Chapters Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter One: The Apprentice
Chapter One: The Apprentice
Passing The Torch
Inside a dark room two unicorn mares sat around a table, one of them had an orange fur coat with a brown mane. The other mare was a soft pink with a lavender mane that held a single red line running through it. The orange mare looked much older than the pink one, and had bags under her eyes from many days of hard work, meanwhile the pink mare was much younger looking, although she was also a foot taller than the orange mare.
The orange mare rubbed at her sore tired eyes. “I’m the Mistress of Magi,” introduced the mare. “You no doubt have already guessed the reason why you have been granted an interview with us today. You have been given an opportunity to join our circle, but first we must decide as to whether you are truly worthy to join us or not. I will be asking you a series of questions, and I expect you to answer all of them honestly. First of all, what is your full name?”
The pink unicorn looked flatly at The Mistress and answered, “Amber Light, but you can me Light.”
“And Miss Light, what area of magic do you specialize in?” The Mistress asked.
“Fire… er pyromancy,” Light replied.
“That is a common skill, what exactly makes you any better at it then anypony else?”
“I can fire multiple fireballs at the same time?” Light answered unsure of what to say.
A moment of silence passed between the two of them before The Mistress looked down at the file she held in her hooves. “It says here that you were once offered a chance to join Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, but you declined. Why did you do that?”
“Because Celestia has a giant butt,” Light replied jokingly.
A new voice, one that was very annoyed with Light’s antics now came from The Mistress’s mouth saying, “Amber! Would you please take this seriously?”
“Sorry, okay let’s do this.”
The original voice came back and The Mistress asked, “Why did you decline your invitation to Celestia’s school?”
“Because I didn’t want to leave home, my family, or my teacher behind,” Light replied truthfully.
“That is an… interesting reason for not furthering your education as far as you could,” The Mistress replied.
“Hey, I’ll have you know that my teacher is the best magician in all of Equestria,” Light replied, she knew that it didn’t matter right now whether or not she defended her teacher, but she wouldn’t let an insult like that slide, not now, not ever.
“I…,” The Mistress said while clearly taken aback by this interruption. After a moment The Mistress regained her composer and asked, “How old are you?”
“I’m fifteen.”
“And how long have you studied under your teacher?”
“Seven years.”
“Hmm, and who is your teacher exactly?”
“The Princess of Friendship of course, Twilight Sparkle,” Light replied proudly.
“The Princess Twilight Sparkle?” The Mistress asked in disbelief.
“Ayep, and she’s been training me to be just as awesome as her,” Light said.
The room began to brighten up a little allowing Light to see the hard shapes of the reflective objects around her. The Mistress began to smile before dropping into a frown and saying, “We have one last question for you, what does friendship mean to you?”
“Friendship is… well its family, its people who care about you no matter what. They don’t care if you’re a five foot tall freak, or if you dwarf all the other mares in town. Even if you are brash, or violent, or have a slight temper, true friends will always love you no matter what,” Light answered.
A bright red aura surrounded The Mistress and she began growing in size. Two wings grew from her back and her fur became purple, her mane a dark blue with a purple and red streak through it, and finally she smiled brightly while saying, “Good job, Amber. It’s too bad that the real circle wouldn’t take such an answer, but it is still much better then what I would’ve said at your age.”
Light rolled her eyes and asked, “What like thirty years ago or something?”
“More like twenty two years ago, but yeah that was a long time ago now,” she replied.
The room suddenly became bright, and the light blue crystals that made up the walls, floor, and ceiling came to life sparkling in the rays of the sun light. The purple alicorn smiled brightly as she relaxed. The furniture in the room was made of wood, but even though it stood out it also looked somewhat homey.
“Ah, the crystal room; the last room in the entire castle that’s not converted,” Twilight said while examining the room around her. “You wouldn’t believe how much of an eye sore this castle used to be when the sunlight would hit it just right. Oh, it was blinding.”
“Yeah, and now you have an entire castle made of wood. Seriously, Twilight, it’s a giant tree… what the Tartarus?” Light said playfully.
“I missed my old tree house okay… I mean sure the Golden Oaks Library was rebuilt, but I still wanted a giant tree castle. Is it so wrong for a mare to want to live in a nice relaxing home, and not a shiny, blinding you every time the sun rise’s kind?”
Light relaxed back into her chair and asked, “So what’s next for today?”
Twilight’s grin turned manic and she giggled in a low voice. “Combat training.”
“Oh… Tartarus.”
***
Walking through the giant tree was always one of Amber Light’s favorite things to do, seeing the unique wooden architecture, the various trophies that Princess Twilight had collected over the years, and last but not least, all the neat little secrets that this castle had in store. From her understanding the castle originally was made of crystal, but Light had never gotten to witness that. Instead what she grew up with was a giant tree with a wooden castle on top that had been grown out of the tree itself. The way that the walls and floors, the ceiling and even some of the furniture were all connected truly fascinated her. The best part was that this place was designed like a fortress to withstand an enemy siege, although to her knowledge that only happened once.
The two of them walked through the castle and down lots of stairs, about five flights of stairs to be exact. When they finally reached the bottom they headed outside and were greeted by the warm embrace of Ponyville’s delightful sun. Twilight stared up into the sky for a moment before a small frown crossed her face and she looked away.
“What’s the matter?” Amber Light inquired politely.
“The sun wasn’t this bright an hour ago…” was all that Twilight would say on the matter. Amber didn’t understand what that meant but seeing the frown made her worry a little.
Twilight led Amber through the town and to the Golden Oaks Library which wasn’t all that far away. The old library was yet another one of these trees that had been grown magically into the shape of a building, only much smaller than the castle. Amber followed Twilight over to the backyard and stopped in front of a weapon rack.
The weapon rack in question was filled with wooden swords, and Twilight levitated two of them. She gave one to Amber who quickly accepted it. Twilight turned to face Amber and without warning swung the wooden sword without mercy towards Amber.
Amber barely managed to dodge underneath the blow, and retaliated with a thrust of her own. Twilight easily flicked Amber’s sword away with her own and moved in with a counter attack. Amber Light stepped back from the first swing, and again from the second swing, finally Amber blocked Twilight’s third attack and stood her ground. Amber swung down with all of her might, and Twilight tried to block only to have her sword forced down to the ground. Amber grinned and said, “Ha, that’ll teach ya for a sneak attack.”
Twilight only smiled and suddenly Amber felt a sudden burst of pain just behind her right foreleg. She quickly kneeled and Twilight’s blade came flying up into the air only to smack hard against the side of Amber’s head. Amber Light fell over and clutched the side of her head with her hooves. Twilight’s sword rose up for another strike and Amber Light quickly called out, “I forfeit.”
Twilight kept her grin as she put the sword away into the rack behind her and asked, “What did you learn today?”
“That you’re a cheating, stupid, putrid, foolish, ugly, stupid,” Amber Light began.
“You said stupid twice,” Twilight interjected.
“Well that’s because it’s true twice.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow and waited patiently for Amber light to recover from the blow. Amber was done with insults, but she was still mad about losing. Amber let out a deep sigh and said, “I lost because I wasn’t paying attention to where you’re focus was.”
“That and the fact that you were still trying to beat me with brute strength. The sword is not a hammer, you can’t just smash it into things and expect to win, it requires finesse,” Twilight explained.
“Well I wish it was a hammer… then maybe I could beat that stupid grin off of your face,” Amber retorted, still on the ground, and still in pain.
“That’s three times.”
“Stop counting how many times I say the word stupid!”
“Four.”
Amber Light growled at her teacher but stayed silent after that. Twilight decided to take this opportunity to put Amber’s weapon away as well before kneeling down and saying, “Now let me look at that wound.”
“Its fine,” Amber said but even so she removed her hooves and let Twilight take a good look.
“Hmm no concussion, and no bleeding. Thankfully that means that I won’t have to hear another lecture from your mother about beating up a fifteen year old… that was… uncomfortable last time,” Twilight said.
“Sorry about that, she loves me after all,” Amber Light said.
Twilight looked back up at the sky and winced before looking back at Amber and saying, “You need to practice, a lot. But if you keep doing as well as you have been, then one day you will be able to beat me.” Twilight gave a pause and took on a thoughtful look. “That’s about it for today, why don’t you go play with your friends or something?”
Amber rolled over away from Twilight before pushing herself up and off the ground. When she stood at her full height she looked down at her teacher and said, “Yeah, I guess I can see what Sophie’s doing…”
Twilight began walking back to the library but stopped just long enough to say, “Stay out of trouble this time, please. I don’t want you and Blackout killing each other, or worse yet, if Rainbow Dash gets involved.”
“Don’t worry, I’d never do something like that,” Amber Light lied.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Two: The Siblings
Passing the Torch
It was such a nice day in Ponyville today; why not take her sweet time walking over to Sophie’s house. Lots of ponies were outside playing today, a few of them Amber knew fairly well, as for the others, well there wasn’t much need for the apprentice to The Twilight Sparkle to socialize with them. Amber had a close group of select friends, but it always felt like other ponies just wanted something from her. Being the apprentice to the local princess was not all it was cracked up to be, for starters Twilight was sometimes very brutal with her lessons, secondly Twilight never trusted Amber to go out on dangerous missions, and lastly her relationship to the princess made it so that ponies tried to use her position for their own desires.
The small cottage at the edge of town crept into view and Amber jumped at the sight. She couldn’t help but to start galloping towards the small cottage, with its leafy roof and its private road leading up to its front door. Amber jumped over the bridge and ran up the road, she smiled at all the birds that tweeted at her arrival. Amber slid to a full stop at the front door and couldn’t stop grinning as she knocked repeatedly in rapid succession on the front door.
The door opened just a crack and a bright blue eye stared at her. Amber just smiled and the door opened up all the way revealing the butter yellow pegasus that stood inside. The pegasus in question was wearing her long pink mane into a ponytail and smiled back at Amber. It always bothered her just how young the pegasus looked despite her age, whatever her secret was Amber was determined to steal it one day.
“Hi,” Amber said excitedly, “Auntie Fluttershy, is Sophie here?”
Fluttershy took a sensitive tone with Amber as she explained, “Why yes she is, she’s up in her room playing with her little dolls I think.”
Amber rushed past Fluttershy and into the house, much to the yellow pony’s annoyance. Fluttershy shut the door just as Amber made her way up the stairs and onto the second floor balcony. Just as Amber reached Sophie’s bedroom door Fluttershy called out, “Please be careful.”
Amber shot a dirty look back at Fluttershy and shouted back, “I only lit Sophie’s room on fire the one time! I already promised to not practice magic inside anymore.”
“Oh… okay,” Fluttershy said.
Amber blew her off and trotted through the door and into Sophie’s room. The room was decorated in blue walls with a dark wooden floor. Shelves lined the walls and upon the shelves sat a venerable army of stuffed animals and plushies. These were the so called dolls that Sophie owned, but she didn’t just own them, she had made them. There were dolls of the element bearers, of the princesses, and of all of Sophie’s closest friends. It used to creep Amber out that Sophie made stuffed dolls of her friends, until Amber received a little plushy from Sophie one day that explained it all to her.
The room was empty of any ponies, save for Amber, leaving the unicorn to wonder where her favorite cousin was. Amber looked underneath Sophie’s pink bed, no ponies, but more dolls this was where the monster dolls were kept. Amber looked in the closet and only found a giant dragon plushy about half her size staring back at her. Amber turned and began walking towards the door because clearly Fluttershy had been wrong about Sophie being in here.
“Surprise!” shouted a high pitched voice that caused Amber to look up, just in time to see a pink earth pony with a short blond mane descending from the ceiling and towards her.
The pink pony landed with legs spread onto of Amber’s back and wrapped her forelegs around Amber’s neck giving her a tight hug. If Amber wasn’t so big and strong then this would’ve knocked her onto the floor, but the tiny pony sitting on top of her back was more of nescience then anything else. Instinctively Amber gave a few hard bucks but the small pony wasn’t leaving so easily, after a few tries she gave up.
“Get off, Sophie,” Amber growled.
“No way, I’ve been hiding up there for at least five minutes waiting for you to come by, so now I’m going to get a piggy back ride. Besides that you owe me,” Sophie said cheerfully.
Amber looked up at the flat ceiling and tried to figure out just how Sophie was hiding up there, or how Sophie knew that Amber was coming over anyway. Amber began walking to the door and Sophie suddenly squeed. If Sophie wanted to have a piggy back ride, then she was going to get one. Amber opened the door with her telekinesis and walked out.
Downstairs Amber saw Fluttershy sliding a bowl of vegetables over to the small white bunny named Angel. Angel wasn’t pleased with the food and refused to partake of the meal, Fluttershy began pouting and said, “Please eat, I don’t want you to starve.”
“Look at me!” Sophie cried out as Amber walked down the stairs.
Fluttershy looked at the two of them and allowed a small giggle to escape her lips before saying, “It looks like you two are having fun. What are you planning on doing today?”
“Oh, we should get Hushpuppy and then we can all go to Sweet Apple Acers!” Sophie suggested loudly.
Amber groaned.
“That sounds wonderful; I think that Hushy went down to Rarity’s. Hush’s little jacket got all ripped the other day, I do hope that Rarity can fix it,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t want my little Hushy whushy to cry again.”
Amber turned to the door and said, “Well I didn’t have any better plans. Maybe after I get us together we can go explore the Everfree.”
“WHAT!” Fluttershy shouted. “Y-y-you can’t do that. You’re not even eighteen.”
“Relax I’m joking, I wouldn’t drag Sophie into there. She’s not as good with animals as you are,” Amber said with a laugh.
An instant look of relief came over Fluttershy. Sophie however kicked Amber in the sides and said, “I am too good with animals. I am the bestest with them.”
“You very nearly crushed poor Angel there when you tired to pet him once, or do you not remember that?” Amber said with a sly grin.
“That was… that was an accident,” Sophie replied. After a moment of silence she added, “And I don’t want to go with you into the stupid forest anyways. I’m good right where I is.”
“Ugh, please don’t start talking like that,” Amber said.
“Oh so you don’t likes the way I talk when I’m being uber cutetastic?” Sophie asked, and even though Amber couldn’t see it, she just knew that Sophie was grinning.
Amber opened the door and said, “You know just for that, I’m going to double time it to the boutique.”
“What does that mean?” Sophie inquired.
Amber suddenly took off into a full gallop which caused Sophie to nearly fall off before she managed to grip her legs around Amber’s neck again. Sophie was thankfully one of the smallest fillies that Amber knew and so she weighed very little, and her grip was not very strong on Amber’s neck either. Although Amber would never admit it, she did enjoy her size when it came to physical strength. It made life a little easier when she didn’t have to ask some stallion to help her with physical labor.
Amber rand down the little road that wound down the hill and jumped over the bridge. Sophie squealed as Amber soared through the air for a few feet before landing hard leading the small pony on her back to bounce into the air. The boutique wasn’t very far from Fluttershy’s house so the run would only last a short distance, but it was fun. The ponies they passed by all waved, and Sophie waved back, and few of them even whistled their support for Amber.
***
When Amber arrived at the boutique she stopped and stared at the sign out front. “The Carousal Boutique, looks like we’re here.”
“Ayep, let’s go get Hushpuppy. And together we’ll all have lots and lots and lots of fun,” Sophie said.
Amber opened the front door and walked through it. It wasn’t surprising to see the white unicorn with her purple curly mane working on some article of clothing, but to see her doing so with an overjoyed smile was an absolute treat for Amber to see. Amber remembered the last time Rarity was in such a good mood, she ended up giving some free clothes to her. Thoughts of free gifts crossed her mind and suddenly she couldn’t help but walk in and cheerfully introduce herself, “Hey, Rarity, what’s up?”
“Oh darling it’s…” Rarity stopped working and stared at them in silence for a moment before finishing, “Both of you. Well at least you two look happy… is there a reason that you two are like that?”
“She’s giving me a piggy back ride, and its super fun!” Sophie nearly screamed in excitement.
“That’s wonderful, darling,” Rarity said in delight.
Amber walked over and took a close look at what Rarity was working on and smiled. “Oh, that looks pretty.”
“It’s a new dress that I’m working on for Sweetie. She’s singing at The Tossed Horseshoe tonight after all. I figure that she needed a beautiful dress to match her singing voice,” Rarity explained.
“Oh wow, I wish that I was old enough to get inside. She’s got an awesome voice,” Amber said excitedly, although she didn’t mention that she was contemplating sneaking in to watch the performance anyway.
“Well so long as you were just going in to watch, I don’t believe that they would stop you… just no alcohol, okay?”
