “Please, without my crops, I’m nothing!”
For a few moments, Rainbow Dash looked down at the groveling earth pony in silence. “Look, Mr. Green Hooves, your plants don’t need that much water. Just give them a little less, they’ll be fine!” The cyan pegasus couldn’t help but wince as the stallion only sobbed harder at her reassuring words. As much as she wanted to give him the water that he sought, Rainbow Dash knew that her neck would be on the chopping block if she acquiesced. It was well-known around the Ponyville weather pegasi that Green Hooves was a water-guzzler when it came to his plants, which often resulted in the waste of precious water as well as the death of the unfortunate farm plants that were in his care.
“Please… p-plea-a-a-ase.” He moaned the word over and over again like a mare would moan the name of a dead lover. Rainbow Dash backed up slightly as he crawled closer and pawed at her hooves. “Please… please… please…”
Turning away, Rainbow Dash grabbed the cloud that idly hovered next to her. She spread her wings and sat motionless for a moment as she allowed the gently-blowing wind to tease her feathers with its gusts. Just as she bent her legs to leap into the sky, something latched onto her hooves and chained her to the earth with a tight grip. “H-hey! Let go!” Flapping her wings hard and kicking out behind her, it didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to dislodge the earth pony that had been clinging to her. “What’s wrong with you? Grabbing onto ponies like that, sheesh! I’m just doing my job!”
She jerked her head around angrily, her body following suit as she turned to fly away. It was then that the feeling of guilt, which had lain hidden away, made itself known; only just bordering the point of pain. Don’t look back, Dash. Don’t do it. Despite all her efforts to keep her hard gaze directed at the clouds that drifted lazily across the sky, Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but glance back at the still-sobbing pony. Instant regret coursed through her as he looked up at her with watery eyes before burying them beneath his hooves again. She flew down to the stallion and put the cloud over the bucket.
Green Hooves looked up at her as the sound of water landing in the bucket filled the air around his pitiful moans. “W-w-what?” Rainbow Dash let the water continue to fall before wrapping a hoof around the puff of water vapor to halt the flow in a way that only weather pegasus knew how to do. The sniffling pony reached up with a shaking hoof and hoisted himself up enough to look over the metal rim. For a moment, his tears simply dripped into the water that nearly brimmed over the top amid the silence that hung over the two ponies. Rainbow Dash turned and jumped into the air, smiling to herself as the words of thanks followed her into the sky.
At least she did until a shout rent the air around her and nearly sent her flying into the ground. “Don’t touch that!” Rainbow Dash, along with the rest of the ponies in the street underneath her, looked to the library in confusion and anticipation. They weren’t made to wait long as another shout soon bubbled up in the silence. “Can’t you go for ten minutes without messing everything up?!”
“Watch out!” The same voice of the pony who had shouted soon cut through the scene of the past like a hot knife through butter. Normally, the stunt flier would have been able to dodge away from a danger as simple as a madly galloping pony. Unfortunately, as Rainbow Dash was enveloped in memory and deep thought, she soon found herself groggily clawing her way back into the real world from her spot on the ground amongst other pegasi that had for some reason incorporated her into their group. “Excuse me! Sorry! My bad!”
Sitting up just in time to catch a glimpse of a pink-highlighted tail whip around the corner, Rainbow Dash shook her head confusedly a few times before standing on unsteady hooves. “Man, why does such a small town like Ponyville have these kinds of crazy ponies in it.” She had apparently voiced the thoughts of the others around her, their heads nodding vehemently in agreement. After helping up a few of the still-dazed pegasi to their hooves, Rainbow Dash turned to peer at the street sign that was sticking up from the ground nearby.
Hoof Lane. Wow, I’ve gone pretty far. As the reason of why she had been walking in the first place floated up into her mind, she had to suppress a sudden groan that threatened to make itself known. And in the completely wrong direction. Oh, feather me. After unceremoniously letting go of the stallion who had been holding onto her for a little too long to be considered normal, Rainbow Dash abruptly turned and began trotting towards the Ponyville Library. I’ve gotta find out what Twilight was getting all upset about this morning.
After a near half-hour of walking, the pegasus couldn’t help but smile as the tree came into view. “Finally!” She smiled sheepishly at the few ponies that had stopped to look at her after her outburst. Once their raised-eyebrow stares turned away, she shook her head. “Not being able to fly sucks sometimes. But it’s hard to check out someplace when you’re in the hospital.” Rainbow Dash chuckled at her remembered time in Ponyville General. “Well, places not in a book, at least.”
