Pursuit
---- Shards of Hatred ----
---- Chapter V: Pursuit ----
"So," Shining Armor trotted back in forth as the five mares watched him with a focus he would have never hoped for from civilians "you're telling me that my little sister brought back one of the black crystals from the Crystal Empire? The ones that Sombra corrupted with his magic?" As soon as the question had left his mouth, he was met with a round of nodding heads. If only the recruits back at the empire would listen this good. Shining Armor couldn't help but wince at the thought of how badly the newly freed crystal ponies performed in the most basic of military exercises.
"Yeah! And it's making her really really really really nasty!" Pinkie Pie started bouncing around Shining Armor in her usual manner as she described how nasty Twilight had become. "She... yelled at me!" Within the next instant, the fluffy mane deflated into a sheet of flat pink as Pinkie Pie suddenly became overwhelmed with the realization of what her friend had done. "She... she... she told me that I always mess things up!" Tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to overflow as the other four came up and murmured words of comfort to the distraught mare.
Shining Armor turned away from the Elements of Harmony for a moment as he recalled the wave of wonderful magic that had washed over him as they were saving the Crystal Empire. It had been one of the most wonderful things that he had ever felt in his life, aside from loving Cadence. The thought of Cadence prompted him to look north, where his wife was no doubt busy directing the federal affairs of the Empire. "Wait a second... I thought all of that corruption was destroyed. Sombra himself was blown apart as the magic touched him."
“Well, Ah don’t know, Sugercube. Ah don’t think we were able to see much on account of all that magic that was blastin’ through the air like that.” Applejack shook her head sadly. “We can’t say for sure if that Sombra really was destroyed.”
Shining Armor couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of the evil unicorn still being alive. “No, he has to be gone.” The Crystal Prince glanced back at the mountains that his wife was stuck behind with a couple thousand of crystal ponies and a few hundred tourists, completely alone. “He has to be.”
Rainbow Dash, as brash as ever, soon interupted his less-than-pleasant thoughts by flying right in front of him. "Well, are we gonna go get her or not?" Shining and the other ponies on the platform watched as Rainbow Dash darted rapidly from side to side, alternating between her wings and her hooves as she anxiously paced. "The longer we wait around here the worse that magic's going to mess with her right?"
Shining Armor nodded at Rainbow Dash's point. "Yeah, you're right." Pushing himself to his hooves, the white-coated stallion looked at the other four ponies who were looking at him with rapt attention. "We need to spread out and find her. There's no time to lose. Twily is out there, somewhere, and she's getting made into something she's not. It's up to us to find her and get rid of that crystal she's got." After a round of firm nods, Shining Armor turned and prepared to gallop into Ponyville and the surrounding countryside to find his sister.
"Hold your horses, everypony!" Applejack stomped a hoof into the platform to draw the attention from the rest of the group on the platform. "How in tarnation do we even know Twilight's in Ponyville?" At the others' confused looks, Applejack sighed and continued. "I don't know about ya'll, but after the picnic I haven't seen Twi' all day."
"Speaking of not seeing ponies, I haven't seen Spikey Wikey all day either!" Everypony else present turned to Rarity with looks of bemusement on their faces, bringing a red blush to her cheeks. "Well, he's not a pony per se, but you get my point. He hasn’t been around at all since he went back to Canterlot to join in the celebrations.” Rarity’s tone turned petulant at the last part of her sentence, no doubt feeling the sadness of not being able to mingle with the Canterlot elite that were present at the numerous parties that had sprung up around the city.
“Maybe she went to Canterlot to see if Spike was okay?” Fluttershy’s face instantly grew concerned. “If one of my animal friends was gone longer than they were supposed to be, I know I would go looking for them.”
“So we’re going to Canterlot?” Rarity tilted her head almost too innocently as she stepped forward slightly. As Shining Armor nodded in response, Rarity let out an excited giggle. “Oh, I’m going to have to pack! There are so many things to take to a big city like that!”
As the Crystal Prince walked away from the group of ponies, the southern and slightly annoyed voice of Applejack drifted towards his ears. “Rarity, there ain’t no time for packin’ things. We’re hoofin’ it this time.”
After allowing himself a small smile as the imminent argument started up behind him, Shining Armor trotted up to the ticket booth where a wrinkled earth pony sat asleep. A few swift taps on the glass window brought the ticket master around enough to glare at him from his reclined position. “What do you want, Sonny?”
“Six tickets to Canterlot, please.”
Pony Joe was just a simple stallion with a simple goal in life: to give ponies delicious donuts and make their times of trouble less painful. It was the whole reason he had opened up his store in the first place. Nothing made him happier than a party spontaneously breaking out inside of his store, as it often did with Spike the Dragon came around. Last night had been no exception. He had probably given out a dozen dozens of donuts on the house last night just for the sake of keeping the party alive.
“Yep… I love a good party.” Pony Joe looked around the shop that he had only just finished cleaning an hour ago before looking down to the literal pile of dishes that rose up out of the sink and sighing. “It’s the cleanup after it that I hate. Oh well, it was worth it.” Smiling to himself about the memories from the night before, Pony Joe didn’t notice that another pony had entered the store until she pushed her face into his own.
“Pony Joe!” The donut-making pony had thought he had seen everything in his time of business, but nothing could have prepared him for the angry face of Twilight Sparkle directly in front of him. After he had recovered another to speak, the first thing he tried to do was to apologize to the now-soaked mare before him, who shook her head furiously. “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. What’s important right now is Spike. Did you see him last night?”