“That’s fine, I don’t want to get drunk anyway. That would just ruin the show for me,” Amber said casually.
“That makes it sound like you’ve actually drank before,” Rarity inquired.
“Um… no,” Amber lied.
“So what are you two doing here?” Rarity asked changing the topic.
“We’re here for Hushpuppy,” Amber explained.
Rarity smiled and looked back towards the changing room. “I suppose you will need to wait a moment then.”
The changing room door opened and out stepped a yellow earth pony with two orange eyes and a mane of various green hues. The young stallion wore a black jacket with its hood drawn over his face. He stared flatly at Rarity and said nothing. Rarity’s smile faded and worry covered her face as she suddenly asked, “Oh, darling, did I do something wrong?”
He walked over to the small group of ponies and looked up at Amber Light giving her a nod. He then looked at Rarity and said, “The world is covered in a thick black darkness that we can’t possibly hope to survive in… and yet the work you did today on my jacket has somehow lifted that veil of darkness ever so slightly to remind me that there is a light in this world, as weak and helpless as it may be.”
Everypony stared at him feeling very confused by what he was trying to explain. He shook his head slowly and said, “You did a good job, thank you.”
Rarity smiled and a tear ran down the side of her face as she said, “Oh, it’s no problem. If you ever need any work from me again, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“I shall return when the darkness strikes me down again,” He replied.
“Right, so do you want to hang out?” Amber asked.
“That sounds like it could be something to break the mundane routine that I find myself in right now. I will hang out with you two,” he said.
“Oh, Hushpuppy, I’m so glad that you agreed. I thought that I might have to start crying again if you didn’t accept,” Sophie said.
Hushpuppy looked up at her and a tiny smile formed on his lips as he said, “So you admit to using my sensitive nature against me, so that you can manipulate me to do whatever you want?”
“Yep, because you’re my big brother and you need to do what I say,” Sophie said jokingly.
He looked away and said, “Curse my bleeding fragile heart, I just can’t say no to you now can I?”
Amber looked back towards the door and as she walked towards it she said, “Okay, let’s go have some fun.”
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Three: The Artist
Chapter Three: The Artist
Passing the Torch
As usual it took forever to walk all the way to Sweet Apple Acers, but the three of them had at last arrived. Sweet Apple Acers always worked as a nice hang out for the small group of friends, it also helped that this was where their secret club house was. Amber still remembered the day when the club house was given to them by Applebloom and her friends, back when the Applebloom still lived in Ponyville. It was such a nice gesture that the four of them continued to use the club until this day, although it seemed like Color Splash used it to escape from her mom more than anything else now, Color Splash being the pony that they came all this way out here to visit.
The farm was quiet today and the group of friends couldn’t help but feel excitement running through them, well maybe not Hushpuppy, but the other two were excited. Applejack, the orange mare with a blond mane tied into a ponytail was sitting outside on the front porch and watching a bright blue pegasus stallion flying around in the sky. Amber walked up to her along with Hushpuppy, Sophie was still riding on Amber’s back.
“Howdy, sugarcube, what’s ya’ll doin today?” Applejack asked, her southern accent carried all the warmth of an open hearth on a cold winter night, and was just as inviting.
Amber laid down in front of her, and despite taking a new position so low to the ground, poor Sophie still couldn’t reach it with her hooves. “So,” Amber said, “Can Color Splash come out to play?”
“She’s still grounded,” Applejack said flatly. She returned to watching the pegasus that was flying around in circles before shouting, “Soarin, get down here will ya.”
The blue pegasus turned mid air and changed direction towards the house. He came in quickly and slowed down to a stop at the last moment where he landed softly and trotted the rest of the way to the house. The first thing he did, as always, was walk up to Applejack and nuzzle her before asking, “Did you want anything?”
“We have company,” Applejack said.
“Oh, you’re here to play with Colors aren’t you? Well she’s up in her room right now but you can go see her if you want,” Soarin said happily.
“No they can’t, she’s grounded after what she did last night,” Applejack stated firmly.
Soarin turned to Applejack and pouted while giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes that Amber had ever seen. “Please.”
Applejack gritted her teeth and for a moment she looked like she was going to say no, but then she turned her head away and said, “Fine, I’ll let her off this one time.”
“Yes,” Soarin said excitedly. “Okay, you guys know where to go, just be sure to knock first. She’s seventeen after all and needs her privacy respected.”
“Yeah, yeah. Last thing I want to do is to walk in on her clopping,” Amber said half joking while getting off the ground.
“Amber Light!” Applejack snapped.
Amber Light walked through the door with Sophie still on her back and Hushpuppy following quietly. Without turning around Amber Light said, “I’m not apologizing.”
Applejack let out a low growl before saying, “Can you believe the nerve on her. She must get that from her mother.”
“Hey that’s not fair, her mother is extremely loyal to her friends, and she’s a much different pony then when you first met her,” Soarin defended.
“Yeah, yeah, but if Ah had said that at her age, Ah would’ve gotten my flank beaten with a thistle,” Applejack stated. Amber chose to ignore Applejack’s comments, after all Applejack seemed to have a permanent stick up her butt.
***
There they stood at the end of the hallway and staring at the outside of Color Splash’s door. A black sign with rainbow colored writing hung from the door, it read “Creative ponies only, narrow minded stuck up mothers not allowed!”
“Wow,” Amber Light thought aloud.
“She’s captured the darkness of this world wonderfully with this sign, the way the rainbow colors stand out in the blackened background are good representation of how we all pretend that everything is nice and happy but it’s all just a falsity made up by ponies in an attempt to hide from the darkness that surrounds us all,” Hushpuppy said flatly, he ended with a slight grin of approval.
“That’s just a little messed up,” Amber Light said.
“I don’t really get it, but I think that rainbows are pretty,” Sophie chimed in.
Suddenly the door swung open and out popped a peach colored mare, who wore a red ribbon around her neck. She had a long mane with six different colors streaking through it, starting from left to right there was, red, purple, blue, green, yellow, and finally orange. Her tail was much the same except for the tip was black and ended in a fine point. The mare looked at the three ponies and smiled brightly.
“Did I hear somepony with an actual understand of artistic creativity?” She asked.
Hushpuppy smiled and said, “You’re understanding of the bleakness of life is always a wonderful treat.”
Amber Light face hoofed and said, “Color Splash, Hushpuppy, could we please not get into this right now?”
Color Splash frowned a little but backed away and swept her foreleg wide saying, “Welcome to the den of creation, all art is welcome, dark, cute, silly, or mystifying are all accepted in here.”
The three ponies walked in and were suddenly bombarded by the sight of drawings, paintings, sculptures, and everything else somepony could attribute to being art. All of it was created by Color Splash herself, as she has proclaimed herself to be Ponyville’s one true artist. Amber Light saw a new painting on Color Splash’s wall and found herself suddenly revolted by the sight.
“Is that what I think it is?” Amber asked.
Color Splash smiled and quickly placed herself in front of the image. “This is my interpretation of how Princess Celestia treats Princess Twilight, I was going to make a sequel of this which involved her treatment of the elements of harmony… except I remembered that my mom was one of them.”
The image on the wall showed a more then provocative image of Celestia doing something very personal with Twilight. The expression on Celestia’s face was more or less a manic grin while she stood behind Twilight Sparkle, Twilight however had her eyes rolling into the back her skull, her tongue sticking out and her entire face was red from the act that she was committing with Celestia. Amber had to force herself to look away before she said something that she knew she’d regret.
Color Splash smiled and asked, “So what do you think of it?”
Sophie put a hoof over her mouth and with her face becoming red she squeaked, “Um… I don’t… What are they doing?”
Hushpuppy stared at it in silence for a long time with his own face becoming an increasing shade of red. Color Splash finally poked him and he croaked, “It’s um, a good, um… I like it, if that’s okay with, you…”
Amber Light giggled and said, “Dude, you just became Fluttershy. Is it really that sexy?”
Hushpuppy glared at Amber and said, “I did not become ‘her’. And… I’m not answering the second question.”
“Pervert,” Amber joked.
Color Splash looked back at the image and grinned. “So what do you think, Amber?”
“I don’t think.”
“Do you think that Twilight would appreciate it?” Color Splash asked, seriously.
Amber gave a hard look at Color Splash for a long moment, there were a few choice words that she wanted to say about the painting, but she chose not to give into her anger because Color Splash was very sensitive about her art. After a moment though Amber began to wonder what Twilight would do if she did happen to see this, and suddenly she burst out in a fit of inane laughter.
“What’s so funny? It’s supposed to represent how Celestia screws Twilight on a regular basis. Especially when it comes to fighting off the villains of Equestria, it’s not fair that Twilight has to do all of Celestia’s battles is it? I mean where was Celestia when Discord first returned?” Color Splash asked.
Amber Light managed to slow her laughing down just enough to say, “You know what? I think that Twilight would have a grand reaction to this image. But if you decide to show it to her, you have to have me present, that’s a requirement okay?”
“That sounds like a deal to me, can you arrange a special meeting for us then?” Color Splash asked.
“I think I can,” Amber said.
“So how come you’re grounded?” Sophie asked.
Color Splash carefully placed a sheet over the painting of Celestia and Twilight before explaining, “My mom saw this and she freaked. If not for dad’s intervention she would’ve destroyed my precious work. Instead she just grounded me for drawing ‘porn’, this is not porn it is art.”
Amber looked out the window and said, “Yeah, well I don’t think that you’re mom understands that kind of stuff.” Amber then walked to the window and said, “You’re dad said you were un-grounded, so let’s all head to the club house.”
Everypony nodded in agreement and followed Amber out the bedroom door. Amber gave it a little thought, and she just couldn’t wait to see Twilight’s reaction to the painting. It was going to be the best prank ever.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Four: Club Meeting
Chapter Four: Club Meeting
Passing the Torch
The four ponies sat in a circle inside a small single room tree house while talking about various things that interested the four of them. Stuck to the walls were various portraits of the ponies who gave this clubhouse to them in the first place, the fabled Cutie Mark Crusaders. Of course the small group of friends had once upon a time taken up the mantle of Crusader themselves but now that they have all gotten their cutie marks they no longer needed to search for that part of their lives.
Although sitting in this room always had a tendency to remind them all of what their marks were. Even though they hadn’t all shared the exact methods they used to obtain them, they all the general story behind each other’s marks. Color Splash as the oldest one among them had obtained hers first, her cutie mark being six circles of colors that matched her mane, they represented the primary colors and the secondary colors. She had obtained her mark one day when she was doing an art project for class, she had never tried painting before then, but she picked it up right away, although her methods were always a little different. Everypony could thank Applebloom for introducing Color Splash to the concepts of big city art.
Amber Light got her mark next, although she was younger then Color Splash when she obtained hers. One day she was out playing a prank of Princess Twilight Sparkle, like she usually did. She got caught though and ran, while she was running she tripped and fell into Twilight’s backyard and her magic went off without any warning. The next thing she knew she was lying in a field of pretty flowers with a nose bleed. After that Twilight took Amber in as her apprentice, although there was still some scolding from Amber’s mother on both sides. Amber’s cutie mark is that of a purple rose.
Hushpuppy got his few years after that. One day he was talking to his mother and as he put it, he finally understood the meaning of the universe. He began talking about how dark reality was, and how faint the light of hope was becoming. For whatever reason he got a strange cutie mark of a red star and a dark swirl trailing behind it. It’s been theorized that his ability to speak in poetic darkness was his cutie marks purpose, but he never fully accepted that.
Last but not least Sophie got her mark, and when she did she freaked out and had a party thrown in her honor. She was helping her mom sew a few blankets, and Sophie got bored so she started to make dolls out of the material, after that she received her mark which took the form of a teddy bear. Sophie enjoyed her ability and made a unique habit of creating dolls of all her closest friends after that, nopony really understood how she got into the hobby but they respected her right to do so, as long as she didn’t do creepy stuff like what Color Splash did on occasion.
This tree house wasn’t just filled with things revolving around the original Cutie Mark Crusaders though, ever since these four took over the club house they have been filling it with new things. The walls were all painted to show events that involved the four of them, all thanks to Color Splash’s special talent. A series of dolls sat on the shelf to stand guard over the clubhouse while everypony was away. Grim poems were all written into a book along with a very select and few happy ones. Finally Amber Light had a miniature garden of flowers growing just outside the window seal, a flower for everypony matching their fur color. All in all this tree house was now a legacy to all those who came before them, and to those who would come after.
***
The group of ponies had spent a long time talking about what interest them, and what they should do as a group. Many ideas came and went, but in the end nopony could decide on any one thing. The best solution was to try and do all of their ideas, though that would prove taxing it sounded like a lot of fun to them. What they needed to do first was come up with a plan, to which everypony looked at Amber Light for.
“Ugh, do I really have to do everything for you guys? I mean I do have schooling to take care of,” Amber Light explained.
“So do we,” Color Splash replied.
“Well, fine I’ll see what I can do. First we need to find a way to get our hooves on that much cake, do you think Aunt Pinkie would be willing to help out with that?” Amber asked everypony in the room.
“Yeah, she would love to help us. She pretty much runs the Sugarcube Corner now anyway,” Sophie said cheerfully.
“Okay, that’ll work out. Now we need a lot of paint supplies, but we don’t have the money for that kind of thing,” Amber said.
“We could ask Princess Twilight, more specifically you could ask her,” Color Splash stated.
Amber glared at the peach colored pony and said in a low tone, “If anyone asks her for money, it’s going to be you. I don’t like it when ponies try to use my position for their own uses, you know that.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, I’m sorry,” Color Splash said sadly.
Amber calmed herself down and explained, “Look I know you what you meant, but it would be wise if we asked her together. Maybe when we show her that painting you made for her?”
“Oh we could offer it up as a representation of my skill, so that she could fund our operation,” Color Splash said excitedly.
Amber Light thought about it for a moment and shrugged, “Maybe she will be so shocked that she won’t notice how much money we ask for?”
After receiving a nod from everypony Amber thought about it and said, “Running a poetry reading won’t be so hard, I mean they have a club for that thing here. My parents go to it all the time, though I’m kinda sick of hearing about rocks.”
“My poetry should illuminate the truth about the darkness in this world, and open everyponies eyes to just how blind they really are as they stumble about this cruel existence,” Hushpuppy said.
“Last but not least, I’ll need a stage to show case my magical talent. When I get done everypony will stand in awe of me and I’ll have gained even more respect from the princess,” Amber Light said.
“Why don’t you just go out and burn the whole town down why don’t ya, dork.”
Everypony suddenly looked towards the open window and saw the one pony that they didn’t want to interact with today; Blackout. The gray pegasus hovered outside the window with her mane of white with a black lightning bolt running through it flowing in the breeze. She stared pridefully down at the four ponies with her dark purple eyes and a wicked grin across her face.
“Blackout, what are you doing here?” Amber Light spat angrily.
“Just checking up on the dork squad. Let’s see we have the angry giant, the ditzy space case, the emo-goth with his new jacket, and finally the ugly painter,” Blackout said before smirking at them.
Amber Light stood up and stared at Blackout with anger raging inside her heart. Blackout stared right back at her and everypony began watching with fearful eyes. Amber Light’s horn began glowing and a slight pain started in her head, she then took a single step forward and Sophie jumped up and shouted, “AMBER NO!”
The sudden interruption startled Amber Light and she lost her concentration. Her horn suddenly stopped glowing and the pain vanished, but she was still angry with Blackout. Amber Light glared at Blackout and said, “Just leave, you aren’t supposed to bother us here and you know that.”
“Oh and what are you gonna do, tell Applejack?” Blackout said.
“Actually I will, and then she will talk to your mother, Rainbow Dash!” Amber Light stated.
Blackout growled and stared in silence for a moment. She quickly huffed and said, “Fine, I don’t like being around this place anyway, it smells like you freaks.” Blackout turned and kicked the clubhouse’s outer wall with both of her hind legs before flying off in a hurry.
“I like everypony, but I anti-like her,” Sophie said quietly.
Amber looked back at the group and said, “Yeah, well she won’t bother us here anyway. We need to find a way to deal with her though, because so far Rainbow Dash hasn’t done crap in stopping her from bullying us.”
“That’s because Rainbow Dash is the leader of the Wonderbolts, and so she encourages this kind of aggressive behavior. Typical military mom type,” Color Splash said in disgust.
