Change the Heart

by FatesWinds

Chapter 12: Hide and Shriek

Chapter 12
Hide and Shriek
“There are some games you should never play.” ―Steel Tip

Heart Shield stumbled through the dark town, breathing heavily. The mud kept tugging at his hooves, almost as if the island itself had it out for him. His fur was matted down from the rain that had once again appeared, and through the splashes and sloshes as he ran through puddle after puddle he could hear Clover Patch’s laughter behind him. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t shake her. How he wished his friends were with him right now… But he was on his own now, and he had to hope that he could last until the storm broke.

“You must be getting awfully tired,” Clover Patch called from somewhere behind him, and then she began to mock him in that annoying sing-song tone of hers. “Run around like a lightning bolt, you’ll never escape me you silly colt. We grabbed your friends, one by one, and soon we’ll have you; you’re almost done.”

I hate to admit it, Heart Shield thought as he rounded another building, but she’s right, I don’t know how much longer I can last. If only Twilight and the others were still here…

* * *
Twenty minutes earlier…

“Ready or not,” Clover Patch said from the top of the stairs, “here I come!”

She slid through the banister as if it were mist and jumped down towards the ponies below. Twilight reacted instinctively and, with a flash of violet light, teleported herself and her friends out of the house and into the streets before the filly could reach them.

“Did you see that?” Rarity gasped. “That little filly just walked right through solid wood like it was nothing!”

“Now do you believe me?” Heart Shield cried.

“There has to be a logical explanation for that,” argued Twilight. “She used a spell to change the molecular structure of the wood, o-or cast an illusion charm. There’s no such thing as ghosts!”

“Y’all might want to tell them that,” said Applejack, pointing to the houses around them.

Inside each one, peaking out through windows, sticking their heads through closed doors, even stepping through solid walls, were dozens of young foals and fillies; pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies, all looking around the same age as Apple Bloom, and all with wide, leering smiles.

“Found you,” said a pale pegasus foal with a spiked, white mane, as he stepped out of the door to the house right across from them.

“Found you,” echoed a unicorn filly with a similar coat, walking through the wall of the neighboring house.

“Found you, found you,” said the other foals and fillies, picking up the chant and repeating it as one by one they made their way into the open. “Found you, found you, found you.”

“You were saying?” Heart Shield said, more than a little distressed, turning to Twilight.

“There’s always room for error,” Twilight replied quickly. “Run!”

Her friends didn’t need to be told twice and bolted as one towards the town’s entrance. The foals and fillies swarmed the path behind them, pursuing the ponies who had become their latest prey. They taunted the fleeing ponies with jeers and sing-song chants that echoed throughout the night. The taunts only served to motivate the seven friends to run faster and faster, even as more of the ghostly figures wandered out of more houses, and even from behind trees as they raced through the forest towards the shore where safety lay.

Get to the ship, Heart Shield thought to himself, his hooves pounding into the soft earth beneath him. All we need to do is reach the ship and get away from this island and we’ll be safe and sound. Once we’re in the water we can just sail away using the currents while we wait for the crystal to recharge; just so long as we get off this crazy island!

However, it seemed as though the winds of fate weren’t flowing in their direction this time. Applejack was the first to reach the shore, and came to an abrupt halt almost immediately, causing her friends to collide one-by-one with her, unable to slow down in time.

“AJ, what the hay?” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her head as she pulled back. “What’s with the sudden stopping? If you haven’t noticed, we don’t have a lot of time to waste on sightseeing.”

“Y’all might want to see the sights a little before ya say anythin’ else,” Applejack replied.

She pointed toward the shore; or, at least, to where it should have been. Her friends stared in shock and dismay. Instead of the safety of their ship and the ocean, the land suddenly dropped off to a black abyss, leaving nothing but swirling black clouds in the distance. The water was gone, their only escape had vanished; they were trapped on an island of phantoms who wanted to add them to their ghostly family.

“Th-this can’t be,” Twilight said, walking over to the edge. She stuck out her hoof to test the sudden fall and her hoof went straight down. She pulled it back and shook her head. “This… this is scientifically impossible. There’s no way the rest of the world could just disappear, even if magic were being used; there isn’t a pony alive who has that much power, not even Princess Celestia!”

“We aren’t exactly dealing with ponies that are alive here,” Heart Shield reminded her. “Ghosts aren’t exactly ones to obey the laws of physics and magic.”

“Even so, it’s utterly impossible for any of them, even all the unicorns combined, to cast a spell like this. This isn’t some simple illusion; the island has been completely cut off from the rest of the world!”

“But, i-if that’s true,” Fluttershy said, fear creeping into her voice, “then how are we supposed to get out of here?”

“You can’t.”

The voice came from behind them. The friends turned around as one to see Clover Patch and her ghostly gaggle of foals and fillies stepping through the trees and grass, slowly surrounding them in a half circle.

“I told you,” she continued, “you aren’t allowed to leave until the game is over.”

“They tried to cheat!” called a pegasus foal from the back.

“They were going to break the rules!” shouted a filly to the left.

“Dirty cheaters! Give them a penalty!” another said from the right.

The group slowly closed in around the seven friends, chanting, “Penalty! Penalty!” over and over.

Heart Shield and the others slowly began to back up, but with no land behind them, they were soon cornered. He racked his brains, trying to find a way out of this situation, and came to one conclusion. He opened his mouth to tell Twilight to teleport all of them out of there, but before the words could leave his mouth, Rarity and Fluttershy let out cries of fright that were cut short in less than a second. He turned to see what the cause was and felt his heart stop. Three of the ghostly young ponies had surged forward and jumped his friends. Before his very eyes he saw the two ponies vanish in the blink of an eye.

