Truth or Forgiveness

“Come on, Twilight. You can do it!” Spike encouraged. It was another day in Ponyville at the Golden Oaks Library and today Spike was helping Twilight catalogue her spells.

“Okay, here goes.” Twilight fired up her horn and shot a burst of magic at Spike. An instant later, the young drake had a deep black moustache gracing his face.

“Ha ha! Ya did it! Growing magic, that's number twenty-five. Twenty-five different types of tricks and counting. And I think this is the best trick so far. Hello, Rarity. What's that? Aw, it's nothin', just my awesome mustache.” Spike was enamouring himself in the mirror and caused himself to laugh a little.

Twilight just rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Romeo. As attractive and enticing as you look, it's just for practice, and it's gotta go.”

“Aw rats!” Spike whined as he brushed where his moustache had once been.

“Hey! You two mind keeping it down! Some of us are still trying to sleep!” came a voice from up the stairs. The dragon and unicorn looked up to see a sleepy and angry Naruko glaring down at them. Twilight took this chance to attack Naruko’s work habits.

“Well, maybe somepony wouldn’t be so tired if they actually got some sleep instead of working for four days straight!”

“Says the mare who I found passed out in a pile of books when I came home last night,” Naruko quipped. Despite the two of them being friends, Naruko was as stubborn, if not more, than Applejack when it came to, well, anything! Twilight’s biggest concern was Naruko’s work ethic which kept the other unicorn out for days on end, just digging and mining in the quarry. “Plus, I do get sleep there every now and then. I sleep in my office.”

“You have an office?” Spike asked looking confused. Twilight shared that look.

“Yeah. I found this shed near the center of the quarry. Well, it looks like a shed, but when I went inside it was full of papers and documents, even had a good sized desk. Nice place to sleep after a long day in the dirt. Plus, I can also hide my snacks there.” Naruko mumbled that last part.

Twilight just shook her head in exhaustion. “What am I going to do with you, Naruko?”

Naruko pretended to think on that for a second. “Let me do my job?” A glare was enough to silence any additional thoughts. “I’m going back to bed. Wake me up when it’s food o’clock.” Naruko trotted right back up the stairs to her room. Twilight and Spike just shook their heads as she disappeared up stairs.

Upon entering the room, Naruko got right up on her bed and curled up with Terriermon. She had roughly four minutes of quiet bliss before it was interrupted by her door opening. With a frown clear on her face, Naruko opened an eye at the intruder. “What do you want Spike?” she groaned out in exhaustion.

“Just came to tell you that Twilight and I are going out for a while. We’re locking up the library too, so you’ll have plenty of quiet.”

“Thanks Spike. Sorry I snapped at you.”

Spike waved a claw. “Nah, don’t worry about it. You should see me when I don’t want to get up. Talk about fire power.” Spike didn’t notice Naruko cringe a little at the word ‘fire’. “Sleep tight.” The drake then excused himself from the room. A few minutes later, Naruko heard the sound of the front door opening and closing shut. She let out a blissful sigh and began to drift back to sleep, only to once again be interrupted.

How much longer are you gonna keep up this charade? The voice was back.

“Ugh! Can’t I just get some sleep? Do you have any idea what it’s like to dig through meters of dirt for hours on end? Well, it’s exhausting! Now let me sleep!!” Naruko snapped at the voice. Normally, Naruko enjoyed the voice as it was her only company in lonely Chasm, but right now it was just irritating.

This is one of the few chances we have to talk and this is how you treat me? How rude. Naruko just grumbled in annoyance. Seriously, though, Naruko. Isn’t it time you gave up on that destiny of yours? You have no reason to look for it anymore; you have people, err, ponies, who care about you now. Why put them through that?

“You know why! You weren’t there, I had no one. Absolutely nothing. Every time I do have something, it just gets taken away. Happens every damn time! Eventually, it’s going to happen here too.” Tears began to form in Naruko’s eyes at the very thought of her friends leaving her and the voice noticed as well.

Naruko. Don’t you see that the destiny you want will do exactly what you now fear? Is it really worth it? These ponies care about you, and you care a great deal about them. Don’t deny it, you know it to be true. I don’t even have Force powers like you to tell me that much. As your friend, please give this up.

Naruko was silent for several moment. She almost looked asleep, but then she spoke. Her voice was quiet, almost as if she were channeling her friend Fluttershy. “I’ll think about it.”

This seemed to satisfy the voice. That’s all I ask for now. Get some rest Naruko, you earned it.

Naruko sighed again and nuzzled her guardian. “How did I ever survive without you?” The voice never got a chance to respond before Naruko drifted into a deep sleep.