Amber Light looked back towards the window and watched the sky where Blackout had flown off. She didn’t know what made Blackout act like she did, but there had to be a reason, right? Twilight always said that there was good in everypony, sometimes it’s just covered in a lot of crap, but if you can get through it and find the good… then you can make friends with anypony. Somehow Amber Light didn’t see that as a viable theory when it came to Blackout.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Five: Burning Rainbows
Chapter Five: Burning Rainbows
Passing the Torch
The group of friends moved out of the clubhouse soon after their discussion. There was one place where they knew they could always hang out and have a good time; The Sugarcube Corner. The trip into town took awhile but the trip was a marry one none the less and time flew by for the four friends. After arriving at the sweets shop they decided to get a seat and wait for the current manager to come and serve them, it never took too long for her to show up.
A short, round, and bouncy pink pony trotted up to the group’s table and her happy smile made everyponies heart warm up as usual. The pink mare’s curly pink mane bounced with every step. She stopped at the table and smiled at the group before asking, “So what can I do for you all today?”
Amber smiled and said, “You know, the usual, Aunt Pinkie.”
“Same here,” called out Color Splash.
Sophie jumped off the chair and wrapped her hooves around Pinkie Pie before saying, “I didn’t get to give you a hug this morning.”
Pinkie returned the hug, and Amber saw the happiest pony in all of Equestria right in that very moment. Pinkie Pie had never been as happy as she was whenever she was with her kids, and Amber truly believed that Pinkie made a wonderful mom. Pinkie held Sophie close and said, “I’m so sorry, Soph. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Sophie pulled away and smiled. Hushpuppy crossed his forelegs and mumbled something under his breath. Pinkie Pie looked over and smiled even more before saying, “I heard that mister.”
With a sudden swiftness Pinkie wrapped both of her legs around him and squeezed him tightly. Hushpuppy’s face began turning a light shade of pink and he looked away saying, “Mom, I’m too old for this.”
“Hush, I gave birth to the both of you so that means that I can hug you anytime that I want to,” Pinkie Pie explained cheerfully.
“You’re embarrassing me,” Hushpuppy said quietly.
“Too bad, that’s my job as your mother is to embarrass you,” Pinkie Pie retorted.
Color Splash gave a smile in slight approval before asking, “Didn’t Fluttershy want to have kids?”
Pinkie Pie let go of Hushpuppy and rolled her eyes as she explained, “Do you honestly think that I would let her ruin that perfect body of hers by having kids?” Pinkie then looked dead serious and said, “No, I wouldn’t.” She then bounced into the air and smiled brightly. “I was already a little round, what were two kids going to do me that wasn’t going to happen naturally?”
“Hmm, so you’re just selfish?” Amber light asked.
“Yep,” Pinkie Pie replied merrily.
After that bit of conversation Pinkie Pie retreated to the counter and grabbed everyponies favorite meals. A giant cupcake for Sophie along with a strawberry smoothie, a plate of cookies for Color Splash and a hot cup of creamy coffee, a few donuts alongside a cup of black coffee for Hushpuppy, and finally a piece of chocolate cake with a oat smoothie for Amber. Out of everypony here Amber didn’t really enjoy sweets but she did enjoy trying out anything that Pinkie Pie made, even if it was often times too sweet to finish eating.
After eating everypony went outside and looked at the setting sun. It was getting late and everypony was going to need to head home soon. Color Splash smiled and offered to take Sophie home. Nopony argued and so those two were off after saying their goodbyes. This left Hushpuppy alone with Amber Light and an awkward silence quickly grew between the two of them.
Finally when Amber couldn’t take it anymore she looked him in the eyes and asked, “What’s wrong?”
He looked away and mumbled something under his breath. Amber Light continued staring at him with a stern expression until her finally said, “I was just wondering if you knew why my jacket was torn up yesterday?”
Amber Light shook her head and said, “Nope, what did you fall or something?”
He turned and walked away while saying, “Darkness found me when I was alone. I guess it’s nothing big though considering how black this world is, but I was hoping that maybe there was at least a candle to light my way.”
“What?” Amber Light asked.
She didn’t receive a response though as Hushpuppy just wandered off alone. Amber sat on the steps for a few minutes trying to figure out what Hushpuppy was getting at, he usually spoke in metaphors so what did he mean by darkness found him? His jacket had been ripped up by something, and apparently it was something dark? Hushpuppy’s hints sounded more like hints at some monster or another, but there weren’t monsters in Ponyville, the only thing that was an even kinda threat was Blackout and she was never violent, just annoying. Unless…
Suddenly Amber sprang to her hooves and charged off in the direction that Hushpuppy had walked away. How could she have not seen it sooner? There was Tartarus to pay if Blackout did anything to Hushpuppy. Amber prayed that she wouldn’t be too late.
***
Amber continued running at a full gallop until she saw Hushpuppy standing straight and looking at the ground. She smiled as she slowed down and tried to find the right way to ask him about what had happened to his jacket. Suddenly a gray pegasus slammed into Hushpuppy’s side sending him down hard onto the ground! Amber froze and her heart skipped a beat as she watched Blackout hovering in the air and looking down at Hushpuppy with a wicked smirk across her face.
“So you got that jacket of yours repaired after last time, to bad too, because now I have to ruin it all over again,” Blackout said.
“Please, don’t,” Hushpuppy pleaded with his legs over his head.
“Oh don’t tell me that you’re crying already, I need to push you around a little more before you start doing that or else it’s not any fun.”
Amber stomped her way forward, determination set in, and righteous anger filled her soul. Blackout just hovered in the air and said, “Get up, that way I knock you down all over again, or do you just want me to kick you while you’re down.”
Hushpuppy began to rise when with a sudden force Amber Light yelled, “STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!”
Hushpuppy stopped trying to rise and instead he looked up at Amber Light with tear filled eyes, his face looked a little dirty. Blackout just stared at Amber with an evil grin before saying, “Did you tell your giant friend here that I was bulling you? You know that just means I’m going to have to be harder on you now.”
“I didn’t tell her anything,” Hushpuppy cried out.
Amber Light marched over to Blackout but the pegasus flew just out of reach on her approach. Amber growled before saying, “I’m going to tell Rainbow Dash on you. Then what do you think will happen?”
Blackout grinned and said, “So what, you can’t stop me on your own? Is that it? You have to act like a little baby and tell my mom because you can’t even protect your friends, you really are pathetic.”
“That’s it, I’m sick of your crap. We’re doing this right freaking now!” Amber Light said while stomping a hoof for extra emphasis.
Blackout grinned madly and said, “Now that’s more like it, stretch.”
Blackout instantly shot into the air and after getting thirty feet into the air she swung herself around and came flying back down, hoof raised. Amber Light knew that she needed to bring her opponent down quickly, and there was only one effective way to do this. Amber’s horn suddenly began glowing, and with it a slight pain shot through her horn, and suddenly a blast of fire shot out threatening to engulf the flying menace. Blackout dodged to the side and suddenly let out a howl of pain before shooting down into the ground.
Amber Light watched with amusement as Blackout began beating at the flaming tip of her right wing. Just as Blackout managed to put the fire out Amber Light heard the air crackle and pop and suddenly a rainbow colored streak landed next to Blackout. The only two words that came out of Amber’s mouth then were, “Oh,” and, “Crap.”
The sky blue pegasus and her rainbow colored mane stared with a quiet rage at Amber Light before looking softly at her daughter and asking, “Are you okay, honey?”
“Mom,” Blackout sniffled, “She lit me on fire. I don’t know why she would do something like that?”
“Because you were being a bully,” Amber Light called out.
Rainbow Dash stared back at Amber Light and suddenly Amber’s heart froze. Rainbow Dash stood up, and resembling death incarnate she began walking towards Amber Light. “So you decided that you would light her on fire! Just because she was picking on you a little? Do you know what I’m going to do now?”
Amber shook her head speechless and terrified, and Rainbow Dash, even being smaller then her still managed to stick her muzzle into Amber Light’s face and say, “I’m talking to your mom, to your teacher, and to Fluttershy about this. I don’t have to kill you for hurting my baby, they’ll do that for me.” Rainbow Dash swiftly turned and went to Blackout.
“Come on, let’s go home to your siblings,” Rainbow Dash said, and with that the two were gone.
Amber Light stared at them for a moment and her fear was quickly replaced by anger as she realized what Rainbow Dash was going to do. “Oh come on, how is that fair?” Amber looked down at Hushpuppy and helped him stand up before asking him, “What am I supposed to do about that? I was defending you, and now I’m going to get in trouble?”
“I’m sorry,” Hushpuppy apologized quietly. “Thank you for saving me though… but please don’t tell my parents about this.”
Amber looked down at Hushpuppy in silence for a moment, but then she raised a hoof up and wiped away a few of his tears. “I can’t promise that I won’t tell them if they ask, but I’ll try to keep it a secret. I can understand not wanting to worry them.”
He smiled softly at her and then turned away to walk home, and Amber followed him. She didn’t want to leave him alone after an event like that after all. She just knew that no matter what she did, this was going to come back to bite her in the flank somehow. Why did Blackout have to be such a bully, it was one thing to hurt ponies with words, but to hurt them physically like this… this wasn’t fair to anypony.
***
The walk back to Fluttershy’s cottage went by slowly and quietly, Amber Light’s anger had cooled off a lot by now, but she was still worried about Hushpuppy. The orange sky only served to remind her that she still needed to head home herself, her mother’s one rule about getting home was to be home before sunset, and she didn’t want to break this rule… again. Fluttershy’s cottage looked nice, quiet, and peaceful with one problem. Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle were standing outside the front door and giving dirty looks to Amber Light.
“So,” said Twilight, “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
Amber Light opened her mouth but Fluttershy quickly spoke, “Hushy!” Fluttershy flew over at lightning speeds and wrapped her legs around Hushpuppy while saying, “You look terrible. Did Amber do this to you sweetie?”
Amber Light’s jaw dropped, hit the ground, and sunk through the earth only to come out on the other side of the planet. Shock took away any amount of anger that she might have had left as she asked, “What?”
Fluttershy glared at Amber Light and said, “I know what you did. Rainbow Dash told me about how you were bulling Hushy, and then when her daughter tried to stop you, you set her on fire! How could you?” A few angry tears began running down Fluttershy’s cheeks and somehow Amber Light felt guilty, even though she knew that none of what Fluttershy had said was true.
Amber looked away and said, “I was not doing any of that… well I did light Blackout on fire, but that’s because she was-“
“What in Equestria were you thinking?” Twilight nearly shouted. “Do you have any idea of how mad Rainbow Dash was? I thought that I taught you better than that.”
“Blackout was being mean again!” Amber defended.
“Oh and what could she have possibly done to make you attack her with magic?” Twilight inquired.
Amber looked over at Hushpuppy, she saw the hurt look in his eyes and she swallowed hard. “I can’t tell you what she did.”
“Why is that?” Twilight asked.
Fluttershy stepped in saying, “Because she can’t defend her actions. That’s why. And just look at my little baby, he’s covered in dirt and he’s been crying again.”
Twilight just glared at Amber Light for a moment in silence before saying, “You know what, don’t even bother trying to explain, Amber. I’m going to need to think about this… I can’t just have you using the things that I’ve taught you to hurt ponies. I’ll need to think about things for a while, but until I say otherwise you shouldn’t come by the castle, or the library.”
Suddenly Amber’s shock gave way to crushing despair, and she began begging, “No, please, Twilight. I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, I promise.”
“Amber, this is serious, you could’ve injured Blackout. You do realize that right?”
Amber Light closed her eyes felt her heart breaking inside. She quietly said, “I-I-I know, but I was just trying to do good. I promise.”
“I don’t see how any of what you did could be seen as good,” Twilight said flatly.
Amber’s knees became weak and she just wanted to cry, she couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. She just wanted to do good, to help her friends, the last thing she wanted was to lose her teacher like this. Amber looked over at Hushpuppy and saw him whispering something with his eyes shut, although Amber couldn’t hear what he was saying, it looked like he was saying the same thing over and over again. Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide and she looked at Hushpuppy and asked, “Is that true?”
He nodded.
Fluttershy looked at Twilight with a serious expression and said, “Twilight, you need to know what really happened.”
“Well she won’t tell me will she?” Twilight spat back while staring at Amber Light with a penetrating stare.
“Hushpuppy just told me that Blackout has been… Blackout’s been beating him up,” Fluttershy said her voice was shaky.
Twilight looked over at her and asked, “What?” after a moment Twilight added, “I… I can’t believe that Rainbow Dash would just let that kind of behavior pass by unchecked.”
“I don’t think that Rainbow Dash knows,” Fluttershy said.
“See, I told you that I was trying to do good. I’m sorry that I lit her on fire but she came at me and I had to defend myself somehow,” Amber Light defended.
Twilight closed her eyes and thought in silence for a very long moment before finally opening them and saying, “I’m sorry about what I said. But that doesn’t change the fact that you still set her on fire… I’m going to need to teach you some defensive spells that won’t hurt anypony. I guess in a way this is my fault, I’ve spent too much time trying to teach you how to defend yourself against monsters and even greater threats, but I don’t think you need to know how to defeat nightmare spawn as much as you need to know how to neutralize a target safely.”
Amber looked down at her with sad eyes and trying her hardest not to cry she asked, “So, you won’t quit being my teacher?”
Twilight’s eyes shot wide for a moment and then quickly softened. Twilight quickly embraced Amber Light and said, “Of course not, I’m sorry if you thought that was even a possibility. I would never just abandon you, I was only wanting you to learn a lesson, one that as it turns out you didn’t need to. I promise that I will always be you’re teacher so long as you want me to.”
Amber returned the embrace and said, “Thanks. I was really scared there for a minute.”
“Tomorrow we will start you on your new lessons,” Twilight explained softly.
Amber nodded in agreement.
“So,” A new yet oh so familiar mare began saying, “You were just defending one of your cousins. I can hardly blame you for that, you know.”
Amber looked up and saw a soft blue unicorn mare with a long mane of silver and white blue. The mare gave Amber a kind and gentle smile, Amber returned the smile and said, “Mom, what are you doing here?”
“Rainbow Dash went to me first and chewed me out for not raising you right. I nearly shot a lightning bolt at her when she called you a… never mind, that’s not the important part,” Amber’s mom said.
Hushpuppy looked at his mom and asked, “What’s our aunt doing here?”
Fluttershy quietly explained, “Trixie came over here after Rainbow Dash… talked to her. Though now it looks like I’ll need to talk to Rainbow Dash. Oh dear this is going to turn into a giant mess isn’t it?”
Trixie walked over to Amber who was still being hugged by Twilight and wrapped her legs around the both of them and said, “So I’m not going to ground you for this, I actually support your actions. But I think that Twilight needs to teach you how to deal with situations like these.”
“I’m going to,” Twilight said.
“Good, because if you don’t then I’ll have to try my own hooves at it, and I already have a whole group of foals that need my attention,” She explained.
“Yes, we know,” Amber Light replied while trying to break out of her mother’s grip.
“Not so fast,” Trixie said, “Where’s my hug and kiss?”
“Ugh, I’m not doing that in front of everypony,” Amber said.
“Then I’m not letting go.”
“Why am I being held too?” Twilight asked.
“Because you were already here and now it’s too late to escape,” Trixie explained playfully.
A long moment went by before Amber finally kissed her mother on the cheek and said, “There, you happy you giant weirdo.”
Trixie let go of the two of them and smiled before saying, “Yes that makes me very happy, and by the way, I’m not the giant pony here.”
Amber growled and looked away. It wasn’t her fault that she was so tall, she didn’t ask to become a giant pony after all.
***
Everything calmed down after that and everypony began to head back home. Fluttershy was understandably still pissed about her only son being hurt by Blackout. For awhile Amber, Trixie, and Twilight walked home together, the older mares talked about things from when they were young, but eventually Twilight separated and left Amber alone with her mom. They passed by Pinkie Pie who was finally going home after having closed the shop, she looked happy and cheerful until she saw Amber Light and suddenly she looked serious. Trixie told Pinkie to head home and see her wife, and kids, but didn’t explain why. With the way Pinkie Pie charged off, there wasn’t time to explain, despite the pink pony’s age, or thickness, Pinkie Pie was fast.
The rest of the walk was quiet until Amber thought about trying to find a way to cheer up her friend, and one came to her. “Hey, mom,” Amber said.
“Yes, Amber?”
“Do you think I could have a sleep over soon?” Amber Light asked.
“Who do you want to invite?” Trixie asked.
“Just, Sophie, Hushpuppy, and Colors,” Amber Light explained.
Trixie was quiet for a moment while she considered it, her reply wasn’t what Amber had hoped for. “I’ll think about it, that’s a lot of ponies for our tiny house.”
“Please, we can all stay in my room, or the living room. Please,” Amber begged.