“Rarity!” shouted Twilight, startled.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash cried out, shooting towards the phantoms.

Heart Shield tackled her and yelled at Twilight to take them back to the town. Twilight hesitated for a moment, still reeling from the shock of her friends disappearing, but recovered quickly and cast the teleportation spell just as the mob of ghosts leapt at the remaining ponies. In a single, blinding flash, the five friends reappeared in front of the house they had gathered in minutes earlier. Rainbow Dash kicked and struggled underneath Heart Shield, screaming at him to let go of her. She twisted around to face him and slammed one of her hooves into the side of his head, causing him to see stars momentarily before he pinned her arms down.

“Will you stop struggling and get a hold of yourself!” he shouted at her. “You aren’t doing anypony any help at all by going nuts!”

“That’s easy for you to say!” she shot back, glaring daggers at him. “Your best friend didn’t just disappear!”

“She was my friend too!” he replied. “Fluttershy and Rarity both! I know how you feel, but you need to get a grip.”

“If you felt the same then you wouldn’t have stopped me; you wouldn’t have just abandoned them like that!”

“That’s enough, both of y’all!” Applejack interrupted, pulling Heart Shield off of Dash. “Now ain’t the time ta be actin’ like a bunch of Timber Wolves fightin’ over a meal.”

“It’s his fault this happened,” Dash accused. “If he hadn’t gone wandering off in the night, they’d still be right here. Or even better, we’d all be back at home if he wasn’t obsessed with a mare who tried to destroy us! We’d have all just been better off if he’d never come to Ponyville in the first place!”

Heart Shield blanched at her words.

“Dash, that’s not fair,” Pinkie protested. “It’s not his fault those ghosties don’t play by the rules.”

“I don’t care what it is, he’s the reason we’re all in this mess!”

“If you’re done,” Heart Shield said, trying to keep his voice even, “how about we try figuring out what this island is, how to get our friends back, and how to survive until the storm passes. We can save the whole ‘let’s go at Heart Shield’ thing until after this is all over, sound good?”

Rainbow Dash got up and walked over to Heart Shield.

“If we don’t get them back-,” she warned.

“We will,” he said, cutting her off. “Now how about you take a few deep breaths and help us come up with a way out of all this.”

Rainbow Dash huffed, but backed off for the moment.

“Good. Now,” Heart Shield turned to Twilight, “Twilight, you’re more familiar with the map Æundrïl gave us, can you think of any islands near where we had been when the storm first hit us? Figuring out where we are might help us find a way to get Rarity and Fluttershy back and off the island; or at the very least it might give us a reference so we can figure out where we can hide from them. Maybe if we manage to win this thing we can get the others back.”

Twilight shook her head.

“That may be, but I can’t remember if there was or not,” she said. “If I had it in front of me, then maybe we could do that, but unfortunately I can’t tell you off the top of my head. I think that we’re at least on one of the islands he warned us about…”

“Gee, you think?” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically.

“Rainbow, how about you take to the skies and see if you can find any place where we can hole up for a while,” Heart Shield said, struggling not to snap at her. Her attitude wasn’t helping things.

She shot him a look but said nothing as she flew into the sky in a flash. Heart Shield put a hoof to his head and sighed. She was right; they might have been able to get out of here without any trouble if he’d just stayed in the house he’d been in. Because of his stupid decision they were trapped on an island of ghosts who’d already grabbed two of their number.

“Maybe if we get them to agree to a different game,” Pinkie suggested, “like charades, or checkers, they’d let us go.”

“Ah doubt that, sugar cube,” said Applejack. “They don’t seem like the kind of ponies t’play nice with others.”

“So that leaves one option for us,” Heart Shield said in a resigned tone, “play their game and win…”

But will that get us Rarity and Fluttershy back? And will Clover Patch keep her word?

“Well you may want to follow me then,” Rainbow Dash called from the air. “We’re about to get company!”

She pointed towards the forest where faint chants of “Gonna find you,” could be heard.

“Right,” said Twilight with a nod, “Rainbow Dash, lead the way.”

Rainbow Dash flew ahead of them, leading them through the town to a broken down chapel. Twilight brought up the rear as she magically rid the mud of their tracks. When asked why she was doing this, she explained that this way the phantom ponies would have to search every place, and should buy them some more time.

“It’s not the best solution,” she admitted, “but it’s about all we’ve got.”

Heart Shield angrily kicked a brick that had broken off one of the pillars in the church and swore. Twilight gave him a look at that.

“Keep it together, Heart Shield,” she said. “Getting angry and losing your head isn’t going to help us at all.”

“Yeah, like he’s been all that much help already,” Dash called from the top of a broken staircase.

“That’s enough,” Applejack scolded. “Ah know y’all are upset, bu-.”

“‘Upset’?” Dash said. “Upset doesn’t even begin to cover it!”

“Ah said that’s enough! Don’t y’all make me come up there and slap some sense into ya.”

Dash said nothing, but gave Heart Shield a glare and turned away to watch out one of the windows for any signs of the phantom ponies. Applejack sighed and went to search the remains of the church for anyplace they could use as a better place to hide, or escape if need be. Pinkie seemed to be the only one enjoying herself, popping in and out of drawers and impossibly small spaces between slabs of rubble and even managed to perfectly hide herself behind a thin lamp. Heart Shield and Twilight kept a lookout as they brainstormed how to get out of this mess. Twilight was trying to figure out how the island had suddenly closed itself off from the rest of the world, believing that if she could find that answer then they were home free.