**********

Several hours later, Naruko was once again rudely awakened. Only this time, it was by a deafening roar! Her head shot up immediately from the bed. “Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?” she asked in rapid succession. The roar came again and Naruko shot off her bed and down the stairs. In the main library, Twilight and Spike were just on their way out as Naruko hit the bottom the steps. “Wait for me!”

They both turned to see Naruko run up to them. “Naruko? Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” Twilight asked.

“Uh huh. But how can anypony sleep when there’s a giant roar billowing through the town!?” Twilight was not amused by Naruko’s sarcasm. “Come on, let’s go see what’s going on!” Naruko galloped right past them and into town. Twilight, with Spike riding, ran after her. As they reached the town proper, the three of them stopped by two young unicorn colts. One was tall and lanky, orange in color with a green mane and a snail for a cutie mark, while the others was rather short, pudgy, teal-colored with an orange main and a pair of scissors as a cutie mark.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked in a panic.

“We brought an Ursa to town!” The short one said proudly, while the other smiled.

“You what?!” Twilight looked scared, while Naruko was confused.

“An Ursa? You mean a bear?” she asked.

“Well, it’s an Ursa Major!” the tall one explained.

“You brought a constellation to Ponyville?” Twilight was about to say something, only for them to be interrupted by the colts.

“Don’t worry about it! The Great and Powerful Trixie can take care of everything.”

“The who?” asked Naruko. The colts pointed over to a blue coated unicorn mare, who looked quite scared.

“I can’t,” the mare said after a minute. “I never have. No one can vanquish an Ursa Major. I just made the whole story up to make me look better.”

“MADE IT UP!?” the colts screamed in a panic. Their screams where died down by the town’s screams as a massive bear reared up on a nearby hose and took a big bite out of it. The bear was transparent and blue in color with dots all over its body that looked like stars. Naruko’s eyes widened.

“That’s a big bear.” Intelligent as always Naruko. None of the ponies had time to react as Naruko rushed forward into danger. She stopped right in front of the bear. “Yo big guy! Stop eating my town or I will give you such a pinch!” The bear looked down at her, unamused, and slammed a massive paw on Naruko’s form.

“NARUKO!!” Twilight screamed. Everypony else just stared where the unicorn had once been. Suddenly, the bear roared as if in pain and lifted its paw up. On the paw was Naruko. Only it was very weird.

“Did she bite an Ursa Major?” Spike asked the obvious as Naruko was hanging from the paw by her teeth. Twilight swears she heard Naruko growling as she held her grip. The Ursa shook Naruko off and she flew onto the ground next to Twilight. Naruko began to stand back up, but Twilight pushed her back down.

“Nuh uh. Let me handle this Naruko.”

“Bu-bu-bu-bu-but!” Naruko stammered out. Twilight’s glare was enough to silence the rest of her complaints. Naruko crossed her forelegs and ‘hmpf’ed. “Never get to do nothin’,” she grumbled.

Naruko then watched in amazement as Twilight performed several spells on the bear. The first created a melody that began to soothe the bear. The next made a giant milk bottle out of a water tower. From there, Twilight levitated the Ursa out of town and into its cave. Naruko was in awe, but as Twilight spoke with their other friends, Naruko went over to this ‘Trixie’.

“What do you want? Here to brag about your friend?” the mare said in a huff.

“Uh, no.” Naruko said confused. “I wanted to make sure you were alright. And to ask why those colts thought you could vanquish that bear.”

“Trixie is a show mare and she needed to boost her image. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Naruko nodded. “Understandable. Though, you may want to leave that part out from now on. What kind of a show do you do?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie performs magic for the awe and amusement of her audience!” she boasted.

“Oh, you’re a stage magician! That’s sounds cool. Can I get a ticket to your show sometime?”

Trixie just blinked in response. “Y-you still want to see Trixie’s show? Even though I humiliated your friends earlier today?”

“You did what?” Naruko deadpanned.

“Nothing! Nothing, sure. I suppose I can return to Ponyville sometime for a show. But for now, The Great and Powerful Trixie must be off.” She threw a smoke ball and ran off.

“Well, that was unexpected.” Naruko then went to join her friends. They did not look happy. “What did I do now?”

“You scared us all half to death, is what y’all did!” Applejack scolded. “We done thought you got smushed!”

“Oh, please. I’ve gone through worse than having a giant paw trying to squish me. You should have seen the time I got eaten by a giant worm.” Naruko shuddered at the memory. “There are some things that cannot be unseen.”

“Please just try to be more careful Naruko. You could have been killed by that Ursa Minor.”

“Minor? I thought they said that it was an Ursa Major?”

“Oh, no. That was just a baby!”

“Say what? That was a baby? Yeesh. I’d hate to see the mother.” From there, everypony returned to their homes, eager to start repairs on the town in the morning.