Broken Knowledge

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

Chapter One

Twilight stared. That was all she could really do. She watched in stupid fascination as the creature approached. His too long black jacket swaying behind him as he walked, drawing the eye of all the ponies who found themselves on the streets of the town that was now hosting the appearance of a creature that none present could claim they had so much as heard of before. A general air of horror accompanied his presence, not outright terror. No. It was that disturbed feeling where you knew was something was wrong where the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you find that deep within yourself you’re scared, and that you want it to go away.

The approaching being raised it’s gaze from the ground and looked at the surrounding ponies with a cold glare, unchanging. It passed over each of them, but it didn’t seem to have any other purpose, it was merely looking. After it had looked over Twilight like it had all the others, it lowered it’s gaze once again, it’s gait unbroken by the time it had taken to look at the spectators. It walked up to Twilight and, without a word or a gaze, proceeded to walk past her. She followed it with her gaze, silent, until an unmistakable sound cracked the air.

Twilight looked in horror as the creature glanced down at the book which it had stepped on, a book from the library that Twilight had dropped in surprise at the sight of the monstrous creature that had been approaching her. Then, after a moment, it began to grind it into the mud without any form of emotion present on it’s face. It took no pleasure in the act, but it didn’t seemed opposed to it either. It merely twisted it’s foot back and forth, ruining the book more and more with each passing second. This act was just enough to break Twilight’s mind from it’s stunned silence.

“Hey!” She shouted, drawing the attention of the being to her. “What gives you the right to do that?” It looked up at her, pitch black hair shooting away from it’s face as if in fear. It’s eyes were cold and it didn’t care anything about the small unicorn that had spoken out against his actions. Twilight studied the creature’s face, looking for any act or thought to make itself apparent, but she soon realized that while she was studying the creature, it wasn’t studying her. It didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

Eventually, however, it spoke. “Absolutely nothing.” It said, and continued to ruin the pages beneath his foot. With a burst of rage at the answer, Twilight summoned her magic and tossed the creature backward off the book. He rolled over the ground for a few feet, the momentum carrying his body like a ragdoll. He came to a stop with his head facing upwards and remained like that. Twilight’s attention shifted to the book, which she pulled from the mud and began to clean with a basic spell.

The creature, on the other hand, didn’t do anything. It just laid there staring up at the overcast sky. Then, it closed it’s eyes and inhaled deeply through it’s nose. It did this several more times as Twilight finished cleaning the book, and once more as she approached it. “What are you doing?” She asked, approaching the being carefully. It hadn’t showed any power or strength at all, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have it.

“Smelling the air, is that a crime now?” It asked, a tinge of anger in it’s voice.

“Don’t get snappy with me, you’re the one who was ruining my book with no reason whatsoever!” Twilight blurted, this creature was on the wrong side of the most powerful unicorn in town and it was going to pay if it kept along this track.

“Would it have mattered?”

“What?”

“Would it have mattered? If I had had a reason? No, probably not. You would have still been angry, you probably still would have tossed me across the mud. You would insist on doing it yourself if it had to be done.” It said, answering the question it had asked. “You wouldn’t care if I had given you a reason. So don’t even pretend that that’s what’s important. No, you only care that the book was damaged. So, it didn’t matter what I had told you, you still would have been pissed off.”

Twilight desperately wanted to argue with the being about this, esspecially given the smartass attitude it was displaying, but all the words rang true regardless. “So then, why were you ruining my book?”

“I really hate repeating myself. I didn’t have a reason. I never said you weren’t justified in doing what you did. I’m just telling you that pretending that me HAVING a reason would have changed things is stupid.” It said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have nowhere to be and you’re being annoying.” It lifted itself off the ground and paused for a moment before heading towards the edge of the town.

“What do you mean ‘I have nowhere to be?’” Twilight shouted after the retreating form, now muddied along the back of it’s coat.

“Hardly matters where I kill myself does it? Here’s just as good as anywhere else, I’m just not quite ready to put the lead in my head.” Twilight looked on, wondering briefly on if the rhyme were on purpose or not, but shook it off.

“You’re going to kill yourself? Why would you do something like that?” Despite how rude the creature had been, Twilight still stood against all forms of taking a creature’s life. “Won’t your friends miss you?”