As the minutes passed, Heart Shield began to believe that maybe, just maybe, they might manage to get through this without losing anyone else. A foolish notion, as the moment he thought this Applejack let out a cry. Everyone whirled around just in time to see her vanish, leaving behind Clover Patch with her hoof outstretched.

“Found you,” she said with glee.

“Run!” Heart Shield shouted.

His friends raced towards the entrance when another dozen phantom ponies blocked their path. Turning around to attempt to get around Clover Patch they were intercepted by even more of the ghostly grinning foals and fillies.

“We’re trapped!” Rainbow Dash said. “Now what?”

“Now you lose.”

Clover Patch appeared behind them. Before any of them could react, she reached out and touched Pinkie Pie’s leg. The mare vanished instantly.

“Four down,” Clover Patch said, slowly approaching the trio that remained.

Twilight let loose a blinding light from her horn at that moment. There were cries of surprise from the foals and fillies as the bright light obscured their vision. Heart Shield was suddenly aware of grass beneath his hooves and blinked several times to clear away his blurry vision from Twilight’s spell. She’d teleported them once more, this time to the edge of the forest. She put a hoof to her lips to signal him to stay silent and motioned for him to take cover behind a bush. He did so just in time to avoid a patrol of the phantom ponies that wandered past. When they were certain they were in the clear, Twilight spoke.

“What do we do now?” she asked desperately.

“Easy,” said Rainbow Dash, “all we need to do is keep teleporting away from them until the storm clears and we’re in the clear.”

“There’s no way it’ll be that easy,” Heart Shield replied. “Doing that spell takes a lot of energy from Twilight and we don’t even know how long this storm will last.”

“That may be,” said Twilight, “but Rainbow Dash does have a point. If we get caught, there’s no way we’ll be able to help the others.”

Heart Shield knew she was right, but he was worried about what would happen if she ended up overexerting herself. However, they didn’t have the luxury of being able to form a new plan. More phantoms were swarming the woods, almost as if they could sense the trio’s fear. It wasn’t safe to remain there much longer.

“Very well,” he said. “Let’s go.”

He hurried to where Twilight and Rainbow Dash hid, doing his best not to be seen. Twilight’s horn glowed as she prepared another teleportation spell. The light grabbed the attention of several phantoms, but the group was gone by the time they converged on their location. The three friends reappeared atop one of the houses in town, not unnoticed however.

“Up there!” shouted a pegasus foal, Heart Shield recognized him as the first ghost foal they’d seen as he pointed up at them.

In an instant the house was surrounded. Foals and fillies of all kinds flitted in and out of distance like flickering lights, growing closer by the second.

“Twilight,” Heart Shield said warily, scanning the roof as the young ghosts began their chant once more.

“I need another minute to recharge,” she replied, edging towards her friends, eyeing the area as well. “The spell isn’t meant for rapid use.”

“They’re getting closer,” warned Rainbow Dash.

Ten foals and fillies had appeared on the roof and began to stalk towards the group.

Heart Shield looked to his friends.

“Run?” he asked.

“Run,” they agreed, nodding.

Heart Shield let Twilight climb onto his back and leapt into the air with Dash at his side. They couldn’t go too high as lightning continued to strike down from the clouds, so they glided over the roofs of the houses, their hooves touching down now and then on the hard stone as they rushed from building to building. Rainbow Dash, not weighed down as Heart Shield was by Twilight, began to pull ahead.

“Dash! Stay close!” Heart Shield shouted. He couldn’t shake the feeling that if they didn’t stick together, something bad was bound to happen.

He was right. Heart Shield and Twilight watched in horror as Dash reached the next building only to be met by a unicorn foal who flickered into existence right before her. She had no time to react and flew right into his outstretched hoof.

“DASH!” Heart Shield cried out as she, like the others, vanished in an instant.

“Heart Shield look out!”

Twilight grabbed his mane and yanked hard to his right, steering him towards the ground just in time to avoid a filly who attempted to grab them. Heart Shield and Twilight landed on the ground hard, the impact sending Twilight tumbling off the pegasus’s back. Heart Shield got to his hooves, shaking his head to fling the mud out of his mane and ran to her, helping her up.

“Thanks Twi,” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” she replied. “Come on, we need to get out of here right now, before we end up like…”

She choked up, unable to finish her sentence. Heart Shield nodded.

“Right. How’s the recharge coming?”

“I’m good, ready to go whenever you-.”

Twilight was cut off midsentence, flickering out of existence. Heart Shield stared, horrified, at Clover Patch standing right where his friend had been not even two seconds earlier.

“And then there was one,” she said, her eyes alight with malicious glee.

Heart Shield turned and ran.

***

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Clover Patch called, slowly walking along the streets. “You can’t hide from us forever, so just give up. Stay here and play with me and my friends forever and ever.”

Yeah, like I’ll actually do that, Heart Shield thought, ducking inside an open house.

He needed to catch his breath; his stamina wasn’t going to last much longer if he didn’t get a chance to rest for a moment. He chanced a glance outside as he panted. What looked to be about thirty foals and fillies wandered the streets, steadily making their way into the different houses, but they were still a little ways away. His gaze wandered to the sky and his heart skipped. There was a small crack in the clouds! As he watched, several more slowly appeared and the rain began to lessen.

The storm’s breaking!

Maybe he had a chance to save his friends after all. All he needed to do was wait out the storm and-

“You really need to work on your hiding skills.”