Trixie let out a sigh. “I will think about it, okay? I’m probably going to say yes, considering it’s just the two of us right now.”
“Awesome!” Amber Light exclaimed, and suddenly the thoughts about what to do for the sleep over began pouring through her mind.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Six: Sneaky Pony
Passing the Torch
The moon was shining through Amber’s bedroom window allowing her to vaguely see the dark shapes the consisted of the furniture in her room. It was about time, and after lighting up her horn just enough to see the time she knew she had to hurry. It just past nine and that meant that she was going to have to sneak out now if she wanted to make it in time, of course her mother was already asleep, she always fell asleep early; but being the only unicorn to teach magic to the foals in Ponyville did come with an early schedule. Twilight would have taken up the mantle of being the local magic teacher, but she has had her hooves full with more political issues, she had barely enough time as is to train Amber.
Amber crawled out of her bed as quietly as she possibly could, and began rummaging through her closet. It didn’t take too long for her to find a dark blue cloak complete with hood. After putting it on and drawing the hood over her head she glanced around her room with a feeling of having missed something. She scanned over her comic book collection, her role playing books, her fantasy novels, and finally her school books. She didn’t see what it was she trying to find until she looked over to the window and saw her money pouch. She was going to require some funds if she wanted to truly enjoy Sweetie Belle’s performance.
Amber opened the window using her telekinesis and lumbered out. She could only hope that her mother didn’t hear anything. After getting out she aimed herself towards The Tossed Horseshoe and began trotting off, tonight was going to be a wonderful night. Sweetie Belle always had the most enchanting voice that inspired ponies to do better and to be more.
***
The Tossed Horseshoe was filled to the brim with ponies tonight. It wasn’t often that Sweetie Belle actually preformed here, and so on these occasions everypony who was old enough showed up. The windows all shown with warm inviting light and many marry drunken songs could be heard being sung. Amber’s excitement was growing as she approached the front door.
Amber walked in with her cloak on, and after seeing all the stallions that were in here as well as her she felt instantly at ease. She walked by them and although she was maybe an inch or two taller than most she felt more at ease around these tall ponies, more like she fit in. She found a private booth in the back and sat down, making sure to keep her hood drawn over her face and covering her cutie mark so that nopony would easily recognize her.
After a few minutes one of the waitress’s walked up to her table and asked in a bubbly tone, “What can a sweet little thing like me get for such a strong colt as yourself?”
Amber gave her a mean look and said, “I’m not a stallion.”
She looked taken aback for a moment and suddenly she raised an eyebrow and said, “Amber Light, is that you?”
“Um… no…”
“Uh-huh, well miss tall pony, how about I get you some mead. Will that make you forget about my comment?” the waitress asked.
Amber eyed her up, this mare was an earth pony mare with a green fur coat and a pink curly mane. Amber smiled at her and said, “Yeah, that’ll do nicely, Bubbles.”
The mare smiled brightly and said, “I’ll be right back, oh and I don’t need to tell you not to tell anypony about this, now do I?”
Amber nodded and stayed quiet, she knew that Bubbles could get into some very deep trouble from both her boss, and Princess Twilight for giving alcohol to an under aged mare, but Bubbles came from the countryside where one was old enough to drink so long as they could see over the counter, Ponyville however had adopted a few of Canterlot’s laws.
It took a few minutes but finally Amber had her mug of mead, and her dark private booth. Soon the show would start and everything would quiet down by a fair bit. It was hard waiting for Sweetie Belle’s show to start but it would be totally worth. Before the show could start however Amber was made aware of five distinctly hooded ponies walking right past her booth and seating themselves in the one next to her. Normally Amber would have left them alone, but the way they were dressed made her worry for the strength of their character.
Amber’s horn began glowing dimly, but thanks to the hood it was nearly impossible for most ponies to see its light. Amber had a perfect spell for this situation, and she was not above using it. The voices of the hooded ponies next to her booth were far too quiet to hear over the clamor around her, so she used a listen spell and the voices of the hooded ponies became incredibly clear as though they were sitting right in front of her.
“Do you think anypony will see us here?” a mare with a rough voice asked.
“Nah, we’re super good here. They don’t like to question the hooded ponies, because we look all secretive and stuff,” answered a much more bouncy and higher pitched voice.
“I… um… Rainbow Dash we need to talk about your daughter later okay?” Said the quiet voice that unmistakably belonged to Fluttershy.
Suddenly it became clear to Amber that she was sitting right next to the Elements of Harmony as they were having a secret meeting. This was both incredibly exciting and absolutely horrifying, if anyone of them discovered Amber sitting here drinking… well it would only mean that Amber would be grounded for the rest of her life, not to mention one of her favorite hang outs being taken away for good.
“Why not talk about this now?” Rainbow Dash asked completely clueless.
“Because I don’t want to get mad at you in public, i-i-if I did… it wouldn’t be pretty,” Fluttershy explained.
A swift silence filled their table and Rainbow Dash said somberly, “I’m sorry, I should’ve figured that Amber wasn’t trying to be bad. I… I just have a hard time not seeing Trixie inside her sometimes, and although it’s wrong of me, I still judge her for it.”
“That’s surprisingly honest of you, darling,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, well I have four kids and more broken hearts then you can count. I had to learn a few things eventually right?”
Applejack stepped in and asked, “So what does Twilight want from us this late?”
“I’m not sure, but whatever it is she’s been on edge for awhile and-“ Rarity said.
“Rarity your eyes,” Applejack said.
Rarity was silent for a moment but Amber Light could see just the faintest glow of a pale blue light before she heard Rarity say, “Thank you. I don’t want to scare anypony now do I?”
“Bet you wished that you’re kid could hide her other half like that,” Rainbow Dash said.
“She is a beautiful young mare, she does not need to hide herself from the world,” Rarity said. “But… Jade has been having trouble lately. It seems that nopony wants to be friends with her, so she spends most of her time with Sweetie Bell, or hiding upstairs. I saw her watching Amber and her little friends today from the top of the stairs, she looked like she wanted to talk to them but I’m afraid that she was too scared.”
“Well being half dragon and half pony does make a pretty weird combination,” Rainbow Dash said.
Amber Light hadn’t noticed Jade watching them, sure she usually tried to avoid Jade… but it was only because she didn’t know how to talk to the pony… or was that really true? Amber let out a sigh as she began wondering if she had really been pushing Jade away and avoiding her just because she was different. Boy wouldn’t Twilight be upset about this kind of behavior.
“I’m glad to see that you’re all here,” Twilight said suddenly surprising Amber.
Amber looked around but only saw another cloaked pony standing in front of the booth next to her. Amber took a big swig of her mead, just in case Twilight decided to take it away from her. Amber watched out of the corner of her eye as Twilight sat down next to her friends.
“So I bet you’re all wondering why I’m here, well it’s actually very important. Do you remember that fight we did last year, and how hard it was to make the elements work?” Twilight said. After a moment Twilight added, “I’ve noticed the elements effects have been weakening over the past ten years. Last year it was so hard just to get them to activate, and for a pitiful amount of magic that I could’ve done in my sleep. So I’ve decided to finally share my theory with you all, please don’t be upset with me for withholding it from you all, I just didn’t want to believe that this was even possible.
“I believe that we are losing our connection to the elements, and soon we will lose the ability to use them completely. It’s entirely possible that we already lost the ability to use them. So if we encounter another Nightmare Moon, or for the love of all that is bright, another Tirek… we will be in deep trouble,” Twilight finished and it was almost as though Amber could feel the desperation coming from the next booth.
“But, but, but what about Celestia. You were talking to her in private today weren’t you?” Rarity asked her voice laced with fear.
“Yeah, I noticed her arrival today after I saw the sunlight. It’s always much brighter wherever she goes. I had to cut my session with Amber short so that I could speak with her, and I told her about my theory,” Twilight explained.
“Well don’t leave us hanging, what did she say?” Pinkie asked.
“She had a dream, another one of those prophecy dreams. She told me that my theory was correct, and that it was nearly time for us to pass the torch. There will be new element bearers soon, but I don’t know who they will be. I have a theory about who a few of them could be, but other than that… I just don’t know,” Twilight said, her voice sounding strained.
Nopony spoke after that, but Amber took another deep drink of her mead and thought about it. New element bearers, who could they be, what would they be like? After a few minutes of this line of thought she gave up on trying to solve the impossible riddle, and decided it wasn’t worth her time.
The elements would choose their new bearers and those six ponies would have a lot of trouble on their hooves, the only thing that bothered Amber was the fact that this transition would be hard on the current bearers. Would they become teachers to the new one’s offering advice, and helping in any way they could? Or would they feel bitter resentment against them? Amber didn’t know but she just hoped that this didn’t all blow up in everyponies face.
To Amber a world without the element bearers was an impossibility that she never experienced. All her life Twilight and her friends had gotten together to stop the great threats of Equestria, even when they had kids they still saved Equestria on several occasions. Without their heroes what would the ponies of Equestria do?
Suddenly the lights in the tavern dimmed and the stage lit up with an enchanting white light. A slender, curvy mare walked out on stage while wearing a beautifully woven dress of deep blue and purple. The air around the white unicorn seamed to shimmer and her curly mane of light and dark purple glimmered in the lighting. She gave an almost seductive smile to the audience and a wink to the ponies in the back, probably to Rarity since Rarity had drawn her hood down now.
“Hiya everypony, my name is Sweetie Belle, and although I’m not that good of a singer, I hope you enjoy my music tonight,” the mare said with a practiced nervous blush.
The music began playing, a soft piano that was on stage behind her, played by Bubbles no less. After a moment Sweetie Belle opened her mouth and her horn began glowing, the room became suddenly full of beautiful music. And Amber felt her heart flutter at the sight of the mare singing to the audience. Amber wasn’t usually interested in mares but seeing and hearing Sweetie Belle singing changed everything in an instant. If ever there was a mare that Amber could fall in love with, it would’ve been her.
“Something’s… wrong,” Rarity said quietly.
Suddenly Amber was reminded that she still had her magic spell active.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, “Isn’t she singing like normal. I have to admit it’s prettier then I remember.”
“Yeah I’d say, it’s downright sexy,” Rainbow Dash added.
“Rainbow, that is my little sister,” Rarity warned. “Anyway, you are right, her voice sounds a little different, but here is the weird part. Look at the audience.”
Amber looked around the room and at first all she saw was a bunch of enamored stallions, and mares. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the one who fell over asleep, and the other one that was sleeping, and those two in the corner that were fast asleep as well. Amber let out an accidently loud yawn as she began counting the number of ponies who were falling asleep during the song’s performance. Her eyelids were suddenly getting heavy, but she didn’t want to stop listening to the music yet.
“Twilight, wake up!” Rarity shouted.
The air suddenly became thick in the booth next to Amber’s and then fizzled and popped. Amber saw the flash of red light and suddenly she realized what Twilight just did and the threat of the situation she was now in. Amber stood up from the table and felt dizzy, her entire body was heavy but she pushed herself forward and looked at the table next to hers. Twilight and her friends were gone. They had teleported out of the building. Over half of the room was asleep, and the other half were so absorbed into the enchanting lullaby that Amber feared they would be the next ones to fall asleep.
Amber pushed herself to walk towards the door, and using her magic she grabbed the handle and pulled it open. Her legs were slow, her eyes heavy, but she trudged onward and out the front door. The second she was out the door, it slammed shut behind her and she gave into her wariness and fell to the ground eyes closed. For a moment she just lay there, the clip clopping sounds of hooves didn’t cause her to stir it was only when she heard Twilight’s voice did she actually open her eyes.
“Are you alright?” Twilight asked.
Amber felt some of her strength returning, but her head was still dizzy and she now wanted to finish her drink. She pushed herself up and looked down at the cloaked princess. Even though all she could see was Twilight’s muzzle, that was all she needed to see in order to know that Twilight was upset.
“I’m not going to ask, but if you’re who I think you are. Then you need to head home, now,” Twilight said. “We have a class B threat on our hooves and you don’t need to be here.”
“I can help too you know,” Amber argued.
Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed, “Whoa, that’s a mare! I thought that was a dude.”
“Rainbow Dash, please shut it,” Twilight said. “And you, go home, now!”
Amber stomped her hoof against the grass and said, “Fine, but don’t go inside until she’s done singing or whatever. That spell of hers is powerful.”
“I know, now go home before you get into anymore trouble,” Twilight said before turning to her friends and saying, “Okay everypony, we have three questions to answer first. One is that the real Sweetie Belle, two how is she doing this, and three why? Let’s move.”
The five ponies followed Twilight’s lead to the rear entrance of the building and disappeared from sight. After so many years of working with Twilight Sparkle, they didn’t question her methods or her orders unless they were extreme. Twilight had proven to be a very effective leader, and her friends, her citizens looked up to her but Amber wasn’t just a friend, nor was she just a citizen. Amber was an apprentice, which gave her a special right to at times disobey certain orders and stick her muzzle where it normally didn’t belong. Right now was one of the times
***
Amber recalled the list of spells that she had learned underneath the tutelage of Twilight Sparkle, and found just the spell needed for the situation. Her horn glowed and in an instant the world around her became deftly silent. This was a spell that was meant to be used on enemies, specifically ones that used hearing to find their targets, but right now it was working to keep Amber from hearing Sweetie Belle’s enchanting lullaby.
She opened the door and walked in slowly trying to make as little noise as possible. Not being able to hear her own hooves touching the wooden floor was concerning but she pressed onward. After the door closed behind her she instantly got the feeling that this might not have been such a good idea.
Everypony had fallen asleep by now, even the mare at the piano was asleep. Sweetie Belle continued to sing, as though she was in a trance. Dark purple light was being emitted from Sweetie’s horn and tied ethereal strings around the ponies who were asleep. Amber approached one of the sleeping ponies and nearly jumped back when for a mere second it opened its eyes, revealing a ghostly green light. Amber looked back at Sweetie Belle and despite the fear that was drowning her heart, she pressed onward.
She moved slowly and cautiously through the crowd. She began to hear a faint whispering sound, but as she looked around nopony was awake around her. Not to mention the fact that she couldn’t possibly be hearing anything due to the spell she had activated. She listened in to the whispering but it was strange, it was less like hearing the sound, and more like feeling it.
The closer she approached Sweetie Belle the louder the whispering became until she could began making out words. A dark and quiet voice was echoing in the back of her mind repeating several words in random but rapid succession.
“Dark, dark, blind, night, darkness, sleep, freedom, dark, night, blind, free, eternal, dark, release,” the voice was whispering.
Amber climbed up on stage and looked down at Sweetie Belle, Sweetie Belle’s eyes were closed and she looked almost asleep save for the fact that she was standing upright and singing. Amber unsure of what exactly to do decided to grab Sweetie by the shoulders and shake her. Suddenly Sweetie Belle stopped singing, her eyes opened and a dark purple mist seemed to cover them. The mist flew out of Sweetie’s eyes and the whispering became a howling shriek as the mist flowed up into the ceiling, circled around, and finally flew back towards the rear entrance. Sweetie Belle fainted and Amber was barely able to catch her in time.
Amber quickly released the spell that she had placed on herself, and helped Sweetie lay down while still holding onto her. Sweetie looked up at Amber Light and with her head being held by Amber’s forelegs let out a loud yawn.
“What happened? Where am I?” Sweetie Belle asked tiredly.
Amber gave her a reassuring smile and said, “You’re at The Tossed Horseshoe.”
“But… I was just taking a nap. Spike was sleeping and I thought that maybe I should try and get some sleep too, before the show. Why am I here?” Sweetie asked. Her eyes looked drowsy.
“You were singing a magically enchanted song and everypony started falling asleep, but I stopped you and well now you’re here,” Amber explained.
A loud ruckus from the rear entrance grabbed hold of the two ponies attentions and six cloaked ponies came walking in, one alicorn in particular was stomping her way towards Amber. Suddenly Amber pulled her legs back and scooted away from Twilight, Sweetie Belle’s head hit the floor and she let out a yelp.
“Sorry,” Amber apologized nervously while staring into the enraged eyes of Twilight Sparkle. Normally Amber would say something to try and calm down her teacher, but there was a new look in her eyes, something that Amber was not accustomed to seeing. Amber actually began fearing for her own safety while Twilight continued her approach, until she stopped next to Sweetie Belle.
“Are you okay, Sweetie?” Twilight asked flatly.
“Yeah, I think so. Twilight, why are you so angry?” Sweetie Belle asked worriedly.
Twilight didn’t look at her, instead choosing to stare down her apprentice and saying very slowly, “Somepony decided to disobey me, and now whatever was doing this just escaped.”