A broken laugh filled the air, raspy and forced. “My friends? What friends? You shouldn’t jump to conclusions. In just the few minutes we’ve talked, do you want to be my friend? No? Didn’t think so.” He paused for a minute. “As for the question, my dear, I think the world quite frankly sucks and I’m tired of having to deal with it.”

Twilight flashed her horn and teleported in front of the creature, which stopped it’s forward movement and glared down at the pony. “Move aside.”

“No. I can’t let you go and kill yourself.”

“So what do you propose then, ignorant idealist?”

“That you stay at my house, and we can talk over your issues.”

“And why in all the levels of hell would you do that? I’m a monster to you I’m sure. I ruined your book with no ulterior purpose and I think you know as well as I that we will not get along well.”

“Because I have to do something!” Twilight shouted.

The air was still for several moments as the creature held it’s gaze on the librarian only a foot or two away. “Fine, why the heck not. Let’s go.” It said, throwing its arms in the air as it displayed it’s displeasure. “Then you can talk to me about how you know me better than I know myself and pretend that I’m redeemable through the power of Christ or some bull crap.”

Twilight followed behind as the creature made its way back into the town. It stopped briefly, at the point where it had vandalized Twilight’s book, but soon continued on. Twilight prepared herself to tell him when he took a wrong turn, but he never did and before too long they had arrived at the library. “How did you know where I lived?” She asked, looking at the being.

“Does it honestly matter?” It asked, again peeved.

“N-No, I suppose not...” Twilight answered, seeing she was walking on unsteady ground with her words.

“Good, let’s go inside then, I’ll sleep in the basement, that’s usually well empty unless you have the machines in there, that sound good?”

“Y-yea... I guess so.”

“Fantastic!” It said, all but overjoyed and sarcasm dripping from it’s voice.

It walked in and made a beeline for the door to the basement. It swung the door open, entered and slammed it behind itself. The sound of footsteps descended down the staircase on the other side until they eventually stopped and she heard what could be assumed as something laying on the ground.

Spike then walked into the main room and, after looking around for a moment turned to look at the lavender unicorn who still stood just outside the threshold of the library. “Oh hey Twilight." He said and once again looked around. "If you’re here, then who went into the basement?” He asked with a bewildered look on his face.

“Quite frankly Spike, I have no idea.”

Chapter Two

Twilight thought she would be okay with this, she honestly was perfectly fine with the idea. And that had lasted for a long period of time, all the way until she had gotten into bed. It was around that time that paranoia had set in, however, and Twilight now found herself unable to sleep. She had recurring, waking, nightmares about the monster downstairs. Something she had every right to. Her ears were strained as she listened to every creaking sound that echoed through the building, listening for the attack that might very well come.

It was in this state that she heard the sound of metal striking against metal. It wasn’t nearby, but the sheer fact of how unexpected and unique the sound was made Twilight jolt up in her bed. She looked towards the door in a panic, her ears still straight up and waiting for any sound that might follow. That was when she heard the sound of running water filling a pot, a sound that most certainly hadn’t been expected. The sound eventually stopped and silence took the house, only occasionally challenged by the rogue sounds of creaking wood.

Her curiosity eventually overwhelmed her and she slowly slipped out of bed. Her hooves gently descended until they rested securely upon the wooden floorboards comfortably and she took a moment to perform some minor stretches. She was interrupted by another sound and she looked toward the door to her room expectantly, as if expecting the creature to come barreling through with a knife in his mouth. But, as the logical part of the unicorn’s mind had predicted, nothing happened.

Cautiously, Twilight moved towards the door and opened it. Her eyes peered through the crack from every angle she could manage, getting as good a look as she could of the other side of the threshold. When she was certain it was devoid of flesh eating bipeds, she ventured further out into the hall. The steady rhythmic sound of stirring met her ears and she began to make her way towards the kitchen, every step accompanied by paranoid glances in all possible directions.

Upon reaching her destination, she was quite surprised by what she saw. The biped glanced at her for a moment, the same careless eyes staring at her, through her, past her. She shivered unconsciously, but the being didn’t seem to care and he went back to stirring the pot in front of him. Twilight looked on at the odd scene, the alien merely stood there, not bothering to care about what she was going to do. Looking for all the world as if he didn’t have a care in the least.