Heart Shield jumped. Clover Patch’s head stuck out through the wall beside him, grinning from ear to ear.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of practice soon,” she said.

Heart Shield tucked his wings in front of his head and leapt through the window. The glass broke as he crashed through and he felt himself getting cut by several shards, but the pain was worth being able to get away. He landed on the ground and shook himself, sending the small shards in his feathers into the mud before running into the forest.

“You aren’t going to get away!” called Clover Patch.

“I don’t need to get away,” Heart Shield said to himself as he ran, “I just need to not get tagged until the storm is over.”

He pushed his body to run faster once the trees swallowed the sky above. Chest burning, legs aching, sweat and blood clinging to his fur, Heart Shield frantically raced through the darkness. The sounds of his panicked flight and the haunting chanting from the ghosts echoed all around him. He was so focused on running away that he failed to notice the root of one particularly large tree until he had already tripped on it. Heart Shield tumbled through a bush and landed flat on his back. Winded and sore, he lay there in the dirt as the chanting grew closer and closer. He didn’t have the strength left in him to get to a better hiding place either. He closed his eyes as one of the voices stalked over to where he lay.

I’m sorry, everypony…

“Tuck your wings in and stay quiet.”

Heart Shield jerked at the command but clapped a hoof over his mouth to keep from crying out in surprise. He looked up and saw the head of one of the foals sticking through the bush. Their pale eyes were narrowed in a hint of annoyance at his actions.

“Tuck in your wings!” the foal repeated in a hushed command. “Or do you want to be trapped here forever?”

Heart Shield shook his head and pulled his wings into his sides, keeping his hoof over his mouth as he tried to slow down his breathing.

“Good,” said the foal, “now, stay small and head south as quietly as you can. There’s a little trench there that’s a far better hiding spot than this.”

“Hey, you find anything, Feather Wind?” called another ghost that Heart Shield couldn’t see.

“Just a couple feathers,” the foal replied, pulling his head out of the bush. “It looks like they went flying again. They probably went back to the town to hide.”

“Do you really think that they’d head right back there after Clover Patch found them?”

“Wouldn’t you?” asked Feather Wind. “Where do you think he’d have better luck hiding, the place where all of us are looking, or the place he just led us away from?”

The other ghost must have accepted this response because a couple seconds later Feather Wind stuck his head back through the bush and hissed at Heart Shield.

“I’ve bought you another couple of minutes, but there will still be more of us looking around here, so get going!”

Without another word, the foal vanished, leaving the pegasus staring questioningly at the place the ghost had been. Should he trust Feather Wind? The foal had the chance to end the game right then, but chose to lie and let him escape instead. Did that mean that some of these ghosts were on his side? If they were, that might bode well for him and his friends, but there was always the chance this was a trick. Still, Heart Shield didn’t have much else he could count on at the moment, and if there was the possibility that he could survive this then he had to take that chance, for his friends if nothing else. He waited for another few seconds to make sure the coast was clear before making a break for the trench Feather Wind had mentioned.

Feather Wind’s lie seemed to have reached the other phantoms for Heart Shield didn’t spot any on the path to the trench, then again, it could always be an ambush he was about to run into. He wasn’t sure if he liked the lack of phantoms— after running into so many before, not seeing any felt ominous rather than relieving. More gaps began to appear in the clouds as he ducked into the trench, and he could see hints of the blue sky on the other side.

Just a little longer, he thought, taking the chance to catch his breath. Come on, hurry up already!

He stared intensely at the clouds, willing them to part faster. Already the rain had stopped and the clouds were considerably less grey than before. The clouds steadily grew less and less densely packed, revealing more of the morning sky. He just had to hold out a little longer and then the game would be over and he and his friends could get off this crazy island and never return. Just as hope began to fill his heart the last voice he wanted to hear rang out.

“Find him!” Clover Patch demanded from the forest. “He’s here somewhere!”

Heart Shield swore under his breath and looked at the sky again. The clouds were nearly gone now, but he knew he couldn’t rest until the storm had completely ended and the sky was clear –something told him that Clover Patch wouldn’t play fair even if technically the storm had broken as per the terms of the game. He spread his wings and took flight, rushing high enough in the sky that his only threat would be the pegasi ghosts. Sure enough, a cry came as someone spotted him and a few seconds later he saw a dozen of them fly through the trees after him.

“Get him, get him!” shouted Clover Patch. “Don’t let him escape!”

Heart Shield waited until the ghosts were almost upon him before tucking in his wings and diving back to the ground, his tail just barely avoiding the grasp of one of the ghosts. He unfurled them just before he reached the ground and soared low towards the beach. Behind him the phantoms ran after him as fast as they could. Heart Shield raced as fast as his wings would carry him. There were only a few wisps of clouds in the sky, in a matter of seconds it would be clear and this game would be over. Suddenly a flash of light appeared in front of him. Clover Patch stood in his path, a triumphant look on her face. She was too close, there wasn’t enough time to change direction and avoid her. His eyes went back to the sky just as the ghost leapt at him, her hooves outstretched.

The sky’s clear!

Clover Patch reached him even as he registered that thought. He passed through her, a sense of intense cold washing over him before he landed in the sand.

“I win!” the filly declared, turning to face him. “You’re It!”

Her horn lit up and a moment later Twilight and the others reappeared beside Heart Shield. Behind her, the rest of the ghosts grouped up, crowding around them all. The sound of the ocean reached the colt’s ears and he saw that the island had returned to normal, complete with their ship.

“I win,” Clover Patch said again and strode toward the group of friends. “Now you have to stay here forever!”

