Thicker than Chaos

It was as if time were moving even slower than usual to Bright. The stamina he needed to carry the bags was now completely gone, after with all the running he’d done beforehand combined with his lack of sleep had left him almost completely out of energy to continue. He sat down momentarily, staring at the once-again familiar surroundings of the Everfree Forest. The haze from the strange home once again rose into the air. He’d never met the pony there, and he figured that they could, at the very least, be the last. Looked around, trying to find somewhere appropriate to hide his bags, to at least make the visit look slightly formal, despite how down he really felt. Approaching the door, he felt the heavy musk of familiar flowers around the forest, as well as some other strange ingredients that he couldn’t recognise. However, he knocked on the door, and awaited an answer, trying his best to wipe out his eyes enough to look somewhat civilized.

Vinyl Scratch, in the meantime, had gone back to Twilight’s house. She’d left her stuff there, since today was supposed to be the day she left, and she only wanted to drop by Bright’s house early to see if the rainbulb was done. In retrospect, it seemed rather selfish. However, pushing the thoughts out of her mind, she began to wander around impatiently, waiting for Twilight to arrive back with her pony companions. Doing her best to stay quiet, as Spike went down for a nap earlier, trying to keep the library clean whilst the girls giggled through the night. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea they could’ve had, but it was still a fun night nonetheless. She quietly made her way back downstairs, and went out the front, still holding the note in her shining blue aura. Just as she did, she saw Twilight Sparkly, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all approach from Rarity’s house, probably meaning she was the hardest to convince. ‘No surprise there.’ Vinyl thought to herself, intending it to lift her spirits. It didn’t do too much, but she felt a little happier. However, breaking out of her small stupor, she ran over to them. “Girls!” She shouted, trying to get their attention. It definitely worked; they all turned to stare at her as if they’d seen a ghost.

“Vinyl Scratch?” Twilight spoke up. “What happened?”

“It’s Bright!” She replied immediately, moving the note by magic to Twilight. She read over the letter a few times, before taking it with her own, as if trying to be sure it was real. She turned back to the others, and then looked back to Vinyl. “What happened to Bright after he got this?” She asked. Vinyl kicked the ground softly, before looking back to Twilight.

“He left.” She merely replied. Immediately, everypony looked to each other and began chattering. Although Vinyl wanted to throw in the rainbulb story, and what Bright had told her before he left, she didn’t know how to put it. However, she soon found that everypony made up their mind on one action. “Alright, we’ll go check out Bright’s home, and see what we can find.” Twilight announced.

“Ooh! Ooh! I got an idea!” Pinkie suddenly jumped. Twilight looked over to her, waiting on her brilliant idea. “We could go ask Zecora! She’s got that magic stick thingy that she used to find Fluttershy that one time, remember?” She bounced. Twilight thought about for as second, but then shook her head.

“That’s true, but Zecora needs to know what the Pony looks like before she can find them.  It wouldn’t work for Bright, unless he has a picture of himself in his house with family or something.” Twilight mused, before looking to Bright’s house. “Come on, we’re losing time!” She said, galloping off with her friends and Vinyl in tow.

The door to the hut slowly opened, revealing, to Bright’s surprise, a rather shaman-like Zebra smiling at him. “Greetings, young crafter of contained light; what may I offer you this early before Luna’s night?” She cryptically began. Bright shook his head slightly, trying to piece together her sentence before replying.

“Well, I’ve only just noticed that I’ve never visited you before, even though I’ve come through every now and then.” He bluffed. However, she cocked her head, and looked at him oddly.

“That idea does not seem most wise; you are allergic to something here, just look at your eyes!” She replied in yet the same, confident tone. Bright resisted the urge to ask her to talk normally, and only offered a false chuckle.

“I suppose so… But it’s still much too scenic to pass up.” He continued. The Zebra moved aside, and ushered him inside. He decided there wouldn’t be any harm in a quick visit, especially considering he needed somepony to talk to. Although she didn’t really fit the quota for being a pony, she was still great company, though a little cryptic.

At Bright’s home, the other ponies were searching around for anything that might’ve seemed amiss. Twilight had already confirmed that the bit box was empty, and Rarity found the rent letter, much to Rainbow Dash’s astonishment. “Wait, I thought you two didn’t get along! What’s the deal?” She asked of the pure white fashionista.

“Oh Rainbow Dash, we were only toying around with each other. He’s really quite great company, even if it didn’t look it.” She explained with a small smile. Whilst they talked, Fluttershy went back outside to talk to the animals with her bunny, Angel. Angel seemed rather irritated about it, but went along to talk with the other woodland creatures. After a prompt chat with a squirrel, Angel returned to Fluttershy, and had visually explained what the squirrel saw. It had, apparently, seen somepony leave, but had no idea where it was headed. However, with that clue in mind, she went back to the others.

Bright, on the other hoof, had left Zecora’s hut feeling a little better than he did before arriving. Although it took a little decoding, he got the gist of most of the things the cryptic zebra had to offer him. He had found out her name, and promised to return to her in a week’s time. Although he had a gut-wrenching feeling about lying to her, he didn’t want to involve her in his own hectic life. The last thing he needed, unbelievably, was advice on how to run his life. He bit his bottom lip slightly and after a bit of thinking, he picked up his bags, and resumed his journey. However, he was unaware of Zecora’s prying eyes watch him as he left.

Twilight had been looking through the house with Vinyl, even after hearing of Fluttershy’s recent news. Rainbow Dash had gone ahead to search from the skies, leaving the rest behind. Keeping Pinkie’s advice to go to Zecora in mind, Twilight was searching around for a photo of Bright. However, Applejack beat her to the punch. “Down here!” She called out, her voice leading Twilight to the back room where Bright used to craft his light bulbs. On the floor was a broken frame, containing an image of Bright Spark with two others. There seemed to be a fourth, but it was torn out. Looking to the other two ponies in the picture, Twilight assumed that they must’ve been his parents, and it was most likely taken before he left. Bright Spark himself seemed to look rather irritated, looking off slightly to where the tear was, which lead to the general assumption that Ivory was most likely there uninvited.  With this picture, the group headed to Zecora’s hut.