Amber suddenly couldn’t stand looking into Twilight’s eyes any longer and so she looked away saying quietly, “I just saved Sweetie Belle. But I dis-“
“NO!” Twilight shouted. “You are going home right now, I will decide what to do about you’re disobedience tomorrow, and until I do I’d appreciate it if you stay away from me. If you are just going to abuse my teaching and put yourself in danger like this then you will end up getting hurt. I am responsible for you, don’t you understand that?”
Amber pushed herself up slowly and said in a hurt tone, “Fine, I didn’t want to help out anyway.” Amber turned around and walked away.
The last thing she heard as she left the building was Rarity saying, “Twilight, don’t you think that you were a little hard on her just now?”
***
Back at home Amber climbed into her window. She tossed her cloak onto the floor and shut the window. She wiped the tears away from her eyes but they just kept coming. After climbing into bed she grabbed a plushy of a pink pony with a blond mane and held it close. Amber Light cried softly, she didn’t know that Twilight would get so mad at her. Whatever Amber had wanted to do, the last thing would’ve been to make Twilight so angry. It wasn’t fair though, Twilight was fighting dragons, and Discord, and all kinds of things when she was younger, why couldn’t Amber do the same?
Amber sniffled and squeezed harder onto the plushy and said, “Why can’t I be good enough for her? I just want her to be proud of me.” She picked the doll up and looked it in its button eyes and asked, “Sophie, what’s wrong with me?” Of course the Sophie doll wouldn’t respond but she still felt better holding it. Amber rolled over and closed her eyes, whatever happened tomorrow would happen and nothing Amber did could stop it. Sleep was a hard won battle that night, but she finally conquered it and fell into the black void where dreams waited for ponies to come and visit.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Seven: Shocking Lesson
Chapter Seven: Shocking Lesson
Passing the Torch
Light shined blissfully through the window casting its brilliance over the small room. Amber however didn’t care for the light and covered her head with her blanket in a feudal attempt to drown out the brightness. It took only moments for her to realize that there were voices coming from the kitchen right outside her door. She groaned and threw off the covers but kept the Sophie doll next to her as she let her eyes adjust to the lighting.
Amber listened in and didn’t make much of an effort to actually get out of bed, instead she chose to attempt to try and figure out who was here. After a few moments she realized exactly who it was and she moaned with displeasure at the thought of seeing ‘her’ this early.
It took some effort but she eventually made her way out of the bed while still holding the Sophie doll in her mouth. It might not have any actual use, but it did make her feel more comfortable whenever she was in trouble. Amber slowly opened her door and walked out into the hallway leading in to the small kitchen/dining room.
Amber didn’t give any heed to the ponies that were sitting at the table drinking coffee. What Amber did do was grab a cup and fill it full of the leftover pot of coffee, she then sat down at the table and set the Sophie doll upright before taking a few unwilling sips of her black drink.
“Good morning, Amber,” Twilight said gently. Amber just glared at her before returning to her drink, Twilight took that as a sign to keep going. “Look, I’m sorry about my attitude from yesterday. I care for you and I just don’t want to see you get hurt, that’s all. I’ve been talking to your mom and maybe it is time that I start trusting you a little more… will you forgive me?”
Amber was surprised to hear such a kind apology from Twilight, and even better the hope of getting to do dangerous stuff at Twilight’s side was filling Amber’s heart with joy. Amber sat up straight and very quickly said, “Of course I forgive you!”
Twilight smiled softly at Amber’s quick change of attitude. Trixie clapped her hooves together and said, “I’m so glad to see that you two have made up. Now if you’ll excuse me class is starting soon. I’ll see you when I get home, Amber.”
With that said Trixie stood up from the table and left. Amber never enjoyed how early her mom would leave; Amber almost never got to spend the morning with her mom. Amber stared longingly at the front door hoping that maybe just maybe Trixie would be able to stay home today. Twilight caught the look in Amber’s eyes and stood up from the table.
“So I promised to teach you some non-lethal combat spells today, right? Why don’t we head out?” Twilight suggested.
Amber let out a sigh and said, “They never have time for me.”
Twilight’s face began to frown and Amber let out a practiced sigh before saying, “Okay, let’s go do something fun.”
***
The old library was where Twilight and Amber were spending most of their time that day. Twilight was sitting in the first floor and reading up on a series of books that she had told Amber would be beneficial to today’s lesson. Amber on the other hoof was spending her time playing with the various knickknacks that lined the shelves next to the front entrance. Sure Amber could have chosen to read, but reading was typically boring unless it was fiction of course.
Amber decided to ask a question that she had been wondering for awhile now. “So I have a question.”
“What’s on your mind?” Twilight asked while flipping a page in her book.
Amber was examining a particular picture of a pony sized dragon standing proudly next to Rarity while holding a tiny white foal in his arms. “You told me once that this tree was destroyed by Lord Tirek, but you also told me that the chandelier in your castle was actually made from this tree… so how exactly did you re-grow it?”
“This tree left a seed behind when it exploded. After we noticed something beginning to grow from the ashes of this place a few years after its destruction I realized exactly what it was. It took some help from the other princess’s and then some scolding from Celestia after she explained that she could have rebuilt it for me sooner, but the new tree was grown. And it resembles the old one fairly closely,” Twilight explained.
Amber set the picture back down and said, “So this is actually a new tree, you didn’t actually re-grow the old one?”
“Well… yes your right. But it looks so much like my old tree and even feels like it. I can’t really explain it but it’s like I can feel the life of this tree, and just as much as you or Spike this tree is part of my family. Applejack could explain the feeling this place gives off better than I can, but then again she is an earth pony so she has a better connection to nature then I ever could,” Twilight said with her nose stuck firmly in her book.
Amber Light stood up and opened her mouth to ask something else when suddenly the door swung open and a cloaked pony walked in. The pony had white fur and the cloak they wore was light blue with a diamond pattern embroidered into it. The cloaked pony walked up to Twilight and a soft mare’s voice spoke saying, “Um… grandma, Twilight.”
Twilight Sparkle smiled brightly and said, “Yes, Jade.”
“I um… can I stay here for a while?” Jade asked quietly.
“Sure you can. If you want you can join in our lesson, we’re about to learn about non-lethal combat spells,” Twilight said calmly.
“Oh… I wouldn’t want to be a bother to anypony,” Jade said before looking back at Amber Light. A single green eye could be seen shining from underneath the hood. The sight gave Amber Light an uneasy feeling and she quickly looked away from the strange eye.
“You won’t be a bother to anypony, I promise. Now why don’t you find somewhere nice to sit,” Twilight said while levitating out a bowl of gems from off the shelf behind her. “And take these with you, I’m sure that you’re starving.”
Jade grabbed the edge of the bowl with her sharp teeth and walked into one of the corners of the room before sitting down. Amber watched in curiosity as Jade stuck out a long split tongue, wrapped it around a large green gem and brought it back into her mouth. Amber could scarcely believe it as Jade began chewing on the gem as though it was merely hay.
“So do you just keep a bowl of gems around all the time?” Amber asked.
“Of course I do, she’s the closest thing that I’m ever going to have to a granddaughter so why shouldn’t I?” Twilight said proudly.
Amber gave Twilight a funny look and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
With sudden enthusiasm Twilight smiled widely and said, “It’s time to teach you a new spell.”
Although it was blatantly obvious that Twilight was hiding something from the young unicorn, Amber chose not to pursue this topic at the moment. If the issue was as serious as Amber imagined then when Twilight did sit down to talk about it, tears would surely follow.
Amber stood up and shook off the odd feeling she got from the quiet pony thing eating in the corner. Amber looked back at Twilight and said, “That sounds fun.”
Twilight let out an uncomfortable moan as she stood up from her spot on the floor. “My legs seem to be in disagreement with me today. Alright I’ll begin teaching you.”
Twilight walked to the center of the room and sat down one of the books she had been reading on a table and said, “Okay this spell is something that you’re mother actually learned at a fairly early age. It’s called Shocking Grasp and should prove effective at stopping your opponent without killing them… or maiming them for life.”
“So,” Amber asked while she opened the book, “What level of spell is this?”
“Does that matter?”
It didn’t take long to find the spells location and Amber deflated a little. “Oh… it’s only a level one spell. That’s a little simple isn’t it?”
“This spell is actually around your skill level, Amber. I already taught you one higher level spell and it took a long time for you to get a hang of it, or don’t you remember?”
Amber let out a sigh. “Fine, I’ll learn the spell so long as it will help me defend my friends.”
“This spell will do a wonderful job. I promise.”
***
Almost an hour had passed and numerous attempts at practicing the new spell had all gone without much success. At first Amber could barely manage a spark from her horn, and at most she ended up shocking herself. The point of the spell was to channel an electrical current through her body and then to transfer it to her target. After all the attempts Amber was left on the floor in a weakened state and her horn throbbing with intense pain.
“Would you care to try it once more?” Twilight asked as she stood proudly before Amber.
Amber hated lying on the hard wood floor like this. She knew that she was too weak to properly learn magic, and she hated it. She cursed and said, “No, I would not like to try it again. I think that I’m working up a nose bleed from all this practice.”
With a gently touch Twilight brushed back Amber’s mane with a wing tip. A kind smile was worn on Twilight’s face. Amber growled and looked away.
“Oh come on. I know that it’s hard to learn new magic but you don’t need to be angry about it,” Twilight said.
Anger was a part of Amber Light’s life and right now that anger was focused on her own inability to learn simple spells. She closed her eyes and said lamely, “I’m failing you…”
“You are not failing me. You have always had a hard time using magic, even more then I did at your age. I know it’s not fair, I used to be jealous of how easy it was for your mom to learn new spells when I was a teenager,” Twilight said softly.
“My mom is still not as good as you are…”
“Your mother has the ability to pick up and learn new tricks easily, mastering them however was difficult for her. If she had spent even half the time I did in practicing her magic then she could have been more powerful than me. Of course with her having the same issue that you do, she would have only hurt herself in practice.” When Twilight finished speaking she laid down in front of Amber.
“Ugh, why does my horn hate me?” Amber grumbled.
“It’s a birth defect, nothing too serious though. We can try this again tomorrow if you wish.”
With tired eyes Amber looked up at her teacher and said quietly, “I think that might be for the best. Maybe I can go bother some of my friends.”
“Or you could hang out with Jade?”
Amber looked at the cloaked pony in the corner and noticed that Jade had long since removed her hood. Half of the white pony’s face was hidden behind a short green mane and the one eye that was visible was clearly not normal. Jade’s eye was much more reptilian than anything resembling a ponies eye, and when Jade licked her lips she revealed a row of frighteningly sharp teeth.
Jade looked suddenly at the two ponies staring at her and her face began turning a light shade of pink. She quickly through the hood up and over her face and said, “P-p-please don’t stare.”
“I… uh… what should I do with her?” Amber asked in a whisper.
“Just hang out with her, she doesn’t have any friends and I think this could be a wonderful experience for you,” Twilight whispered back.
Amber stood up slowly and attempted to ignore her aching muscles. “Hey, Jade. Wanna hang out with me?”
Jade looked at her from beneath her hood and Amber caught the tiny smile that grew on the strange ponies lips. “Do you really mean it?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun.”
Jade stood up quickly and walked over to the three. Jade’s smile was a little frightening with all those sharp teeth but at the same time it was somehow very friendly looking. Although Amber was unsure of what exactly the two would be doing, she figured that dragging Jade around town with her couldn’t be too bad. Maybe she could introduce Jade to Sophie and Hushpuppy, those two would probably love the strange little pony.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Eight: The Hybrid
Chapter Eight: The Hybrid
Passing the Torch
Things were moving slow again today, but at the very least Amber was finally free of her training with Princess Twilight Sparkle. Amber’s new friend followed alongside quietly. The cloak that Jade wore to cover up her face and body, only served to make her stand out more. The looks that some ponies gave the two, Amber didn’t like them at all.
It was one thing when the town was expecting great things from Amber, or wanting to exploit her connections. It was another thing entirely when they looked at you with distrust. It was no wonder Jade never left her home, if this was how everypony treated her on a regular basis. It sickened Amber to no end, and to think that she was once the very same as those ponies was even worse. Somehow Amber was going to make up for the way she treated Jade in the past.
Amber’s first goal in trying to befriend the quiet pony by her side was a simple one; introduce Jade to all of her closest friends. The second part was going to be much harder, avoiding Blackout. There weren’t many days that went by without at least one meeting, with the sour pegasus.
“So, jade,” Amber began, “What do you like doing for fun?”
It took a moment for Jade to answer but she finally said, “I like to collect gems. I try not to eat the rare ones.”
“You and my other parent would get along so well.”
“Other parent? Isn’t it just you and um… Trixie, right?”
Amber Light exhaled deeply. “No, my mom has a lover… but it doesn’t matter because she’s always gone, out doing some stupid geological expedition or something dumb like that. Why should I care if it’s their money that keeps the house going, their never around when I need them,” Amber explained, with a little more truth then she had meant to.
“Oh, I see. I’m sorry,” Jade replied quietly.
In an attempt to brighten the mood, Amber said, “It’s cool. You know what else is cool? My friend Sophie is cool.”
Amber looked around and saw the pink bubbly earth pony, bouncing along the road with a saddle bag. Spirits were always lifted when Sophie was around. Amber quickened her pace.
“Hey, Sophie, what’s up?” Amber said coolly.
Sophie’s smile widened on Amber’s approach, this was the only warning that Amber would receive. With one mighty bound, Sophie leapt into the air and landed on top of Amber’s back while shouting. “Cousin! What are you doing here?”
“I’m just walking around town with our newest friend, Jade.” Amber said, while motioning towards the cloaked pony that was standing some ways away.
Thankfully Sophie hopped off of Amber’s back and trotted over to Jade with glee.
“Hi, I’m Sophie. My interests include sewing, playing pretend, and riding my trusty steed, her name is Amber.”
“I am not your steed.”
“Like I said, my trusty steed.”
Jade looked confused. After a moment of silence Jade licked her lips and offered up a meek greeting. “My name is Jade. I like gems… and books.”
“Oh, is that so?” Amber inclined. “Well I have a few of those back at my house. What kind of books do you read?”
“Science mostly, I’ve been reading up on biology a lot lately.”
“Oh, that’s neat,” Sophie said playfully. Sophie leaned into Amber Light’s ear and whispered, “What’s biology?”
“The study of living things. Twilight tried getting me to understand it and my brain died,” Amber explained.
“So that’s how it happened,” Sophie said, referring to Amber’s dead brain.
“Hey, it was a joke.”
“Yeah, your brain was kinda a joke wasn’t it. Well I has more important things to do right now, then talk about useless brains,” Sophie joked.
“Oh yeah, and what’s that?”
“I have a stuffed animal appreciation club meeting to go to. Also mom is making me join another one of those animal rights meetings afterwards… their always so weird at those things, and I’m not allowed to eat any of the food. Tree Hugger always brings brownies and mom won’t let me eat them, it’s not fair…” Sophie complained.
Amber let out a sigh, it looked like one of her usual party members was gone for the entire night. But there was one other she could easily find.
“Where’s Hush?”
“Hushy is over at the park. He’s being all like, boring, and weird again. I don’t like it when he’s weird.”
Amber smiled at Sophie. “He might be a weirdo, but he’s our weirdo. I’ll go check up on him for ya. I’ve got to introduce our new friend to everypony after all.”
“Kay, I’ll see ya laters,” Sophie said, with great excitement as she began bouncing away. Amber was still not entirely sure how a pony could bounce on all fours like that.
Amber couldn’t help but look back at Jade and smile. The timid mare had hardly said a word since they left, but Amber had a feeling that she could break through Jade’s shell. Maybe Hushpuppy, being the resident quiet pony, could help get Jade to be more confident. It was time to go and meet the dark one.
***
Ponyville park wasn’t much to look at. There was a lake, a bridge over a stream leading the lake, a few benches and a couple of trees. It wasn’t very big, but considering the luscious fields that surrounded all of Ponyville, they didn’t have any real need for a park. It was usually just a place to hang out at. There was one more thing in the park though, there was a gazebo, and considering the poor shape it was in, Amber didn’t trust it.
This is why Amber felt a little nervous when walking under the gazebo, because as usual Hushpuppy was hanging out in the gazebo. Jade followed as Amber’s silent guardian. Hushpuppy had a little journal with him. He was writing his deepest thoughts into the book, Amber marveled at how he could write so proficiently with his mouth.
Since Hushpuppy had failed to notice Amber, she decided to have a little fun. She leaned in over his shoulder and said, “Wow, that’s pretty good.”