“Not so fast,” Heart Shield said. “The rule was that the team that was It when the storm broke were the losers. That storm ended right before you reached me, meaning your team was still It.”

The filly stamped her hoof angrily.

“That’s not true! I got you fair and square, you’re just trying to save your butt!”

Heart Shield shook his head.

“You lost, Clover Patch. The clouds were gone, and even before that the storm had clearly ended. Now keep your word and let us go!”

“Liar!”

“Actually, I saw the whole thing,” one of the ghosts said. It was the foal from the forest, Feather Wind. “I know who won.”

Clover Patch grinned, victory alight in her eyes.

“You see?” she said. “This game is all-.”

“It was a tie,” Feather Wind said, cutting her off. “The sky cleared just as you reached him.”

“That’s not a tie then, I won!” declared Clover Patch.

“You touched him, but you didn’t declare he was It immediately. The rules of Hide and Seek state that if you were the last pony to be tagged, then you only become It once the person who tagged you says ‘You’re It’. Since the game ended right when you tagged him but before you said he was It, neither of you was It. There’s no winner.”

Clover Patch glared at the foal.

“That’s not a rule, you’re making that up!” she growled.

“Ah’ve heard that rule before,” Applejack spoke up. “He didn’t make nothin’ up.”

“You’re just saying that so your team wins!”

“I ain’t lyin’!”

“Are to.”

“Am not!”

“Enough!” Heart Shield shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention. “I have a solution that will decide who’s the rightful winner.”

Clover Patch gave him a suspicious look.

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

“We play a different game, one I get to choose. If you win, then we’ll abide by your ruling and stay here, but if we win you have to keep your word and let us go.”

Clover Patch thought about this, trying to decide if this idea worked in her favor.

“It’s only fair that I choose the game we play, seeing as you chose the last one,” Heart Shield said.

“What game do you have in mind?” the filly asked.

This was it, Heart Shield had one chance to convince her that his plan was a fair one. Everything rested on how he worded this and if he could make her believe that she had it in the bag.

“It’s less of a game and more of a contest,” he said, judging her reaction carefully. “The rules are simple. You and I are the only ones who get to play. We each get ten minutes to tell a single story and ten minutes only. After the second pony has their turn, everypony here votes on which one they liked the most. Whichever one has more votes wins. Sound fair?”

“Heart Shield, what in tarnation are y’all thinkin’?” hissed Applejack. “That ain’t a contest ya can win if the audience gets to vote. They’re all gonna choose her story regardless of which one was the best.”

“Trust me on this Applejack,” he replied and turned back to Clover Patch. “Well? What’s your choice?”

Clover Patch looked over her shoulder at all the other phantoms and grinned darkly. This colt had to be even dumber than he looked if he was offering this option –his group was vastly outnumbered.

“Fine, we’ll do this your way,” she said. “But I get to go first.”

“Fair enough,” said the colt. “You get five minutes to prepare your best story.”

The ghost nodded and took a seat to plan it out. Heart Shield took this chance to speak with his friends.

“What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash said. “There’s more of her friends than there are of us!”

“I know that,” he replied, speaking low, “and I’ve got a plan that relies completely on that, but I’m going to need help for it to work. Your help to be exact, Twilight.”

“My help? What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

“I need you to use your magic on the phantoms, something that makes it so that they’re unable to lie. You need to do it during my turn, when everypony’s attention is on me so that Clover Patch doesn’t notice. Do you think you can do that?”

“A truth spell is simple, but I don’t see how using one helps us in this situation.”

“I made a time limit for a reason and I’m going to use it to our advantage. I know I can win them over, but without your spell they’re bound to vote for their friend regardless of who actually told the better story. In fact, Clover Patch is sure to be counting on that to happen. I know this is a risk, but I wouldn’t take it if I wasn’t certain I could win.”

Twilight studied her friend’s face and found no doubt in it. He really believed that he could use the phantom’s numbers to his advantage. She let out a sigh.

“Fine, I’ll do it, but you’d better be right.”

“Trust me, I can get us out of this mess.”

* * *

It turned out that Clover Patch didn’t need the full ten minutes to finish her story. She decided to go with a tale of horror, one Heart Shield couldn’t help but suspect was as true as she said it was. Her story had been about the island they were on and the events that led it to end up haunted by all the phantoms. A chill ran down the seven friends’ spines as she finished the story. Heart Shield had to admit that, as far as ghost stories went, that was one of the better ones simply from the sensation of fear it left on the captive audience. The story definitely would have placed first were it told in a similar contest held in Ponyville on Nightmare Night. Indeed, he could see Rainbow Dash’s honest appreciation for the story clear on her face. If even his friends acknowledged how expertly told the story had been, then there was no doubt that the other phantoms had similar feelings. It was up to him, and Twilight, to change that.

“Beat that,” Clover Patch challenged confidently.

Heart Shield shrugged and took a spot in the sand. He closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts so that he wouldn’t make a mistake in his story. Everything rested on how he presented it and making sure that his plan was timed just right; there was no room for error here. With a deep breath, he opened his eyes and began.

“Once, in the long forgotten land of Everlast far, far away, a young pegasus was found orphaned and abandoned in the night. Nopony knew where he came from or where his parents might be, nor even who they were; all they knew was that a tiny foal, barely a month old, was all alone, left in a basket outside the kingdom’s castle. And so the citizens of the castle city took him in as one of their own. For years they raised him, all of them looking out for him; and yet, despite all this, the foal never stopped feeling alone and out of place. He kept to himself, rarely interacting with other foals and fillies his age, rarely saying a single word to anypony. This continued for much of his foalhood, even after the wise and fair ruler of the land, a queen with the power to control the heavens, sent him to live with other pegasi in the city in the clouds, Nimbus, in hopes that he’d finally open up to somepony. However the opposite ended up happening, for this foal was no ordinary foal. His wings were the same as those belonging to the royal Everlastian line-,”

“Was he a prince?” asked one of the fillies, her pale eyes wide with excitement.