She stopped dead in the street as the same blue-and-pink tail caught her eye from another corner as it whipped out of sight. “There that pony is again. What’s her problem?” Rainbow Dash shook her head confusedly before rubbing her hooves together and stepped up to the library door. As she had hoped, Twilight had left it unlocked in her rushed departure to the lunch date the others had set up. Something within her told her that she shouldn’t be doing this, that it wasn’t very loyal, but she shoved it aside. “I’m loyal to all my friends, and when they are fighting it’s my job to figure out why.”
Walking into the dark room, Rainbow Dash rapidly flitted about the library, searching for any clue as to whatever it was Pinkie Pie was touching or trying to touch. Each of the books on the shelves winked at her with promises of dull and boring stories of education in the half-light that leaked in through the partially closed shutters, excepting the Daring Do shelf, whose golden-backed books shimmered beautifully; she had to repress the urge to snag one of the enthralling stories to read right then and there. “No reading, gotta foc—AH!” Her words turned into a yelp of pain and surprise as her hoof collided with something on the floor and sent her sprawling onto the ground for the second time that day.
“What in the name of Celestia was that?” Shifting aside her throbbing hoof, Rainbow Dash felt along the dark floor for a moment before finding her answer jutting out from one of the walls. “I tripped… on a… a door?” Standing up, Rainbow Dash pulled the gateway open further and peered down the steps that led into some kind of basement. “What’s this?” As her voice echoed down the stairs, a small purple light turned on and blinked in front of her frantically, casting its small glow along a glimmering plaque that hung on the wall. “A sign?”
She ran a hoof along the slightly raised letters as she read them. Twilight Sparkle’s Lab. Please stay out unless given express permission by the proprietor of the property.
The pegasus shook her head before pushing aside the angry little light with a hoof and a snort of derision. She stopped on the staircase as the floor, littered with a large jumble of parchment scraps and broken quills came into view. “I guess this is where Pinkie was… but still, it doesn’t explain why Twilight was mad enough to yell at her like that.” Cantering over to the central table, Rainbow Dash nosed open the heavy lab notebook that Twilight used to keep notes in for her experiments, flipping the journal open to the page that had a strange, archaic symbol sticking out of the side as some sort of strange bookmark.
“Twilight is such an egghead sometimes.” Rainbow Dash shook her head bemusedly as she stared at the winding mathematical formulae that littered the page alongside the tiny, precise writing of the librarian herself. “I can see why Spike writes her letters, she writes super tiny! An ant couldn’t even read this!” As she turned the page again, Rainbow Dash felt her blood freeze with the sudden fear that coursed through her body. “Wait, where did she get this? I’ve gotta tell the others!”
Slamming the book shut and spinning around, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flew as fast as she could out of the library. After she burst outside, her wings banked to send her back to the park where her friends were probably just finishing picking up the remains of their half-completed picnic.
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good chapter!
yes, this was pretty good
decent plot so far
im interested to see how this develops
I dont know about this.... twilight always seemed too pure and adorkable to be into dark magic.... see semi-related video
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I like where this is going
Rainbow knows too much. She must be silenced.
Silliness aside, this was a good chapter! I don't really get the whole scene with the gardener, but otherwise I quite enjoyed things.
1633715 it was just something that grew into a scene when it was meant to be an into.
1633734 That works!
1633806 I haven't gotten to that yet :P
So the plot thickens!
QUITE a few different events going on at the same time, and quite an ending! Pretty good chapter
Alright, can't wait for the next part. Dumb greedy farmer >.> can't ya see we're in the middle of an economic crisis?!? Lol nice overall. Its building up into some evil moments. Also, i like how Dash just trespassed into Twi's lab. Lol that sneaky little pegasus. Can't wait for the next part.
I'm not sure what she was going to say, but when you say it out loud, it's kind of awkward.
In chapter 3 and some of this stuff isn't lining up in my head. In chapter 2 it seemed to be the consensus that Rainbow was at the picnic, so she could have easily talked to Twilight, though she left early for some odd reason. Then in this chapter we take a small jump into the past where Rainbow is remembering feeling guilt about giving a farmer too much water so he will ignorantly kill his plants. She should have at this point have left the picnic with her friends since she is later bowled over by a rampaging Twilight. Who she then idly walks after, cause that makes sense.
Twilight must be in such a hurry that she doesn't know what's happening to her.
Darth Sidious: Good... Good...
Who'd have thought that Dashie and everypony would hear Twilight's angry outburst?
What's gotten Dashie scared all of a sudden?
1955394
How can you not...right. Oh well. What she was going to say was
before she tripped on the door leading to the basement, which caused her to say what you see in the story.