His coat was distinctly missing, revealing a simple white shirt that hung loosely on his frame, obscuring his body frame. His hair had lost some of it’s perk and had fallen closer to his forehead. Under the light of the kitchen Twilight could see on his face a variety of lines, some of which appeared to be from constant smiling, a habit he had given up a while ago no doubt. In addition to his face, the lighting changed his appearance in many other ways, as was to be expected, but he still had those same empty eyes.

“What are you doing?” Twilight asked, blinking a few times to make sure she wasn’t just imagining it. She doubted it was, but a girl can hope can’t she?

“Cooking,” he deadpanned in return.

Twilight gave him a moment to continue, when he didn’t she saw it fit to try and continue it herself. “Ok, why?”

“I couldn’t sleep. So I was bored. When I’m bored I eat. I didn’t like the raw veggies you had stored so I decided to make an actual meal.” He glanced at her. “My turn now. Why are you awake.”

“Ah,” Twilight felt a nervous jolt run through her body. She didn’t want to admit to the creature she was scared of it, especially given it’s hostile temperament. “Well when you started cooking the noise woke me up,” she said, trying to sound confident and assured of her answer.

“You’re a terrible liar, Twilight.” He answered back immediately. “But I don’t care enough to try and force the answer from you. So, if you want that to be your answer, I’ll pretend to go along with it,” he said emptily. “I’m very sorry to have awoken you, I was trying to be as quiet as possible but it appears I failed. Anything I can do to make it up to you?” He kept his eyes on the pot in front of him, never bothering to look towards the unicorn who stood not far away.

“I suppose, since you're offering, some of that soup would be nice.”

“Already making enough for two.”

“Ah, how fortunate.” Twilight said with a smile.

“I like to call it being prepared, but that’s just me.” If Twilight were forced to pick one word to describe the man, she would have picked ‘dead’. Which was odd, when she thought about it. He was intelligent, clearly alive. So why would the lack of emotions alone cause her to think of him as dead? Were they really that important to any sentient creature?

She was broken from her thoughts as the creature filled two bowls with the soup. He kept his eyes on his hands as he did the work, but his thoughts were far from the little kitchen. They were downstairs, in the pocket of his coat, next to little metal casings filled with powder. Shaking his head, he walked over to the table and placed both bowls on the table. “Soup’s on,” he said with as little enthusiasm as possible, then proceeded to his seat.

Without waiting for Twilight to join him, he began to eat the food. Slurping the soup as he went. Twilight silently joined him, and lifted the spoon with a steady flow of magic. She sat for a while, looking hesitantly at the soup, but she soon began to eat, albeit at a much slower pace. “Thanks for the soup, it’s quite tasty.” She said, her enthusiasm draining into the air as if sucked out by the vacuum that the being brought with him wherever he went.

“I get bored a lot,” he said in explanation, busying himself with the task of idly moving his spoon through his soup. Silence, lynched by the lack of discussion, hung in the air. Twilight felt uncomfortable, looking at the creature that sat across from her. She realized how hasty she had been when she offered to help him, and now began to wonder if it would have been best for her just to let him leave.

She quickly shook that thought from her mind. She was certain this was the correct path for her to take. She couldn’t, in good conscious, leave any creature to kill itself. Her determination surged back to it’s full strength, reassuring her decision and calming her mind.

“You’re taking this whole thing quite well,” the creature said to her, having finished his soup with unhealthy speed. “Alien in your house that you don’t know nor trust. I must admit this is not what I anticipated.” He glanced up at her. “There’s certainly more to Twilight Sparkle than I ever could have guessed.”

“You know my name,” Twilight said, not entirely surprised by the revelation. He did, after all, know where she lived. As well as her habits and actions to some extent.

“Of course. Everyone does.” He said. “Honored student of Princess Celestia of Equestria. Sister of Shining Armor, Captain of the guard, who recently married Princess Cadence, who has quite a lot of importance as well, though not necessarily at this particular juncture.”

“You know quite a lot about my relations.” Twilight said, feeling on edge once again.

“I pretend to.” He responded. “But I know next to nothing about who they actually are.”