Heart Shield smiled and held up a hoof. “All in good time. Now, where was I? Oh yes. His wings were the same as those belonging to the royal Everlastian line, and the moment the other foals and fillies learned of this, the young foal became the target of their dislike and bullying. The foal felt more alone than ever before, that is, until one day he was approached by a filly who had also been the subject of much bullying for her own appearance. This filly didn’t tease him or make fun of him like many of the others did. In fact, she did something nopony had ever done before –she wanted to become his friend.”

Heart Shield heard a small gasp from Fluttershy as she realized what he was doing. He caught Twilight’s eye and gave her a small, almost imperceptible, nod for her to cast the spell. Throughout all of this, he continued to tell his tale, his spin on his own history, through the young pony’s foalhood to his arrival in the small town of Noctus where he was welcomed openly and warmly for the first time.

“Everything appeared to be all and well in the land of Everlast, and indeed it was, but only on the surface. For one day the young colt came across a curious creature deep within the forbidden forest outside the town. It was a mare, one the likes of which he’d never before seen with a coat black as midnight and a paired mane and tail of teal that rivaled that of the calmest waters in the ocean. She had a long horn, but the most shocking thing about her were her wings which were as teal as her mane and shaped similar to a dragonfly’s. The mare lay gravely injured in the forest, weakened from fending off the monsters that lurked within. The sight of the helpless pony touched the colt, who brought her back to Noctus to nurse her back to health.

“The mare spoke little to him, but asked that he keep her secret, for she was being hunted by a powerful sorceress who would stop at nothing to eliminate her, and should word of her survival reach the sorceress’s ears all in the town would surely be in danger. The colt agreed to her request and for weeks the mare remained undiscovered as her health and strength slowly returned. However, it was not to last for long. As hard as they tried to keep her hidden the mare was eventually discovered by one of the colt’s friends. Word soon spread of the strange and mysterious mare who stayed in the town and reached the ears of the very sorceress who sought her. The sorceress sent out her most wicked of servants to capture the mare.

“Obediently the servant obeyed and reached the small town that very night. He broke into the colt’s house and stole his way to the mare’s room. She fought off the servant as best as she could, the commotion waking the colt who rushed to her room. Unfortunately he was too late. The mare’s magic had not returned yet and she was unable to hold off the assailant for long. The colt burst into the room in time to watch, helpless, as the mare was bound in a cage of the darkest of magic and sent to the sorceress in a flash of light, quickly followed by the servant. He cursed himself for being unable to protect the mare and vowed that he would not stop until he rescued her. The colt gathered his friends and together they- Oh dear, that’s unfortunate…” Heart Shield said, bringing his story to a halt with a sigh. “It seems that we’re out of time.”

“You can’t stop there!” cried one of the ghost fillies. “What did they do?”

“Did they ever find the mare? What happened to the sorceress?” asked another.

Heart Shield shook his head.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “but I can’t say any more than that.”

“But you were just getting to the best part!” shouted a foal. “That’s not fair, you can’t just not finish it!”

“I know you want to hear more, but the ten minutes are up. It’s against the rules of the game for me to continue the story. We’ll just have to judge it based off what I could share,” Heart Shield declared.

“You can’t expect us to vote on an unfinished story,” Feather Wind said. “There’s no possible way we could make a fair decision.”

“The rules-,” Heart Shield began to protest.

“Forget the rules!” shouted Pinkie Pie. “Finish the story!”

There were cries of agreement from the crowd of phantoms, all of whom had been listening to the tale with rapt attention. Even Clover Patch had been leaning closer, intent on hearing every minute detail. Again, Heart Shield shook his head.

“I can’t just break the rules, that wouldn’t be fair.”

Clover Patch stamped her hoof on the ground.

“Finish the story,” she demanded. “I want to hear the ending!”

“But that goes against the spirit of the contest,” protested the colt.

“I’m not winning by forfeit!” shouted the phantom. “That’s not a win! Finish the story.”

The phantoms all began to chant “Finish it. Finish it.” Heart Shield had to force himself not to smile as even Pinkie took up the chant. This was going perfectly. He acted reluctant, pretending to struggle with an internal argument. After several moments he let out a sigh.

“Do all of you want me to continue the story?” he asked the crowd, receiving a unanimous cry of affirmation from them. “I’ll do it, but only on the condition that you won’t hold it against me for going past the agreed time.”

“We promise!” said the phantoms, and he could hear the eagerness in their voices.

“As you wish then. As I was saying, the colt gathered his friends and together they set out on a quest to rescue the mare. This quest led them through many strange and even dangerous places, from a land ruled by giant and vicious dragons to the tallest mountains in the frozen northern wastelands. No matter what challenge they faced, together they overcame each one, for his friends had been gifted with a wondrous and ancient magic years before. With this magic at their disposal there was nothing they could not accomplish and soon they found themselves at the threshold of the sorceress’s dark tower.