Much to Amber’s amusement, Hushpuppy jolted upright and slammed the book shut. He looked at Amber Light with fear ridden eyes and said, “T-t-this is just practice. It’s nothing really.”
“Oh yeah? Then what is it, really?” Amber turned his words against him.
Hushpuppy looked away shyly as he muttered, “It’s… just a thing...”
“Hushpuppy,” Amber said, gaining his attention. “This is Jade. She’s our newest friend, and I think it would be cool if you shared some of your work with her. You like poetry, right, Jade?”
“Sure?” Jade replied nervously.
“Good, let’s hear some. Lay it on me?” Amber said, while lying down on her belly.
“I’m not writing poetry right now. Besides it’s not even finished… Actually I don’t think it will be finished. The world is too miserable for me to get away with something like this.”
“Oh, really, it must be good. Let me hear it.”
Hushpuppy released a long sigh; he knew that he wasn’t getting out of this. There was no arguing with Amber Light once she set her mind on something, and right now her mind was on hearing Hushpuppy’s new work.
He cleared his throat and spoke in a gentle voice. “The world is so cold, with no place to guide me. I found myself lost in the desperate attempt to escape the dark’s suffocating grasp. Yet as I stood on the precipice of disaster, overlooking my own end, I saw the faintest of light in the setting of the sun.
“A small glimmer of hope came to me as I stared longingly into her dark blue mane, her eyes sparkled with a radiance that I had never seen. All of the world’s darkness, for a moment, seemed far away as she smiled at me, and then she was gone. Her coat mixed in with the twilight sky, and she vanished from sight. Yet, I knew that I might see her again, and if I could only glimpse at that beauty one more time, I could fight against the darkness a little longer.”
“Um, what was that?” Amber asked politely. It certainly wasn’t his usual poetry, it sounded much more like a story of some sort, romance maybe.
Jade actually smiled at him and said, “You do know that she has a marefriend… don’t you?”
Hushpuppy’s face turned red and he looked away. “You don’t know that. Twi- er, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Wait, did you just-“ Amber began.
“SHUT IT!” Hushpuppy interrupted.
Jade shrank back a little from the shout. Hushpuppy saw her fear and quickly looked ashamed of himself. He shook his head slowly and spoke gently, “I didn’t mean to yell. I just don’t want to talk about this okay.”
Jade didn’t reply, neither did she relax.
Hushpuppy looked away shamefully. “I really didn’t mean it… please, don’t be upset.”
Jade relaxed a little bit, and Hushpuppy glanced at her with nervous eyes. He smiled softly.
Amber butted in. “Hey, Hushpuppy, don’t worry about us judging you or anything. I was just wanting to introduce Jade is all.”
Hushpuppy looked at Amber, and for a brief moment Amber caught a look of pain in his eyes. She knew that she needed to push him a little, in order to figure out what his deal was.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’ll get mad at me…”
“What’s wrong? I won’t ask a third time.”
“Promise me that you won’t be angry.”
Amber glared at him for a moment then relaxed. “I Pinkie Pie Promise, that I won’t do anything bad, no matter what you say.”
Hushpuppy’s response came so quickly that she barely caught it. “I’m in love with your teacher!”
For a moment Amber stared at him in utter silence and then to everyponies shock, Amber broke out into a fit of hideous laughter. It took a few minutes before she could calm down enough to explain. “I’ve known about that for ages. Seriously, who did you think you were kidding. Even Twilight could pick up on it, and she’s dense. Besides she’s already dating somepony in secret, albeit it’s not a very well kept secret.”
Hushpuppy looked a little disappointed.
“Oh don’t worry, I’ll just lock you and Colors up in a room sometime. You won’t walk straight for a week afterwards,” Amber half joked, because she wasn’t sure if Color Splash would really control herself around Hushpuppy if given that opportunity.
Now it was Hushpuppy’s turn to hide from plain sight as she shrunk back into his jackets hood. Clearly Amber was on a winning streak with embarrassing the poor earth pony. She decided to stop teasing him and get some more information from him.
“Where is Color Splash at?”
“Why would I know?”
“Because you two are actually pretty close friends, all jokes aside.”
Hushpuppy was quiet for a moment before he admitted, “She’s at Rarity’s doing some detail work on a sign for her. Apparently Color Splash is getting paid this time.”
“Good, then that’s where we shall go.” Amber stood up and energetically said, “Come on, Jade. Let’s go say hi to your mom.”
***
The boutique was pretty normal, save for the new sign out front that showed a picture of a pony being devoured by a monstrous dress. Clearly, Color Splash was already at work. Amber Light stepped inside and found exactly what she expected to see; a pissed off Rarity staring down Color Splash’s muzzle.
“Fix it,” Rarity demanded.
“But it’s a work of art, you can’t fix art,” Color Splash tried to defend.
“I don’t care, it makes me look bad. Now fix it!”
“It’s a representation of how a pony could become so easily devoured by the world of fashion that it ruins them. Fashion is a monster disguised as a pretty dress.”
Rarity stomped her hoof into the floor and growled. “I do not care. Fix it now. I paid you to fix my old sign, not destroy it.”
Color Splash let out a huff and turned around. “Fine, I thought that my work would go unappreciated, that’s why I also did that one there.” Color Splash pointed a hoof to another wooden sign, this one covered by a white sheet.
Rarity stomped over to the sign, gently pulled the sheet off with her magic, and froze. A wide smile grew over her lips, and her eyes sparkled with delight.
The sign was very nicely painted, with blue trim. The image of Sweetie Belle wearing one of Rarity’s dresses was on it. There was something majestic about the way Sweetie Belle looked, almost as though Color Splash had managed to put the real Sweetie Belle into the painting.
Rarity looked back, pleased. “You made the other one just to tease me didn’t you?”
“Hey there’s no rules against an artist having a sense of humor,” Color Splash replied, with a shrug.
Finally both Color Splash and Rarity noticed the two new ponies watching them. Amber waved a hoof at them, Jade shrunk back.
Rarity frowned for a moment before saying, “Thank you for walking my little Jade back home, Amber.”
“Pfft, no problem. We’re friends now, so it’s cool. Oh and Color Splash, Jade’s our newest friend,” Amber said.
Shocked, Rarity could only stare in amazement at Amber.
Color Splash smiled and said, “That’s nice. We’ll have to get together at the club house sometime. First off I need to get some supplies.”
“Wait, is that why you’re doing commissions again? To get money for our project?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, next I’m going to do something for The Princess herself. Should be fun.”
Rarity finally pulled herself together and jumped into the conversation. “You said you were friends with my Jade? My daughter, Jade?”
“Um, yes. Is that so weird?”
Rarity galloped over and flung her forelegs around Amber Light, which was a bit awkward considering how much taller Amber was then Rarity. “Thank you, Amber. Thank you.”
Amber returned the embrace and said, “I couldn’t help it. Jade’s pretty cool. Aren’t you, Jade?”
Jade shrunk down a little. “Not really…”
“I’ll have to work on her self confidence, but aside from that, she’s awesome,” Amber said happily.
Rarity finally let go and smiled. “Ok, well you two have fun. I’m going to put this new sign out front and get rid of that nasty old one.”
Color Splash and Rarity left together, and that left Amber and Jade alone. Or so they thought. When a purple dragon, nearly as tall as Color Splash, stepped out from the kitchen, both ponies jumped slightly. Spike smiled at the ponies, showing off his sharp teeth.
“I heard that my daughter made a new friend?” Spike asked.
Amber nodded. Spike didn’t scare her, mostly because of all the time she’s spent with him. After all it was Spike that introduced Amber to comic books. Being Twilight’s student also forced Amber into a position where she had to get to know the dragon on a personal level.
“So, who wants nachos?” Spike asked, his tongue flicked out hungrily.
Spike’s nachos were famous in Ponyville for being the best. After a particular interview with The Princess of Friendship, ponies would come down to Ponyville from all across Equestria, several times a year trying to purchase his recipe or simply to try out the nachos for themselves. Spike made a modest fortune off of this trade, although his recipe did require a dragon’s fire, so nopony could truly replicate it.
Both ponies instantly shouted in excitement, “ME!”
That was all Spike needed to hear before running off into the kitchen. Having the world’s best nachos, and gaining a new friend, all in one day. Life was kind to the tall unicorn.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Nine: Family Reunion
Chapter Nine: Family Reunion
Passing the Torch
It was getting dark outside before Amber Light finally began walking home. Hanging out with Jade had been fun, and having a new friend left her feeling happy. It might’ve been late but Amber was sure that her mother wouldn’t mind after learning about the new friend she had made today.
The lights coming from inside the house were so inviting, and the porch light greeted Amber offering safety for the night. Amber couldn’t wait to walk in but something was off about the porch. Usually there was a gray ribbon tied to the awning post, something that Amber’s mother set out in hopes that her lover would return safely. The ribbon was taken down whenever said pony came back. The ribbon was gone.
The urge to turn around now, go to Twilight’s and spend the night hit Amber Light like a speeding train. Before Amber could even turn around though, the front door swung open and Trixie stared happily at Amber.
“Come on in, Amber,” Trixie said energetically.
Even if Amber hated her other parent, she did have to admit that seeing Trixie’s happy face was important to her. With very heavy steps Amber followed her mother inside.
“I made a new friend today,” Amber said, in an attempt to distract herself.
Trixie giggled. “That’s great, you can tell us all about it over dinner. But first you need to give your other mother a hug.”
Amber growled. Tonight was going to suck eggs, and there was nothing she could do to make it better. Trixie led Amber into the living room where Amber saw two ponies sitting on the couch. Pinkie Pie sat on the closest end holding a cup of tea and smiling brightly as ever. Next to Pinkie Pie sat a gray earth pony with a purple mane done in a style very similar to Twilight’s, and she stared at Amber with a bored expression.
“Amber Light, we were just talking about you,” Pinkie said, with enthusiasm.
“Oh yeah, I bet there was a lot of energy in that conversation, especially from Maud,” Amber said sarcastically, while giving a sour look to the gray mare.
“I heard you’re studies with Princess Twilight are going well,” Maud said, her dull blue eyes stared blankly at Amber.
It was unnerving for other ponies to see Maud’s emotionless expression, but for Amber it only made her angry. She couldn’t understand why one of her parents couldn’t even smile for their daughter, especially when they were gone most of the time on business trips. Maud had the full range of emotions that anypony else did, and she was intelligent enough to hold a conversation with Trixie at an equal level, so why couldn’t Maud just show her love for once?
Amber stomped in and sat on the couch opposite of Maud. Trixie joined her. Things weren’t quiet for long as Trixie and Pinkie began talking. Both Maud and Amber sat in perfect silence, staring at each other with flat expressions. It wouldn’t have been so awkward if Maud only said something.
Finally when Trixie was done explaining her day at the magic school she looked at Amber and said, “Why don’t you tell us about what Twilight’s been tutoring you on lately?”
Amber smiled evilly, this gave her a chance to get a response from Maud. “Oh, I set a pony on fire. So Twilight’s teaching me how to use non lethal spells.”
Maud’s expression didn’t change, but she did look at Trixie. “Is that true?”
A shameful look came into Trixie’s eyes and she looked away. “Y-yes it is. But Amber was just trying to protect her friend from a bully. Nothing bad happened, and Blackout is okay…”
“You lied to me,” Maud said flatly.
Trixie’s ears folded back. “I didn’t lie, everything worked out just fine.”
“You told me that there were no problems. This is a problem,” Maud said, her serious tone made Trixie frown.
“I’m sorry… I guess you’re right, but we’re working on it…” Trixie said lamely.
Maud closed her eyes and released a shallow breath. “I’m going to stay home for a while. You make enough income for us to survive without me doing anymore geological surveys.”
Amber looked at Trixie, and then at Maud. She couldn’t help but to exclaim, “What? How long are going to stay for?”
Maud looked at Amber with dull eyes and explained, “Three years.”
Amber’s jaw hit the floor and her mind raced. Maud was planning on staying until she was eighteen! This was the exact opposite of what she had wanted to have happen.
“You can’t do that? You can’t just stay here? You have to go out and leave for your work!” Amber said, her panic was taking over.
Trixie nudged Amber in the shoulder and said gently, “When you say it like that, it sounds like you don’t want her here with us.”
Amber opened her mouth, but wisely chose to hold her tongue. Sure she didn’t like the idea of Maud being around all the time, but she knew how badly it would hurt Trixie if she voiced her opinion. Amber gave it a moment and saw the odd look in her aunt’s eyes and realized that Pinkie was catching on.
To divert Pinkie’s attention, Amber said lamely, “I’m glad your home. I was just worried about what we would do for money…”
“I can work for Pinkie Pie if we need the extra money,” Maud explained.
That settled it, Maud was back and this time she was here to stay. Amber felt like her entire little world was going to change now, with Maud actually living here things would never be the same. Now resigned to her new fate she could only hope for the best.
***
When dinner was served Amber and Maud stayed quiet, while Pinkie and Trixie continued speaking loudly. Amber was sitting next to Maud this time, leaving her feeling very awkward. The stew was pretty decent but good food in bad company didn’t make for an okay meal.
“So today one of my students got their horn stuck in a pencil sharpener,” Trixie said as though it was completely normal. “Pulling him free was tiring to say the least.”
Pinkie Pie nearly bounced in her seat and said, “Oh that’s nothing, today I caught Hushpuppy trying to bake cookies, he started a fire.”
Trixie gave a serious look at Pinkie Pie and then grinned. “Oh, but last week I had a student get lost on a field trip in the Everfree forest.”
Pinkie Pie actually bounced this time. “Sophie got lost in the Everfree with a baby bunny rabbit.”
Amber let out a frustrated sigh, these two were at it again. There was always some kind of contest going on between Trixie and Pinkie when it came to telling stories. Amber looked at Maud and saw the faintest curl of the stoic pony’s lips, almost like a smile. That dug into Amber’s skin. She wondered how Maud could smile at these two acting like foals, but not at her daughter’s success.
Maud looked over at Amber and the almost smile disappeared. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Amber replied.
Amber looked at Trixie who was holding a fork with one hoof and waving it about. “I had to fight off the spiders with nothing but my magic to guide me, and because of the curse my magic was slowly killing me!”
Pinkie rolled her eyes. “The bugbear was destroying Ponyville, and after Rainbow Dash was injured I was left alone to vanquish the beast with cake! Cake is not a great weapon mind you… unless you’re at a party, then it’s the best weapon.”
Hearing these two tell their silly stories was getting annoying. Amber took another bite of her food followed by a sip of her drink. Unfortunately it wasn’t mead. A gentle hoof found its place on Amber’s shoulder prompting Amber to look at the hoof’s owner.
“What is it, Maud?” Amber asked bitterly.
“I did something to hurt you. What did I do?” Maud asked.
Amber looked away while brushing the hoof away from her. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me.”
Amber growled. “You couldn’t fix all the times you weren’t there for me, or mom, no matter what you do. It’s not like time travel is real.”
Maud looked down at her own bowl of food. “I’m sorry, Amber. I had to work, we needed the money.”
“No, we needed a family,” Amber said angrily.
Amber looked up and saw both Pinkie and Trixie standing on their hind legs and staring at one another.
“I had to travel to another world and defeat an evil Celestia while helping out a good version of King Sombra,” Pinkie Pie declared.
Trixie spread her forelegs apart and in a powerful voice said, “I became an alicorn of darkness, and struck down the stallion who murdered my father. Then I went to take out our Princess Celestia and-“
Amber had finally had enough of everypony pretending everything was normal. She stood up and shouted, “SHUT UP!”
The two mares stopped telling their grandiose lies and focused on Amber Light. Amber walked away from the table, and looked at the door, and then back to Trixie. She couldn’t stay here tonight, not with Maud pretending to be a part of this family.
“You two are standing there and acting like nothing is wrong. Well something is wrong, and I can’t ignore it any longer,” Amber Light said. Her voice was level, but her anger was on the rise.
Trixie and Pinkie went back onto all fours. Trixie trotted up to Amber Light and asked in a quiet voice, “What’s wrong?”
Amber Light couldn’t believe how Trixie could simply act like everything was normal. So she explained bitterly, “You already know what’s wrong. She’s never here for us, especially when we need her, when you need her! I hear you sobbing sometimes, sobbing because she’s not around. If Maud really loved us, she wouldn’t just abandon us like th-“
The series of loud knocks at the front door silenced Amber and killed her rant. Everypony else was quiet, confused, and didn’t move. For a few moments nothing happened, but when there was a second round of knocking at the door, Amber took the lead and answered the door.