Rainbow Dash, still diligently searching for Bright, found herself stumped after ten minutes of nothing. She began to push her wings to a faster beat, finding that a quick fly-around would do wonders to the slow-building stress that had welled within her. After finding nothing else of interest, she began to head back, meeting with the others just before Zecora’s hut. “Nothing.” She quickly reported, landing just behind Twilight.

“That’s alright; we figured that we might be able to find him with Zecora’s searching stick.” Twilight replied. However, the cyan Pegasus cocked her head in reply. “The stick she used to find Fluttershy when she returned a beaver to his dam and forgot how to get back?” Twilight further elaborated. Rainbow seemed to click, but turned her head away.

“I knew that! I was just testing you!” She stubbornly replied, keeping a single eye open so she didn’t walk into a tree. The others giggled a bit, arriving outside of Zecora’s hut. Twilight gave a quick knock, which was promptly answered by the shaman zebra.

“Hello Zecora!” Twilight smiled. Zecora returned the smile in kind.

“Greetings, everypony standing before me; you seem to have a problem, I see!” Zecora replied, keeping up with her rhyming speech pattern. Twilight levitated the picture carefully, and offered it to Zecora.

“We need to find this pony; He’s had a really bad day, and he ended up being driven out of town by a rather unpleasant pony. Can you help us?” She asked. Zecora looked at the image for a second and frowned.

“That young pony I met just before; it seemed only his eyes were sore…” She began, mumbling further rhymes as she went inside. Twilight turned back, and looked to the rest of the group, though to Pinkie in particular.

“He was here?” She stuttered. Pinkie nodded furiously in reply.

“Well duh! It was the only way out of his house without being seen! I figured he went to Zecora’s first, but you said it’d be a better idea to check out his house first!” She quickly replied. Twilight sighed slightly. Trust her to forget about Pinkie’s impeccable logic.

“We must move rather fast; he left only a half hour past.” Zecora said urgently, carrying the searching stick in her mouth. The stick itself seemed to pull her in the direction that Bright had previously travelled down, to which the others now followed.

They’d been on the trail for about twenty minutes, Vinyl noted. They weren’t any closer to finding Bright, though they’d been on the right track since they’d visited Zecora. It felt as though they were chasing smoke, which remained forever illusive, gliding through every slight opening it could find with the wind on its side. She sighed, noticing that she was beginning to fall behind. She quickly went to catch up, before hearing a rustle to her side. Applejack must’ve picked up on it too, stopping dead in her tracks, and looking off to where she’d heard the noise. However, with the searching stick pointing off in a different direction, the group continued to follow Zecora. After no further contact, the other two quickly dashed to catch up. “Shouldn’t we look?” Vinyl asked of Applejack. However, she merely shook her head.

“Wouldn’t do us no good anyhow, sugar cube.” She replied. “Besides, might just be some harmless critter skittering around. I don’t reckon he’d like it much if we pounced on him.” She finished, as the two caught up with the rest of the group. They travelled along in silence for yet another ten minutes, before a silhouette appeared before them, just as dusk began to roll in. They all looked ahead, and with Zecora’s searching stick pointing towards it, the group all shared happy chatter as they approached. “Bright!” Twilight and Vinyl called out. The silhouette turned towards them, and remained still. The group approached the figure, but noticed something was wrong. The pony before them definitely wasn’t Bright. The now clearly revealed Pegasus allowed the left side of her mouth to rise in a smug smirk.

“Ivory Rose!” Twilight’s alarmed voice rang out. The deep purple Pegasus looked down to the other ponies, and donning her sinister smile, she flicked her head back slightly, as if showing herself off.

“I know, I know. I’d be amazed too.” She replied, looking back down to the others. Rarity scoffed at the comment, which earned her a death stare that could’ve given Fluttershy a run for her money. “I’m sorry, I didn’t QUITE catch that.” She snarled slightly. Rainbow Dash went to open her mouth; however, Vinyl’s voice came next.

“Where’s Bright?” She immediately asked. Ivory offered a scoff, turning her head away slightly.

“Hmm… Don’t know, don’t care.” The Pegasus immediately replied, feigning interest with a dead serious face. However, Rainbow, sick of being interrupted, put her two bits in.

“Forget that; where’d you hide Bright’s money?! We know you stole it!” She yelled out. Ivory cocked her head slightly, before her sarcastic smile returned yet again.

“Stole is such a nasty word… But I like it.” She replied, before taking flight. “Besides, it’s not like I’d ever TELL you losers! Later!” She finished, heading off to the east.

“Don’t even think about it!” Rainbow yelled out brashly, taking off after Ivory. Although the purple Pegasus was fast, Rainbow knew she was faster. And by the look of it, so did Ivory. She quickly pulled backwards, and headed back down to the forest. However, Rainbow Dash, excelling in her own right of travelling directly downwards, caught up to her, and tackled Ivory into the ground.

The others had seen what had happened from the ground, and raced to where they were. Although Ivory was struggling intensely, Rainbow kept a firm hold on her as the others arrived. As they arrived, Ivory was beginning to gain an upper hand on the cyan Pegasus, but suddenly realized there was a purple wall in front of her. The wall slowly closed around her, becoming a bubble of lavender energy. Vinyl, having taken lead over the group, approached the bubble.

“You’re going to tell me everything I want to know.” She spoke slowly, trying to make her voice as intimidating as possible.