“Spike? Well of course I did. He was the one who caused all of this.” Pony Joe gestured to the mound of dishware that was occupying the sink. “Uh, Twilight?” The darkening look on the bookish mare’s face was slightly more than disturbing than watching ponies flow out of his shop before closing time.
“I knew that dragon was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be.” Twilight’s horn glowed brightly as she lifted the water from her coat and dumped it back into the sink with little ceremony. “Thanks, Joe.” Her words were still distinctly unhappy as she turned around and galloped out of the store, leaving Pony Joe lying there on the ground and feeling like he had just thrown his one dragon-friend under the metaphorical bus.
Spike… If I were you I’d watch out for that Twilight. I’ve never seen her this angry before. Sighing to himself, Pony Joe slowly pushed himself to his hooves.
He lifted one of his feet again, panting with exertion as the appendage hit the ground a little bit away from where it had last touched. Each step came with the same tiring air of one who was completely drunk with cider. Of course, Pony Joe would never sell that kind of stuff in his shop but Spike didn’t need that kind of liquid to intoxicate himself. No, what this purple and green dragon was drunk on was chocolate. Hot, delicious, sweet chocolate. Normally such a drink is completely harmless for beings of Equestria, but dragons are exempt from the harmless rule. Another foot hit the ground after the tedious effort to bring it into the air, bringing Spike one step closer to his destination, the Canterlot Castle grounds.
“Almost there. Just a bit further.” Spike’s breath came in pants as he moved once more in the same, painfully slow pace. “I knew I shouldn’t have had that last mug of Hot Chocolate.” Spike cursed his ‘Party Animal’ instincts once again as he nearly fell over for the tenth time since he started his journey through the streets. “Oh man, Twilight’s going to be so mad!” As he once again bumped into something unseen, Spike’s claw shot out to grab hold of anything that happened to be within reach. As he hung there only by the little strength left in his arm, Spike glanced over to see what had saved him from colliding painfully with the cobblestones. “T-Twilight?”
“Hello, Spike.” The unicorn’s eyes held little of their normal warmth that they did when she said his name. Sadly, Spike wasn’t able to see the inner anger that was contained within his friend and adopted mother.
“Oh, thank Celestia you’re here! I had a little too much chocolate at Pony Joe’s last night and now I’m in a bit of trouble. I was heading to the castle to see if Princess Celestia could help me and…” Spike’s voice dropped away as he took in the darkening face of Twilight. “Twilight? Everything alright?”
“No, Spike, it isn’t.” The purple mare fell coldly silent as Spike looked at her with injured eyes.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Twilight. I just—“
“Did what you wanted while the ponies that care about you were worried sick. Yeah, you do that a lot.” Spike would have left back from the icy venom that came from his friend had his body been working properly but all he could do was allow for a few tears to well up in his eyes.
“Twilight, I’m—“
“Every time there’s a chance for you to get a bit of a party in, you take it.” Twilight’s anger finally broke through the calm shell that had been containing it, driving Spike into a tearful silence. “You didn’t even care what the consequences were, you just did. Without thinking,” Twilight’s purple eyes flashed green for a moment before returning to normal as she glared down at the purple dragon. “Like you always do.” That last barb stabbed deep, deeper than Spike could bear. The venom in the words slowly seeped into his heart as he fell to all-fours in dejection. Twilight could only look coldly at the pitiful thing before her, feeling only an icy anger that coursed through her veins. “Since you can make your own decisions, you can save yourself for once.”
Spike shook himself out of his stupor long enough to see Twilight walking away at a steady pace. “Twilight, wait!” His voice shook like a leaf in the autumn wind, able to fall from its tree and be crushed on the ground any second. “Please… don’t go. I’m sorry!” He held out his claw to the mare, who only stared down at the outstretched appendage with disgust.
“Goodbye, Spike.”
And with those two words, the leaf began to fall.
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ow you could of made her say what he heard at the door but hmmmmm. I still like it.
Sweet! Another great chapter CH!
didn't quite remember what has going on at first, but i caught up at least, great chapter, hopes more comes soon!
1938969 More is coming soon, and with any luck I can release an update in a few days...
No promises though.
Oh my gosh.
Twilight did not just do that.
1939095 Oh yes she just did
Oh goody, another chapter! Can't wait to see how this plays out.
Also, 1 lil' thing: "Well, he's not a pony perse, but you get my point." per se, not perse
As always, keep up the good work, Chaotic!
Ouch that was harsh.
d22zlbw5ff7yk5.cloudfront.net/images/cm-37381-150e6783209ea5.gif
You made them cry
King mbra still alive makes sence
I was going to point out the per se error but that was done for me, so I'll leave you with some encouragement [insert flattering encouragement with goal of achieving faster updates here]
Wow that was cold twilight
Awesome!
1939362 She doesn't seem like she's being mind controlled though. It almost seems more like she's seeing the world through a different lens.
I had a feeling that fragments of Sombra's magic would return to haunt the Elements of Harmony. Now it's up to them and Shining Armor to save Twilight and Spike.
Never have I seen Pony Joe this scared before...
Looks like Spike's worst fear has become a reality. And here's what Joker has to say:
2975972 OH SNAP!
5053981 Glad I could amuse you.
Hmm...is that why dragons have legendary alcohol tolerance levels? Because they get drunk on chocolate, instead of alcohol?