After opening the door Amber was overjoyed to see Twilight Sparkle standing behind it. Twilight looked very nervous and timidly waved a hoof at Amber saying, “Hi, I just came by to see if you wanted to help me out now?”
Amber gave one look at Trixie, she saw the pain in Trixie’s eyes, the pain that was surely caused by Maud. Amber didn’t ask, she demanded, “I’m going to spend the night at Twilight’s house. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As Amber walked out past Twilight she noticed the confused look on the princess’s face. Twilight seemed to quickly recover and looked at Trixie with sad eyes. “I’ll take care of her tonight… you two take care of, well, whatever it is that’s wrong.” Twilight turned to face Amber and said, “You can still stay the night with me, but if you don’t feel up for helping me tonight then we can find something else to do.”
“No, I need to help you. Maybe I can actually be important for once,” Amber said. She looked at the moon and the stars in the dark sky. Tonight was going to be long, but she was thankful that Twilight had come to get her out of this situation.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Ten: Night Stalker
Chapter Ten: Night Stalker
Passing the Torch
Chapter Ten: Night Stalker
Written by TheCrimsonDM
The night was unusually still, and too cold for this time of year. It didn’t help that Amber could sense something was watching her, she looked around nervously. Twilight Sparkle smiled at her kindly.
“Amber, are you alright?” Twilight asked.
The shadows were deep, and everything felt dangerous. Although Amber couldn’t put her hoof down on what was wrong, she could sense that something was amiss. The quiet night air left her listening to Twilight’s soft breathing, which was comforting to hear.
After not being able to pinpoint what was wrong, Amber let out a frustrated sigh. “No, I’m not alright. Maud is home for good, and my mom began telling her egregious lies again. Alicorn of darkness, what the hay is that anyway?”
Twilight giggled, the sound made the cold night feel a bit warmer. “Oh, that... Well I can tell you that she was never an alicorn of darkness, nor did she ever ‘take out’ Celestia. She’s just telling stories again, but after what I heard Pinkie saying, I can’t really blame her.”
“Yeah and about that, did Pinkie Pie really go into another dimension and fight an evil Celestia?”
Twilight looked away and smiled softly. “It’s a little more complicated than that…”
“Ok, wow…” Amber said. You know on second thought, maybe I don’t actually want to know what all Pinkie was up too.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” Twilight asked. Amber nodded and Twilight continued. “You don’t like Maud, that much is obvious even to me. But why?”
Amber looked away. “She’s never home. If she wanted to be part of this family, she would’ve been here more often, right?”
Twilight’s movements slowed down a little and she lost pace with Amber. Amber was forced to slow down to match her pace. There was a sadness in Twilight’s eyes, one that Amber had rarely seen.
“Amber,” Twilight said softly, her voice just above a whisper. “You do know that Maud loves you, right?”
Why is she acting like she was the one hurt by this. It’s Maud who should be sad, not Twilight. Ugh, I didn’t want to make her upset.
“If she loved me she’d show it,” Amber grumbled.
Twilight made a croaking noise, and Amber stopped dead in her tracks. Twilight looked back at her with wet, glossy eyes. “You know she has a hard time showing emotions, she’s never really gotten past it.”
Amber looked away. So what if she can’t show emotions. She could at least pretend too.
“Amber.”
Amber closed her eyes. Her heart was beginning to ache, and she couldn’t bare to look into Twilight’s eyes any longer. A gentle hoof rested against Amber’s shoulder, and for a moment Amber froze, but then she gave in and rested against it. Twilight leaned in and embraced Amber, it was a little awkward considering Amber’s height.
“I hope she’s not crying right now, it’s always so hard to watch.”
“My mom cries all the time, especially when she misses Maud.”
“I wasn’t talking about Trixie…”
Amber pulled away. “Maud can cry?”
Twilight stared at her with those sad purple eyes and nodded. “And she’s always so quiet, it’s… it’s heart wrenching.”
Shame, guilt, and pain built up in Amber’s heart. She couldn’t help but to look away. It was too late to go home, if she wanted to be taken seriously, she’d need to stay away for the night at least, but she knew that tomorrow would be another day… and considering how much Maud meant to Trixie, it would only be right to make things up to Maud. It’s hard being the adult sometimes.
***
It didn’t take long before the pair arrived at the Golden Oaks Library, and went inside. It was dark inside and Amber stood patiently by the front door as Twilight made her way deeper inside, using the light from her horn to see by. It didn’t take long for Twilight to find some candles and light them. With the interior lit up by the flickering orange light, Twilight got to work on pulling books off of the shelves, she floated a few of them over to Amber, they landed with a dull thud at her hooves.
“So,” Amber asked feeling a little confused, “What are we doing?”
“Research and you get to help me,” Twilight said excitedly.
Amber let out a sigh and laid down. Why did I think that I’d get to do anything more?
“And after we do our research, when we discover what this threat is, we can defeat it. Together.”
Amber looked up at her teacher and stared in disbelief. Did she really just offer to let me help defeat a monster? A monster?
Twilight smiled back at her before pulling open one of the books and focusing on it. “Remember, we don’t know when this thing will strike again. It could even be in Ponyville tonight… we need to stop it.”
Amber nodded curtly and began reading the top most book at her hooves. This was actually one of Twilight’s bestiaries, one of the ones she had written during her years of living in Ponyville. Amber wondered why Twilight would give her this book if she had already known about all of these villains, but perhaps Twilight was worried she had missed something that another set of eyes could easily find.
Inside the book she found many different types of monsters that could easily be dismissed, all of whom Twilight had fought at one point or another. As she skimmed through the book she found the likely target, but it made her uneasy. Staring at the picture of a dark mist, and reading the title made her cringe with memories of the scary stories that she had been told during her childhood.
“Twilight,” Amber asked nervously. “What exactly do you know about the Tantabus?”
The book Twilight was reading slipped free from her grasp and slammed against the wooden floor, she looked back at Amber, with wide eyes. For a moment there was not a peep from either of them. The darkness just out reach of the candles felt thick, like an inky blackness. Amber could scarcely believe that there was anything beyond the veil darkness in Twilight’s house.
Finally Twilight broke the silence. “Amber, why are you asking about that?”
“Because it says here its goal was to escape the dream world. Is it possible that maybe what we are dealing with is similar to it?” Amber asked, the previous silence making her words timid and quiet.
Twilight looked around nervously, as though she didn’t trust the darkness of her own house. “We stopped the Tantabus, Luna killed it. There is no way that this could be the Tantabus… but something similar,” Twilight whispered more to herself than to Amber. “If this is true, we could be in a peril that even I couldn’t have guessed.”
I really don’t like this. Twilight isn’t scared of anything, not really. She’s fought gods, demons, and even dragons! If this thing is so scary…
Amber could feel herself beginning to shake. Her mind raced back and forth, trying to figure out what she should do. Her heart was beating so fast it would give Rainbow Dash a run for her money, and the thought of her home, her mothers came into her mind. She imagined Maud trying desperately to stop the darkness, but for all her brute strength, the intangible being got past her, and went straight for Trixie. It was becoming hard to breath.
“Amber, calm down,” Twilight said. “We’ve dealt with this before, we can do it again.”
Amber shook her head. She wanted nothing more than to check up on her parents, to make sure that they were okay. She knew that the only ponies with enough magic to safe guard them tonight, were both stuck inside a dark little library, shaking in their metaphorical boots. Despite her honor being damaged by this, she needed to return home anyway.
“Twilight,” Amber said, her voice quivering. “Can you take me home?”
Twilight’s worried eyes softened, and a smile grew on her lips. “Sure.”
***
The darkness in Ponyville felt thicker, blacker, and more depressing than Amber had ever felt it before. Even with Twilight by her side, she could barely stand the oppressive dark. The moon was hidden behind the clouds tonight, and it took all of Amber’s strength to continue moving through the town.
“Who put those clouds there?” Twilight asked herself bitterly. “I’m going to chew out Rainbow Dash if this is her fault.”
Silence thick and heavy settled over the town. And no matter how far they walked, Amber could only worry about the darkness. It felt like something foul was watching them, just waiting for its time to strike. Was it possible that Twilight and Amber had angered the being, and now it was after them?
A single pony stood in the darkness staring at them with purple eyes. The pair froze. The pony stepped forward and Twilight’s magical light magnified. Blackout stood in front of them, her eyes were half open and glazed over, she looked out of it, confused. Twilight took a step forward but then Blackout snarled at them like a beast. Twilight stepped back and Blackout returned to her dazed state.
Amber smirked, “Well I’d like to say that she was acting like her usual self… but the fact she’s out here all alone in the darkness is a little strange.”
Twilight frowned at her. “That’s not nice. You’re right though, this certainly is strange. We should get her home…”
Twilight was right of course, no matter how much Amber might have disliked Blackout as a pony, she couldn’t simply leave her out here all alone. Something was wrong with Blackout, and considering the events of the previous night, Amber could only guess at how much this connected to the thing they were chasing.
“What can we do?” Amber asked. “If we approach her she might just attack us.”
“That is a problem. Maybe we can lead her safely to your house or something. After that I can take her home myself, and-“ Twilight explained, Amber had a better idea.
Amber’s horn lit up and a golden orange aura surrounded Blackout. Pain started to throb inside Amber’s head as the pegasus lifted up slowly. After hovering a few inches off the ground, beads of sweat ran down Amber’s face as she slowly moved Blackout forward, and carefully walked just far enough to keep pace, but not close enough to anger the dazed pony. This reminded Amber of pushing a cart, only in this case it was a pony that she would’ve enjoyed soaking in the local stream.
Twilight followed. “Well that… that’s one way to do it. Hopefully she won’t cause any trouble on our arrival.”
“If she does I’ll just drop her. Besides you can stop her from moving, right,” Amber said with a wink. Of course Amber knew that Twilight easily capable of such a task, she’d used the spell on Amber once before. It was honestly one of the more terrifying moments of her training.
Something moved in the shadows. Amber stopped and looked at the dark space between two buildings, Twilight followed her gaze. Although the blackness of the space was impenetrable, Amber knew that she had seen something, just a blur in the darkness, but it was still there.
“I saw something in there.”
“It might have been a cat,” Twilight suggested hopefully.
“I don’t believe that anymore than you do,” Amber replied uneasily.
The light from Twilight’s horn focused into a beam and she assaulted the darkness with it. A black inky tendril shot forward towards the pair. Amber ducked, in that instant she forgot her spell and Blackout crumpled to the ground. Twilight jumped to the side, her wings flapped once giving her jump more distance. The tendril lashed out, turned the corner and lashed out towards the collapsed pony.
Amber shrieked as Blackout was grabbed by the tendril and lifted in the air. Twilight’s horn flashed brightly and several beams of red hot energy shot out. The tendril easily dodged them as it writhed in the air, swinging Blackout around with careless abandon. That’s when Blackout began screaming, and clawing at the tendril with her hooves in vain.
This wasn’t working, and Amber needed something to get the upper hand right away. She looked around, there was nothing to aid her. Some wooden planks, the open forge of a blacksmith’s workshop, a large hammer for forging, and a few chairs. She looked again at the hammer and an idea came to her.
She lashed out with her magic and grabbed the hammer, the glow from Amber’s magic surrounded it, and gave it a holy glow as it flew towards her. her telekinetic grasp was one of her strongest and easiest to use spells, so when she brought the hammer to herself she only took one look at the tendril before reaching a conclusion; she was gonna smash it.
With the strength that somepony could only expect from a full grown stallion, Amber swung the hammer at the base of the tendril. The hammer went through it as though it wasn’t even there. The area her hammer ran through turned to smoke and vanished. The rest of the tendril followed suit and disappeared in a poof of smoke. Blackout began falling from a height of at least twenty feet. Amber dropped the hammer and reached out with her telekinesis, praying that she could only reach Blackout in time.
Blackout’s sudden plunge was halted by the light of a golden-orange, and red glow. Amber looked at Twilight and saw her horn glowing as well. Together they set Blackout down gently. The pegasus stared at them with wide, glossy eyes.
“You, you saved me,” Blackout muttered weakly.
Amber walked up and circled Blackout while examining her for any signs of damage. When it looked like Blackout was okay, Amber let out a sigh of relief. “You’re okay.”
“Why did you save me?” Blackout asked, uncertainty filled her rough voice.
“Because you in danger. What, did you think I’d let you get hurt?” Amber asked accusingly.
Blackout stamped a hoof down hard. “But I bully you, I make fun of you, I beat up your friends, I… why me?”
Amber shook her head. The answer was so simple to her, that it didn’t even occur to her how Blackout could not understand it. “Because it was the right thing to do.”
Blackout tried to sit down, but her legs only allowed her to back up. Her entire body was shaking violently, and tears were now streaming down the sides of her face. Her purple eyes stared, confused, at Amber. “You should have let me fall. I didn’t earn your pity.”
“You don’t earn things like that,” Amber said. “You just get saved. That’s all there is to it.”
Amber fixed her gaze on Twilight who was for some odd reason smiling at the pair. “Can you take me home now? I…”Remembering the black tendril made Amber shiver. I just want to cuddle up to mom… and maybe Maud too.
Twilight nodded. “I’ll take you home first, and I’ll take you home after that, Blackout.”
Blackout took a few stiff and awkward steps. “Okay…”
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Eleven: Safe House
Chapter Eleven: Safe House
Passing the Torch
Chapter Eleven: Safe House
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Dirt, Amber could smell dirt, why she could smell it was beyond what her tired sleepy brain could process right now. She tried to roll over but found a pair of muscular hooves holding onto her. She opened an eye to find her vision blocked out by gray fur. She moved her head and looked behind her, Trixie was there sleeping peacefully. It was beginning to dawn on her very slowly where she was, and the memories of last night slowly dripped into her mind.
After fighting off that shadowy tendril thing and saving Blackout. She was taken home by Twilight Sparkle, the second she got inside, and away from the eyes and ears of Blackout, Amber sat down, and sobbed. She was a little shocked when the first one to come and hug her was actually Maud, moving at almost lightning speeds to hold her. This combined with the fact that Maud began soothing her in a gentle tone, one that Amber didn’t even know that Maud could use, only aided in Amber’s decision to wrap her legs around Maud and cry helplessly into her shoulder. Maud smelled like dirt.
It was a little sad to note that Pinkie had gone home to her family already, but it was nice being able to be held by Maud like that. Sure Amber had been apart from Maud for a long time, and she still couldn’t forgive the mare for hurting Trixie’s feelings like she did, but she accepted that Maud was indeed one of her parents and loved her.
She wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that, she could vaguely remember being carried by Maud, which was a feat in itself, and she remembered laying in between her moms as they kept her safe. She fell asleep soon after that, and her dreams were actually pretty good, but the memories of her dreams were fading fast, she remembered a flower bed, and a castle made of marble stone and green glass. After that she couldn’t remember a thing about her dreams.
Amber rolled over in Maud’s embrace and faced Trixie. “Hey, mom.”
Trixie stirred, the morning light from behind the blinds cast orange blades of light on Trixie’s mane. Since Trixie wrinkled her nose, but then relaxed, it looked like she wasn’t ready to wake up quite yet. Amber planned to fix that.
“Hey, mom, wake up,” Amber said again. “Please wake up, pretty please.”
Trixie’s eyes slowly opened. “Yes, Amber?”
“Good morning,” Amber replied playfully.
Trixie let out a rather loud yawn before saying, “Good morning.”
“Will you make something good for breakfast today?”
Trixie smiled. “No, but I know a great little chief.”
“Who? Is it Pinkie?” Amber asked.
Trixie shook her head. “Nope it’s the pony who can’t stop hugging you right now.”
“Who-,” Amber began asking but stopped herself when she felt Maud’s breathing stop. Amber looked behind and saw Maud staring down at her with a flat expression, well not entirely flat; there was the slightest curl to her lips.
“You were awake the whole time,” Amber asked.
Maud averted her eyes. “I wanted to hold you…”
“Oh you big lovable thing,” Trixie said. “You’ve missed out little unicorn haven’t you?”
Maud nodded slightly.
Amber squeezed out of Maud’s embrace, and frowned when she saw that smile of Maud’s reverse and turn into a frown. Amber climbed off the bed, and went to the front door. Not wanting Maud to get the wrong idea she explained, “I’m hungry and I need to pee.”
Trixie shook her head. “She’s as blunt as you are sometimes.”
“I’ll get t work on breakfast,” Maud said.
Trixie sat up excitedly at those words. “Really!” Maud nodded. And Trixie nearly exploded with joy. “Yes, I love it when you cook for me! It makes me feel like a princess.”