“I see.” Twilight eyed the man and, much to her surprise, he held her gaze, staring back. It didn’t hold the same cold feeling she had grown accustomed to, rather it seemed kind and apologetic.

“I’m...” His tone was clearly indicating the next word. But, in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. “James.” He answered eventually, looking the unicorn eye to eye.

“Hello James.” The unicorn smiled. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

The mare thought for a moment that she saw a smile on James's face, but it was gone before she could tell for sure. “Yes, you certainly are.”

Chapter Three

Dear Princess Celestia,

It’s been three days since the strange creature arrived, and I’m the only one who seems to know he exists. He hasn’t left the library at all since he took up residence, and even then he spends most of his time in the basement, not moving. I’ve tried to talk to him, but I can’t seem to be able to make any progress.

Nonetheless, I will continue to try. James isn’t beyond help, I don’t think. He hasn’t smiled since that first night, and he doesn’t seem willing to try, but now that I know it’s in there I’m sure I can bring it out again.

Or, at least, I hope I can.

Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle

The unicorn sighed as she set the parchment down on a nearby table, letting it slip from her mind as it slipped from her magical grip. She didn’t want to dwell on it, she had rewritten it several times over. What had started as a simple letter to keep the princess updated had turned into an ordeal of making sure she didn’t imply something she didn’t mean to imply. The result was several hours and an annoyed Spike, who had simply went downstairs after the fifth draft to finish his work.

When he had returned to the room several hours later, as the sun was dipping behind the horizon, he had found Twilight still working over it and, after a few words about how unhealthy it was, had laid on his bed and let himself fall asleep to the tune of furious quillwork. Twilight had, altogether, rather hated the experience with every fiber of her lavender unicornian form. Even as she worked tirelessly to perfect the letter she knew that she would receive no thank you from the depressive lump in her basement.

He wouldn’t care. Princess Celestia could probably burn off his arm and he wouldn’t care. He might be sad to see it go, but then he would probably follow it up with some half-assed remark about how he could get along without it. Twilight fumed to herself. The creature had been prying and picking at her patience over the past few days.

He never did anything big to piss her off, just a lot of small things. Correcting usage of words. Countering her opinions with his own poorly thought out responses that curbed no retaliation. They were so simple and stupid she couldn’t argue them down, but he acted like they explained everything. Like any two words plucked from the air could explain the most complicated problem. She could feel her anger mixing with her magic, and she could feel the heat beginning to coil in her mane, a sign for her to calm down lest things get out of control.

She rose from her bed, cautiously but quickly, and moved to the nearest window. She opened it slowly, wanting to avoid waking Spike from his slumber. Closing her eyes, Twilight began a series of deep breaths. Deeply, through her nose, she felt the cleansing fresh air dart. It cleared her mind of the cobwebs she didn’t know it had. She felt rejuvenated as the breeze danced over her features and emptied her mind of her troubles, as it moved behind her eyes, clearing them from the heavy fog that rested just out of sight.

With one last, long, breath Twilight closed the window. Taking care not to slam it. She needed sleep, definitely. But she needed to wash her face first, it always helped her when she had troubles before. Let her pent up feelings flow away with the water, letting her sleep in a comfortable elysium. Her hoofsteps clicked softly against the worn wooden floor as she moved through the library, a gentle swaying tune that soothed her soul.

She reached the bathroom shortly, and looked into her reflection in the mirror. The cracked appearance of her tired eyes shone back to her, showing the truth for what it was. Without hesitating, she turned the knob of the sink. Letting the cold water of the night flow freely through the system as she waited for the water to warm.

When a soft white mist began to waft off the water, she determined it was ready and dipped her head into the running water. The small opening didn’t allow for her to wet her entire head, but it was enough to start the job. She lifted a nearby washcloth while the water poured through her fur, damp and warm against the skin beneath it.

She drenched the cloth in the warm water and began to soak her face with it, letting the steam brush gently over her eyes. She smiled to herself as she did so, a simple pleasure during a complicated situation. Despite it’s basic form, she could feel it running veins of comfort through her skin, over her fur and deep through her muscles.

With an inhale of damp warm air, Twilight turned the knob of the sink and began to wring out the washcloth, closing her eyes once again so as to fully engage her senses in the feeling that massaged her weary body. Her tense muscles relaxed and her mind began to enter a state of zen.