“The friends entered the tower only to be separated by the wicked magic at the sorceress’s disposal. The sorceress had kept a keen eye on the young ponies for their magic was the counterpart to her own, and as she watched their journey she hatched an evil plan. Together, the ponies were strong and miraculous things happened around them, but if she were to keep them away from each other their magic would be useless. She left the colt alone for he had no power to speak of and was thus no threat to her. The colt, frightened and alone, pressed on and traversed his way through the tower until he reached the very top where the sorceress stood waiting. To his surprise, the sorceress was none other than the queen of Everlast. She had disposed of the rightful queen ages ago and molded the land to her own desires, hiding her identity from everyone lest her ruse be discovered.

“The sorceress revealed that the mare the colt had been taking care of was the last remaining descendant of the true royal Everlastian line, the only one who could undo her carefully crafted plan. The mare had been born with an ancient power, one that could strip her of her magic and banish her to the farthest realm where she would be sealed for all eternity. And so the false queen had hunted her for years, hoping to rid herself of this threat. Had the colt not found the mare, the queen may have not found her for many more years. However, because the colt had foolishly decided to nurse the mare back to health, the sorceress was finally able to get her hooves on the one she had sought for so long.

“‘You’ll never get away with this!’ the colt declared.

“‘Oh, but I already have,’ laughed the false queen. ‘As we speak, your precious mare’s life is being drained away. In a matter of minutes she’ll be nothing but a husk and then none shall exist that can stop me!’

“‘I can stop you,’ said the colt. ‘I will stop you!’

“The sorceress cackled at his declaration. ‘I’d like to see you try.’

“And so colt and queen began their fight. The sorceress had the upper hoof, easily keeping the colt at bay with her magic. He struggled against her powers, trying to find a weakness he could use, something he could take advantage of. The battle seemed like it would soon be over for him as it took all his skills just to avoid her spells. The sorceress pressed her advantage and soon had him backed to the edge of the tower; an endless drop to the abyss was all that waited behind the colt. She rendered his wings useless with a single spell and prepared to deliver the final blow.

“However, the battered colt finally found the weakness he had been waiting for. The queen’s crown always glowed as she readied her magic before her horn did. A desperate plan hatched in his mind, if he messed it up he knew it would be the last thing he ever did. And so he waited until the queen pointed her horn at him about to unleash her magic upon him, and when she did he leapt forth and snatched the crown from her head as he passed over her. He threw the crown to the ground and slammed his hooves against it, shattering it into pieces. The queen let out a wail of anguish as the crown was destroyed for the crown was the source of her powers. With it destroyed, her magic raged out of control and the sorceress was flung off the edge of the tower by her own uncontrolled power, falling deep into the abyss below to her demise.

“With the crown gone and the sorceress vanquished, all her spells were broken and the mare, the true heir to the throne was saved. With the help of the colt and his friends, the rightful queen took her place at the throne and led Everlast into an age of complete peace and harmony. The end.”

Heart Shield sat back as he finished the story and took in the astonished and amazed looks on his audience. While he was far from the greatest story teller in Equestria, he had spun a tale that fully entranced his listeners. It helped, of course, that he had planned his cliffhanger right as the ten minutes ran out, and his feigned reluctance to finish it had built up the phantoms’ need to hear the conclusion. Even so, he hoped that his plan had worked.

“You have now heard both stories,” he said to the ponies before him. “Now it’s time for you to all decide which was the better of the two. If you’re ready, I’d like each of you to declare which you liked most.”

His friends were the first to vote, happily stating that they enjoyed his tale. Clover Patch shrugged as if this were of no consequence and turned to the rest of the phantoms.

“Sure, that was an adequate story if you wanted to hear it before bed,” she said smugly, “but I think we all know what the obvious choice is. Go on, tell him how he failed this game.”

The ghosts looked at each other and said nothing, as though they were trying to find a gentle way to deliver bad news.

“I said, tell him that I’m the winner. You all like my story better.”

Still the ghosts said nothing, shifting around uncomfortably.

“What is wrong with you all? Just say it already!” shouted Clover Patch.

“We can’t,” said a filly with short, curly hair.

“I’m sorry,” Clover Patch laughed, “what was that you said?”

“We can’t say that,” the filly said. “It’s not a fair contest if we don’t give honest answers.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“We don’t like the story you told more than his,” Feather Wind said with murmured agreement from the other foals and fillies. “It’s not true. His was better than yours.”

“There’s an easy way to settle this,” said Twilight. “Everypony who preferred Heart Shield’s story, raise your hoof!”

Every last pony, save Clover Patch and Heart Shield who couldn’t vote, raised their hooves.

“Well, I’d say that’s a very clear answer,” Twilight said. “Sorry Clover Patch but it looks like Heart Shield’s the winner. We get to leave this island.”

“Better luck next time, kid,” Rainbow Dash boasted.

Clover Patch was livid.

“You all chose his story over mine?” she snarled. “That’s not what you’re supposed to do! I was supposed to be the winner, you know that!”

“It’s over, Clover Patch,” Heart Shield said. “The votes are in my favor. I won fair and square, now it’s time to keep your word and let us go.”

Clover Patch turned on him in a flash.

“You cheated!” she shouted.

“And how could I have done that? You agreed that you’d let me finish the story even though time ran out and I’ve done nothing but sit here and talk the whole time.”

“You cheated, you cheated, you CHEATED!”

Clover Patch slammed her hooves angrily against the ground, a cold, dark glow surrounding her body. She began to slowly grow, larger and larger, aging into a full-grown unicorn.

“You cheated!” she shouted again. “Nopony cheats me and gets away with it! You and your little friends are going to stay here forever!”

At this she turned her eyes on Fate’s Winds and a ball of magic began to form at the end of her horn.