Unfortunately, this pleasure was not bound to last.

As Twilight opened her eyes once again, she was greeted with a sight that sent a shock deep through her. Her body coiled in preparation to run and her mind quickly left the zen behind as it tried to focus on getting away. She wanted to back away from the view in the mirror, but she found she couldn’t. Her legs felt locked tightly, unable to move.

The sneering visage of King Sombra glared at her from the glass. The familiar swirls of dark magic seeping from his eyes. “Hello,” hissed his voice, gaining an even eerier feeling as it found resonance with the small bathroom. “It’sss been awhile.” Twilight tried to flee, tried to scream, but only succeeded in falling down against the cold ground. Her voice was gone, trapped away somewhere unknown.

“Heavensssss, it appearsss you have fallen.” Stated the head, having moved to the top corner of the mirror, glancing down at her. “Don’t worry, you shan’t be inconvenienced much longer.” The chill those words sent down Twilight’s spine made the floor feel warm in comparison. A tendril of green magic began to worm beneath the reflection, squirming wildly as it fought with an invisible barrier. Then, with a silent terror, it broke from it’s two dimensional trappings and began to worm through the air towards the magically bound and gagged Twilight Sparkle.

Terror filled Twilight’s mind, Unable to think of a spell to save her now as he mind began to goof around in circles. Looking desperately for assistance in all the wrong places, like a scared filly. This fear, however, was broken with the door. James stood in the door way, his eyes raging with cold fire as he took in the situation. Without even pausing to examine the shocked look on Sombra’s face, he darted forward and swung his arm around.

His fist collided with the glass, sending bits and pieces of broken reflections through the air. The peeling scream of Sombra faded away and the tendril dissipated to nothingness. Glass pierced James’ hand, shrapnel cut a jagged design into his skin, leaving him to immediately pull his hand away from the damage he had caused and began to cradle it next to his body.

The air was silent, Twilight could feel control returning to her limbs. Slowly James turned to face her, a small river of blood already beginning to flow down his shirt. She looked at the blood, watching as it tainted his shirt, turning it a muddy red color. He looked at her, as she began to raise herself from the ground. It was a moment of silent praise, so loud and so high that the normal ear couldn’t hear it, and the normal mouth couldn’t give it.

They stared for a moment, as if to burn the image of being okay into their minds. “So,” Said James as he broke the silence, much like he had the mirror moments before, albeit with less blood. “I don’t suppose you keep alcohol on hand to clean wounds?”

Author's Note

Bonus points for the pun at the end: 20

Chapter Four

A pony and a human sat in the main room of the library. The man was seated upon a simple wooden stool, a wounded arm stretched out parallel to the ground. The pony stood next to him, the arm resting at her eye level, and took great care as she applied medical treatment to the bleeds. Both had their eyes trained on his arm, one to make sure she did her work correctly, the other because he didn’t care to look anywhere else.

After several minutes of this tenuous silence, James raised his gaze to look at Twilight’s eyes, but failed as she kept her eyes from looking back at him. He opted not to speak as she worked, but kept his eyes on her face, creating a very anxious and awkward moment for the unicorn.

Her magic encircled a roll of gauze and carefully wound the material around the injuries and causing him to flinch slightly in pain, though it was nothing compared to the burning alcohol that had been used on them only a few moments earlier. Twilight kept her eyes on the wounds, not wanting to make a mistake. However there was another reason, she simply wanted to avoid his searching eyes. She bound his wrist tightly, securing the appendage as best as she could.

Her mind raced as she worked, about how he had saved her. More importantly about why he had saved her. It seemed so opposite of his personality, given how little he seemed to care about himself and his surroundings. She risked a glance at the man but quickly looked away when his eyes met hers. She sped up her work, eager to take her mind off of the being who sat only a few feet away.

“For what it’s worth I don’t know either.” He said with a caring tone, striking Twilight with an odd juxtaposition between his personality he had had before and the one he had now.

“Hmm?” Twilight kept it simple, she also kept her eyes on his arm.

“Why I saved you, I don’t know,” he elaborated. When Twilight didn’t respond he continued. “Of course, I’d like to pretend that I care and that I’m a hero when I have the opportunity, and I used to think that about myself as well. But, well... you don’t care about my back story do you? Not right now at any rate, you’ll probably want to use it as some kind of explanation during one of our sessions, but that’s the only level that you’ll care about it on.” The emotion faded from his voice with each passing word until at last it returned to it’s devoid and empty state.

Twilight made to speak up, to tell him that she genuinely cared about what had happened, but was stopped as the door to the library burst open and a dash of blue flew in. Rainbow Dash hovered angrily in front of the human, idle wing beats keeping her aloft as she stared haughtily at the creature. “Rainbow!” Came the immediate call from Twilight, a level of surprise at the idea of her best friend bursting into her home. “Why did you do that?”

“Fluttershy woke me up.” She said briefly narrowing her eyes at the biped. “She said she heard a crash and that you wouldn’t answer the door when she knocked. I figured you probably just didn’t hear her, but I decided to come check up on you anyway.” Her eyes flicked to Twilight, then back to the human. “And I saw this guy, all bandaged up. Guess you got a piece off of him in the fight huh?”

Twilight made to speak but was interrupted. The biped’s voice wafted past his lips, a touch of insanity haunting his words as he spoke. “You think... I’d hurt her?” They were spaced apart and a clear building anger followed them, enforcing the idea to Twilight that interfering would not be the best solution at this point in time.

“Heck yes I do! I saw what you did when you came to town, you ruined her book! Why wouldn’t you attack her? I knew this was a dumb idea, but I also trusted that Twilight knew how to handle herself. Looks like I was right.” Rainbow looked at the man with a degree of smugness no one else could even hope to match. Anger shot like cleansing fire through his bones, forcing his potential anger into a kinetic force. He bolted upright in a blur, near madness decorating his features.

Twilight instantly grew worried, she had seen what he could do when he simply didn’t care. She feared what he would do if he were angry. Unfortunately, she lacked full control of her magic since it was still recovering from Sombra's assault. All she could do was wait.

James stared into Rainbow’s cocky eyes, slowly he reigned his anger in, his muscles grew slack. With a glance to Twilight he turned away and slowly made his way towards the basement, but stopped at the door as a call from the speed demon caught his attention.

“I knew you were too much of a coward to do anything.” Twilight merely looked at Rainbow agape at this, not understanding what could have made the pegasus become so aggressive to James. James’ anger snapped and he spun around, quickly closing the distance between him and Rainbow Dash with stiff steps.

“You are nothing more than a hopeless little pile of crap!” He shouted loudly. “You look at me and call me a coward but at least I can do something you obstinate little twerp! Your dream is to join the wonderbolts but you can’t get in and you know why? Because you’re a completely useless excuse for a mare! You pretend to yourself that you’re worth something, telling yourself you’re awesome and that you helped save the world but YOU DIDN’T! The only reason you even have connections with Celestia’s protege is because of that fact that you are one of the elements of harmony! That’s it! Your flying skills landed you in the most out of the way city in all of Equestria!”

Twilight watched as Rainbow Dash’s smug appearance slowly devolved into a scared sadness. “You’re a helpless pegasus, barely able to win a flying competition unless a life is at stake. You have no self esteem and you try and hide this behind false advertising hoping that someday you might be able to convince yourself of the lie! If it weren’t for your friends you would still be taking back seat to Lightning Dust and the only way you could manage lead pony was to disqualify the competition!”

Rainbow Dash began to back away from the manic expression, but he followed her every move backwards, remaining in her face as he shouted. “You make entire assumption on information you don’t have like the idiot that you are! You think I would have done anything to Twilight? I just saved her life while you were busy eavesdropping at the door! If it weren’t for me she would be dead right now and you have the gall to insult me in any way shape or form?” Rainbow didn’t notice as she exited the library, but she did notice when James grabbed the door with one hand. “GOOD BYE!” The door slammed angrily in front of her face with such force that she felt her bones shake in their sockets.

On the other side of the door James turned on Twilight, his body slouched, and walked past her. “I’m going to bed.” Was all he said as he passed, leaving a shell shocked Twilight in his dust as he descended.