“I’m going to make sure none of you ever leave!” she snarled and fired her blast of magic at the ship.

Twilight and Rarity reacted instantly, using their magic to form a barrier around the ship so that Clover Patch’s spell bounced harmlessly off it. Clover Patch screamed with rage and shot her magic at the ship again and again, each one deflected by the barrier. With a roar of anger, she turned to the ponies and readied another spell.

“Fine! If I can’t destroy that boat, I’ll just destroy all of you instead!”

Before she could unleash her magic, Feather Wind rammed her side, knocking her off her hooves and into the sand.

“I’m not letting you do that anymore,” he said. “You can’t just do whatever you want you spoiled brat!”

“You can’t stop me,” Clover Patch replied, getting back to her hooves. “You’re mine just like the rest! I won our game and you must obey me!”

“We’re not going to listen to you. We won’t stand back and let you trap any more innocent ponies on this island.”

Even as he said this his body began to glow and grow until he too stood fully grown. Behind him the other ghosts followed suit.

“We may be trapped here with you, but we can at least make sure that they aren’t!” Feather Wind declared and leapt at Clover Patch, quickly followed by the other phantoms.

Clover Patch screamed with anger and tried to knock them away with her magic, but the other phantoms outnumbered and overpowered her. Feather Wind looked over his shoulder at the seven living ponies.

“What are you waiting for, get out of here while we can hold her off!” he shouted at them before turning his attention back to keeping Clover Patch at bay.

Heart Shield and his friends didn’t need to be told twice. Twilight quickly teleported them aboard the ship and ran to the controls while Applejack and Heart Shield raised the anchor.

“Is the ship in working order?” Rarity asked her.

“Everything is fine enough for now,” Twilight replied, firing up the ship. “Any repairs will have to wait until we get far away from here.”

Outside they could hear the howls of rage as Clover Patch fought to get to the ship and claim her prisoners.

“Well what are we waiting for, let’s go!” said Rainbow Dash, shoving Twilight aside to frantically look at the console. A large, red button beneath a plastic cover caught her attention. She lifted the cover and raised her hoof over the button.

“Rainbow Dash, that’s for emergencies only!” cried Twilight.

“I’d say this is definitely an emergency,” Rainbow Dash said and slammed her hoof down on the button.

The crystal core issued a bright glow and the ship began to rumble furiously. A noise like a rockslide started to issue from the stern, followed by the sound of gears turning. Heart Shield ran to take a look at what was happening and stared as the jets on either side of the boat began to shift and rotate until they were perfectly perpendicular to it. The jets rumbled more and the noise from them grew louder, building up to a crescendo. Just in time, Heart Shield realized what was going on.

“Everyone grab on to something!” he shouted, latching his arms around the railing, unable to find anything else in time.

With a roar and a hard jerk that nearly knocked the pegasus loose, the jets came to life and shot the ship out over the ocean, rushing through the air at a breakneck speed leaving the cursed island far behind in a matter of seconds. The ponies aboard desperately held on, screaming as the ship took off. All, save for Rainbow Dash, who gripped the ship’s wheel and let out a loud whoop of excitement.

Comments

[Razzy]

7372555 Well, she seems to act mostly as she should. The part where she hid some info shows that she's gotten a bit obsessive about that, that she is 100 percent sure that it was a lie and doesn't want others to hear it since she thinks they might be tricked by it.

[Razzy]

7372557 alright, I'll try to keep my patience until then.

[Razzy]

7372559 I like how you write her. She's really positive, a bit quirky, but not retarded, which is how some authors write her. This Derpy seems like someone who'd be an awesome friend.

Of course, since her appearances on the show are rather scarce, there's little in terms of Canon, and what is, comes mostly from the 100th episode, which drew tons of inspiration from fanon. This, everyone has their own idea what she should be like.

But for me, this is one of the best versions.

[Razzy]

Well, that was fun. The next chapter can't come soon enough.

To be we didn't get to hear the story behind the ghosts.

[FatesWinds]

7374154 That's pretty much what had been taking this chapter so long to come out. I'd already decided way back when I first started the story that there'd be the story contest and spent a lot of time researching different horror stories for Clover Patch to do a spin on. When that didn't work so well I tried to get out the story of how all the phantoms came about, which is entirely her fault, but the story always felt flat and not scary and I wanted it to be on par with Heart Shield's story. Eventually, a couple months ago, I decided to forgo all that and just gloss over her story like I did.
My editors liked how this version went, saying that it now leaves it up to the reader's imagination to consider what really happened to the island, and since this was over 2 years overdue, I decided that was good enough to post.
And thank you! I'm working on the new chapter as fast as I can, but I can tell you that there will not be any more for some time. I'm not going to publish another chapter until the full book is finished and I can set a release schedule for them. I'll try to keep people updated, but if you want to make sure you catch the chapters as soon as they come out your best bet is to add this story to your watch so you get notified.

[FatesWinds]

7372835 Yeah, I took some inspiration from the Doctor Whooves and Assistant series on youtube when it came to making her personality. To me, Derpy sees everything in a very simple light and doesn't look at things as closely or with as much bias/scrutiny as everyone else. What you see is what you get in her eyes, so when she befriends Heart Shield, it's because there was a new pegasus to be friends with, which is what she saw rather than the "large-winged freak". I also applied this to how she handles everything. If there's something she knows that helps her feel better, that's going to be her first choice when it comes to others (like when she brings muffins to the grieving Heart Shield and stays with him to listen to his stories of Sugarcube).
Friendly, simple, and certainly far wiser than she otherwise seems because of it.