She idled in the main room, completely bewildered by what had just happened. She managed to slightly over come her shock and make her way to her room where Spike still slept peacefully. She envied her lizardly companion, and she wished she could manage some form of undistrubed sleep, but after what she had just witnessed moments ago, she had trouble even closing her eyes.

Downstairs, James sighed. Ticka ticka ticka tiiickaaa tick. Click. He pulled the gun barrel away from his head and slid the revolver barrel out to look at it’s ammo. Just to the left of the slot he had tried to fire was the bullet. Placing the gun back in his jacket James moved into what he considered a sleeping position. “Tomorrow then.” Were his last words before he was taken into the wonderful black oblivion of sleep.

Chapter Five

There was an explosion.

Twilight jerked awake in bed as the noise smashed against her ears and made her cringe in pain as her ears pulled it all in. She could feel it as it manhandled her ears and rattled her brain, only to leave just as fast as it came. Only a ringing echo to tell that it had been there at all. The astonishing silence that followed was almost as bad, the absence of noise being deafening after such a sudden and powerful eruption. She bite her teeth together and waited for the pain to go away, her ears protesting every minute of exposure. Eventually she managed to hold onto her senses long enough that she could roll off her bed and look into what had happened. Books tumbled aside as she did so, old tomes of the crystal empire. She barely noticed as the fell to the ground.

It sounded like it had come from just below her and as the shock of the noise bled out she found it replaced by worry. A bubbling kind of worry that made her pace quicken with every second, turning from linear to exponential at the sight of Spike’s empty bed. She was moving as fast as she dared down the stairs as she headed for the basement. She was worried for Spike, foremost she wanted to make sure he was okay, secondary concern was for James. Worried that something might have happened to him.

She busted into the basement with vigor, and found immediate relief in the fact that both Spike and James were upright. Her relief and worry shifted into a sort of confused concern. James looked ready to be the source of his own explosion. Veins were bulging in his neck as he stared wide eyed and grimaced at Spike, who was looking back in fear.

“I- I- I-” Spike stuttered, his claws clattering around a small metal object near his chest. James leaned in and snatched the object away with a yank, leaving Spike to stare onwards in fear. “I didn’t- it looked- I’m-”

“SHUT. UP.” James said clearly, staring daggers into the reptilian. “Don’t. Even. Talk.” He said slowly, as if having to bite his tongue with every word to stem the tide. James was shaking with fury as he took the thing in his hand and began to head upstairs. Twilight, however, blocked his way.

“Don’t talk to my assistant like that.” She said determinedly, her mind already off kilter from her rude awakening and the abrasive nature that James had shown at every opportunity. “Need I remind you that you are a GUEST in this house? Now calm down, and let’s-”

“OR WHAT?” James roared, turning to face her. “Will you imprison me? Kill me? Torture me? Have the princess work her precious little magic? Huh? What will you do? The only reason I ever stayed here is because you seemed so dead set on ‘saving me’. And now, friggin’ now look at what you’ve done! You’re precious assistant just went and blew my only ticket out of this HELL!”

He threw the strange device on the ground but didn’t break Twilight’s gaze. “No no no, screw you. I’m done. I’m freakin’ done. You can have your precious little fun in utopia. I’m gone. Just like everyone wanted. Just like you wanted. I won’t bother you again.” Twilight tried to keep a nonchalant look on her face as James ranted, but she failed to hide her shock. She simply stood there. Staring.

“MOVE!” James shouted, and Twilight did so. Out of fear and surprise and inability to do much else besides forcing him to stay she let him go. It wasn’t long before she heard the door to the library close shut. She and Spike waited in the silence, almost scared to move. The tension was still chokingly thick in the room, and neither seemed to have the courage to break it.

Spike was the first to regain control of his speech and luckily for him Twilight was more than ready to listen. “I just… he was laying on top of it. Like he’d fallen asleep with it in his hand. And I mean… I couldn’t sleep. That was why I came down here in the first place. And then I went to move it so that he would be more comfortable and it just…. it… blew up. I don’t know how or why…” Spike blinked as tears began to gather in his eyes and he looked fully at Twilight. “And he woke up and he just looked at me and then he got madder and madder and I don’t know why and I just…" Spike stopped for a moment and stared at the discarded thing only a few steps away. "Did I screw up Twilight?”

“No Spike. No. You were just trying to help. He over reacted. It isn’t your fault.” Twilight was quick to console Spike, guiding him down the stairs and onto the open floor at the bottom. “It’s okay Spike. I’m sure it’ll turn out okay. It’ll work out.” Just as the pair of them were about to rest on the floor and calm their nerves they heard a rising noise building outside the library. It didn’t sound like James, not solely anyway. It sounded like a crowd. Spike and Twilight shared a look before they made their way back up the stairs and out the front way.

A crowd had begun to gather in the soft morning light that was only now lighting the area. They’d all come together in a half circle around the front door of the library, standing shoulder to shoulder. Their eyes were staring intently at the human that they’d corralled with their presence, but when the door to the library opened they all looked to Twilight in sudden surprise. They seemed caught between keeping their formation and checking on her, but their decision was made as Rainbow Dash took to the air suddenly and made her way to the door.

“Keep him in place, I’ll see what’s going on with Twilight.” She commanded, and there was a series of head nods from the crowd, a determined glare coming to every face as they renewed their stances of defense.

Rainbow Dash landed in front of Twilight and was about to talk when she was interrupted. “What’s going on Rainbow? Why is everyone here?”

“Well we heard that explosion and we all came to check up on you. We got here and were about to come in when that thing came out and made to leave. So we stopped him.”

“Why’d-” Twilight was stopped as she heard a crashing noise and saw James laying prone on the cobblestones a short ways away. He pushed himself to his feet again and turned angrily to the mob.

“Let me leave!” Rage bubbled with every word and his fists clenched together by his side.

“No!” came the reply from the crowd. And James ran towards the wall of ponies once again, only to get shoved back with enough force to take him clean off his feet. His head smacked the stones this time, but he fought back to his feet once more. This time Rainbow had turned to see what was going on as well.

He ran and got forced away again and again. Each run with less and less vigor until at last he remained still on the ground breathing heavily. “Good job guys!” Rainbow shouted to the crowd with a smile from ear to ear, the response was a cheer that sent another jolt through Twilight’s sensitive ears. And as they all congratulated themselves James remained against the ground and Twilight merely looked on agap, too stunned to move.

A silence slowly fell as the cheers died off, being replaced only by the soft sound of whimpers. The ponies all looked among themselves for the source, trying to spot who’d been wounded in the defense before they finally looked to James, who had one arm over his eyes as he lay alone on the stone. Still except for the stuttering shakes that shook his diaphragm with every inhale.

“Are you… crying?” Rainbow asked, taking a step closer to the human.

“Yea, go figure.” He said angrily from the stone. “Congratulations, you got me to show some emotions. Woopdedoo. Fantastic. I just wanted to leave, but noooo, nooooo. Let’s not do that even though we can see he’s telling the truth about Twilight being okay. Let’s knock him onto the stone, that sounds like fun.” He removed the arm from over his eyes and pulled himself to his feet again, stumbling slightly as he rose. He stared at the ponies with bloodshot eyes. “Happy day for you then! Good job everyone! You stopped the oh so menacing threat!”

A small rivulet of blood streamed out from under his hair and ran down his cheek and throat where it got absorbed by his shirt. He stumbled again and fell to his knees where he wrapped his arms around his head. He sat there, sobbing still. And all the ponies looked at each other, slightly uneasy. Slowly, Fluttershy found her way out of the crowd and approached the human. No one tried to stop her, if anyone could handle this emotionally unstable being it would be her.

“It’s okay.” She whispered as she approached, hoping to calm him. Instead he violently lashed out. Whipping his arms to his side and staring her in the eye.

“Don’t. Even.” He said through clenched teeth. “I saw you in that crowd. You didn’t do anything. You didn’t even whisper. I watched you. Now that you feel guilty you want to fix it? Well screw you. Screw all of you!” He shouted the last bit. Gazing into the crowd.

“Just wanted to die. But I can’t even have that.” He said slowly before he fell to his side. The fatigue and wounds and stress took their toll and he passed out in front of the library, tears and blood still both marking his skin. It was a while before anyone did anything. And when movement did happen, it was Twilight who took him to the hospital to be looked over. Everyone else shared looks of shame between themselves, not sure how to feel about what had just happened.

Author's Note

I will try and update more frequently, but no promises.