Maud stared at her flatly. “You are my princess…” She looked at Amber and added. “You are too.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to be a princess, I want to be a legendary hero. There is a big difference.”
With that said Amber left the room and trotted to her destination with a growing sense of urgency. The bathroom was thankfully right down the hall, otherwise Amber might have screamed.
Breakfast was simple, quiet, and delicious. Amber had no idea that Maud could cook pancakes that rivaled if not beat out Pinkie’s recipe. Somewhere in the back of her mind she made a note, if she ever learned how to cook, she was getting this recipe from her second mother.
After breakfast was over Amber went outside, quietly thanking the heavens for not letting either of her moms ground her for her explosion the night before. The last thing she wanted was to be grounded today, because it was on this day that she was going to do all those fun things with her friends. She made a note to acquire her new friend beforehoof.
The walk over to Rarity’s was quiet, with all the ponies she passed by giving her dark looks, and whispering sinisterly. Something was wrong, and Amber didn’t like the atmosphere one bit. She hurried her pace to Rarity’s after noticing that ponies began to leave after seeing her. Ponyville felt very lonely today.
At Rarity’s she trotted in and found Jade, laying on her stomach and staring into their cat’s eyes. The overgrown hairball stared back at her and licked its lips. Amber had learned the name of the cat once before, but swiftly forgotten it. After Opalescence passed away, Rarity took to naming her new cats in confusing ways that made Amber’s head spin.
“Hey, Jade,” Amber greeted.
Jade looked up at her with those lizard eyes and smiled a sharp toothed grin. “Hello, Amber. Have you met Bill?”
Amber took another look at the cat, it was fat, white, and grumpy looking. “Bill?”
“Mom named him Billowing something something, so me and dad just call him Bill for short,” She explained.
“Hi Bill,” Amber said. The cat somehow managed to meow grumpily. “I don’t think he likes me.”
“Yeah, he hates everypony except for mom… Why are you here today?” Jade asked.
“I’m here to invite you to our day out. Me and my friends are going to be doing some fun things today and I wanted to see if you wanted in. You interested?” Amber asked. She finished with the biggest grin she could make.
Jade nodded. “If you don’t mind bringing me along, I’d love to join… will there be gems?”
“We can probably find some way to fit that into the schedule. Actually are schedule is kinda empty anyway,” Amber admitted.
“Okay. I need to tell mom and Grandma Twilight first. I hope you don’t mind,” Jade said quietly.
Amber nodded, thought about what she said, and smiled. “I’ll come with you.”
She followed Jade into the kitchen and together they stood there staring at Rarity and Twilight, neither of the young ponies spoke as the older ponies talked heatedly. Amber frowned, and could only wonder at exactly what was going on.
“No,” Rarity said. “After what happened at the inn, you actually think that I want to get involved in this again. I have a child to look after, Twilight. What am I going to do with her, if me and my husband are out doing Celestia knows what?”
Twilight stamped a hoof down. “We can leave her at Trixie’s, she’s good with kids and Amber seems to have become friends with Jade. But I really need both of you to help, you haven’t seen what the people around here have become have you? Something is wrong, very, very wrong.”
Rarity spun towards the door, and huffed. “I don’t… Jade, Amber, what are you two doing here?” She looked surprised to see them.
Jade shrunk back a little, so Amber stepped up and spoke for her. “We just wanted to know if it was okay for us to go out and play. I wanted to have Jade join me and my friends today, we’re going to the clubhouse.”
Rarity frowned and glanced back at Twilight. “Okay, but be careful. Amber, I’m expecting you to keep my precious little pony safe.”
Amber looked at Twilight, and narrowed her eyes. Something was going on, and she wanted to know what. “So, what are you two up to?”
“Nothing,” Twilight replied quickly. Silence filled the room for a moment, but then Twilight closed her eyes and groaned. “Okay, that was a lie. I’m getting the old gang together for another meeting.” She looked at Amber and met her eyes. “But something is very strange with the town, and I need you to stay somewhere quiet and out of the way. Keep your friends at the clubhouse please, I can’t honestly think of a safer place than Applejack’s farm right now.”
Amber wanted to argue, she wanted to join Twilight, but the memories of the tendril from last night came back and she decided against it. She didn’t want to fight scary monsters again, she wasn’t ready, not at all, she couldn’t even pull off that non lethal spell that Twilight had taught her. If she couldn’t do that, than she couldn’t possibly help anypony.
“Okay,” Amber said lamely. “I’ll just stay out of the way this time… I promise.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, and she started saying, “Amber, are you al-“
Rarity cut her off. “Twilight, let’s get Rainbow Dash next. I don’t want to go into anything sticky without her around.”
“She is the most… aggressive one in our group,” Twilight agreed. “Okay, we’ll head there next.”
Amber quietly left as the two continued their conversation only less heated now. Jade followed behind quietly. Hanging her head low, Amber thought about just going home and giving up on the day. The thought was abolished when she saw Jade’s smile, the poor filly didn’t have many friends, she needed this outing more than anypony else did. Amber steeled herself and trotted out of the front door. She’d make this day exciting and happy for the dragon pony, because that’s what friends do.
***
The clubhouse was all but silent as the five ponies all sat around trying to figure out what to do. From what Amber had heard from her other friends so far, she realized that it wasn’t just her noticing the oddness of the ponies around Ponyville today. Each of them had received angry glances, mean whispers, and finally desperate loneliness. The only ponies unaffected by it so far had been their families.
At first Amber thought it was because of the fact that they were all somehow close to or connected to an element of magic, but in regards to her own family that didn’t make sense. Then she realized that each one of the ponies who had actively fought against this darkness had so far been left alone, or at least them and their families. That explanation seemed to sit much better with them.
Hushpuppy couldn’t help but stare longingly out the window, while Sophie kept herself amused by sewing a new doll. This one resembled Jade. Color Splash had her eyes planted firmly on Hushpuppy and a sly smile across her lips. Amber had a journal in front of her, and a pen, but as hard as she tried, her mind simply couldn’t figure out what to write.
“Darkness lies ahead, and there is nothing we can to do to fight it. We are missing that vital little light of hope that gives anypony the reason to fight, to survive. A cold chill runs through Ponyville today, skeletal hooves rake at our souls and whisper dark taunts to us making sure that we can’t fight. We need light,” Hushpuppy said to himself.
Amber rolled her eyes, he was being moody again.
The knocking on the front door of the clubhouse snapped everypony to attention. Amber carefully stood and walked to the door. She looked at the others, and saw them staring intently at the door, the only pony who was smiling was Sophie. Slowly Amber reached out with her magic and pulled open the door. Blackout stood on the other side.
Blackout was avoiding Amber’s eyes. “Hi.”
“What do you want?” Color Splash asked sternly.
Blackout growled. “I’m not here for you, mutant hair. I’m here for Amber.”
Color Splash stood up. “Yeah well after what you did to Hushpuppy, you have some nerve coming here.”
Things looked bad, and Amber quickly intervened. “Hey, guys we don’t need to fight here.” Amber redirected her attention to Blackout. “What do you want?”
Blackout lowered her head her ears flicked and she neighed.
Amber stepped back in surprise at the response.
“You saved me last night… I… I don’t want to say that I like, like you or anything, but you know… maybe I could… like you might be cool enough to hang out with,” Blackout said in a near whisper.
Amber stood in silence for a very long time, nopony made a noise. Eventually Blackout began to turn away. “I thought this would happen, why did I even bother with you nerds?”
“Wait,” Amber said. Still not entirely sure what to do or say she reached for the only olive branch she could. “You want to come in and hang out with us nerds for a bit? We might not be that cool, but maybe you’re awesome will rub off on us?”
Blackout laughed. “Fat chance, my awesome is kinda special. Maybe you’ll learn how to be cool from me, but… yeah I’ll chill with you for a bit. I don’t have much choice anyway, mom sent me here so I’d stay out of trouble while she goes monster hunting with Twilight.”
Amber raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“Yeah, turns out that ponies in town are all corrupted or something. She told me to stay out of it… and after that thing last night…” Blackout gave up on finishing the sentence.
Amber quickly trotted outside and looked around. It was quiet and there was no sign of anypony around. She quickly shoved Blackout in, and followed her. She shut and barred the door behind them, before reaching out with her magic and shutting the windows and drawing the curtains.
Why didn’t Twilight tell me that it was this serious already? Ponyville getting taken over by monsters or being corrupted comes with contingencies.
Amber looked around the room and noticed the fearful looks on everyponies face. She smiled and said, “It’s okay, I know the plan for if this ever happened. Twilight taught me what to do. Now since everyponies parents are one of the elements of harmony or in Jade’s case a dragon, they will be just fine. It is our job to help any of the still uncorrupted citizens into a safe place to hide before joining them. Since the entire town’s already been changed, it’s our job to just hideout here until Twilight comes to get us. Understood?”
Everypony nodded.
Blackout sat down against the wall and looked at the spot between her hooves. Hushpuppy whispered something into Color Splash’s ear. Color Splash’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Amber with intensity. Jade closed her eyes and laid her head down before shaking a little. Sophie walked over to Jade’s side and brushed the poor dragon pony’s mane. Jade’s shaking lessened.
“Good, I’m glad you understand,” Amber said proudly, she could scarcely believe that it was this easy to keep everypony inside. She could’ve sworn that at least one of them would want to go out and be a hero.
Sophie looked up at Amber, her smile was missing. Amber frowned, what could be so wrong that it made Sophie upset. They were safe where they were and everyponies parents were fine, the elements of harmony had never actually been defeated before, well not really.
“Amber,” Sophie said quietly.
Hushpuppy looked over at his sister and gave her a stern look.
“What’s wrong, Soph,” Amber said in a cool voice.
Sophie stared right at her with sad eyes. “Neither of your parents are elements of harmony… and Trixie’s already been corrupted once before… right?”
Amber’s jaw hit the floor and she felt her body start shaking.
My parents!
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Twelve: The Pact
Passing the Torch
Chapter Twelve: The Pact
Written by TheCrimsonDM
“Stop!” Color Splash shouted from behind Amber.
Amber didn’t quit galloping because of that though, her friends had been shouting at her to stop for nearly ten whole minutes now. What were a few more minutes of them shouting really going to do? Not stop her from saving her parents. That was for darn sure.
A blinding streak of light caught up to her. Blackout flew just over Amber’s head, her forelegs were crossed and purple eyes drilled holes into the back of Amber’s head. Amber didn’t stop for her either.
“Look here stretch, if you keep running like this you’re going to get into town, a town which is filled with possessed ponies mind you. We already have six completely competent ponies working their hardest to stop what’s going on. Don’t get us all into trouble because you just had to save the day,” Blackout said, for being a total bully, she was surprisingly mature when she wanted to be. Amber however, was not.
Amber stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry. “Screw you, my mom’s in danger and that’s all I need to know. I am Twilight Sparkle’s apprentice, and I can do whatever I set my mind too!”
Blackout cringed. “You big baby, I’m going to ground you so hard!”
“Ha, you aren’t my mom, you can’t-“ Amber started.
She was interrupted when Blackout folded her wings, aimed herself like a bullet, and slammed into Amber’s back. Amber hit the grass, and skidded several feet as the surprisingly weighty pegasus pinned her down, and even managed to wrap her legs around Amber’s making sure that the unicorn couldn’t get back up.
The others caught up fairly quickly, and while Amber let out a string of curses that managed to make even Color Splash blush, Blackout just held her still. After a few minutes of cursing and struggling, Amber went slack and gave up. It was useless trying to fight her way out of this hold, whatever technique Blackout had learned was extremely effective
“You gonna be okay now, Amber?” Blackout asked, her tone was stern, but somehow caring at the same time.
Amber shook her head. “No I’m not going to be okay, not until my parents are safe. But I won’t try and run off anymore.”
“Good, ‘cus I got a better plan than what you had,” Blackout said.
Amber’s ears perked up. “What do you mean?”
“If you trust me, and don’t run away, I’ll explain it. But it will require that everyone works together, okay,” Blackout explained.
Amber cursed again. “How come you’re the one who’s all calm, and has a good plan, and all of that?”
“I never said my plan was good. Good would be staying put inside that treehouse of yours, no my plan sucks, but it sucks a little less than your lone wolf plan,” Blackout explained. “Are you interested?”
Amber let out a sigh. “Yeah, I’m in. Just let me go, I don’t exactly like the idea of a mare on top of me. It feels weird.”
Blackout leapt off of Amber and scrunched her face up in disgust. “You what? Ew, no, just ew, like seriously. I don’t like you like that okay. I just think your cool, in a heroically dumb kind of way.”
Amber allowed herself to wear a small smile. At least I can take that response as a small victory. Now to hear out what kind of plan she has.
***
The six ponies sat around an old tree stump near the edge of the forest line. To one side they could see the town off in the distance, it was quiet, and nopony could be seen from this spot. Blackout stood next to the stump, leaning her back against it, the stump was almost bigger than she was. The others all sat around staring up at her, they had mixed expressions about this, every few seconds glancing back at Amber who was simply biting her lip and scowling.
Blackout began explaining, “Okay, now as you all know. The town right now looks all empty and stuff, well it probably isn’t. From what I can guess, the townsponies are all hiding somewhere, waiting to spring up and grab any ponies that aren’t corrupted, possessed, or otherwise made evil.
“Amber’s parents are not part of the Elements of harmony, but they are also pretty tough. So we can assume that they might not be corrupted yet, and are in fact hiding away from the threat, or even worse are unaware and just waiting to be jumped.”
Color Splash interrupted, “My dad is at home working on the farm. So we know he’s safe, but what about your dad?”
Blackout’s eyes narrowed on her. “My father left my mom after I was born. She’s never been good in love, and none of my siblings share the same father. So after her last break up she’s given up, so don’t worry about that.” She was quiet for a moment and then thoughtfully added, “My siblings are currently at a daycare, it's just outside of Ponyville, so it should be fine.”
“You have siblings?” Hushpuppy asked.
Blackout growled. “Shut it, emo! I am here to help you get Amber’s parents to safety, I trust my mom can handle the rest.”
“Great, a mature, kind leader one minute, a bully the next,” Color Splash whispered to herself.
“Anyway,” Blackout continued. “This is my plan, we sneak into town as a group, I’ll take a position overhead and make sure that you avoid any threats. As for you guys, I… er… stay quiet and fast.”
The earth shaking boom that rocked the trees and sent the six ponies sprawling onto their sides ruined Blackout’s speech. A rainbow colored explosion covered the front of town hall, and that’s when Amber noticed what was going on down there.
Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were flying around with a contingent of pegasi flying around them. Applejack, and Pinkie Pie could be seen struggling to shove off the groups of ground ponies. Rarity, riding Spike’s back, flew overhead shooting bursts of flame over the ponies heads, enough to scare them back but not hurt them.
Amber’s small group watched as Twilight and friends regrouped, the townsponies all faced them, corralled into a pool of corrupted ponies. Twilight’s eyes lit up and she floated in the air, her friends floated up into the air as well. The air around them shimmered, and sparks of rainbow colored electricity flew out in every direction. The air between the six exploded into a rainbow ball, and then rose into the sky as a beam of rainbow colored energy.
Amber grinned as she watched the elements of harmony being used. She could not recall ever seeing something so powerful and yet so pretty. The beam turned midair and came crashing back down towards the group of corrupted ponies, and then stopped.
The light turned gray at the edges and fizzled out. The beam vanished, the ball of energy was gone, and the element bearers fell to the ground. Amber’s heart sunk as the group was quickly surrounded by the mob of ponies. Spike raced down to stop them, but a dark tendril was flung out from between two buildings and it whipped against the side of his head. He fell to the ground with a silent thud.
Nopony spoke as they watched the element bearers, plus Spike get dragged into the town hall, the doors was slammed shut behind them. The ponies that remained outside quickly dispersed back to hiding in their individual homes.
Five minutes passed by as they just stared, then ten, followed by fifteen. Finally after twenty minutes Amber pulled herself free from her stupor, realizing now that there was something bigger at stake than just her parents.
Amber leapt on top of the tree Stump. She looked at all the ponies before her, they all looked desperate, scared, and confused. Something from deep inside Amber took hold of her heart and steeled her for the coming trial, for she knew, somewhere deep inside she knew that this was her trial. No it wasn’t just hers, it was their trial, she and her friends were here for a reason, and that reason was to save Twilight’s butt from the fires.
“Everypony,” Amber said, strength and courage behind her voice.
Everypony looked up at her, and their eyes wide-eyed upon seeing her smile, and her determined gaze.
Amber spoke, not loud, but with conviction that would stop any adult in their steps to hear her words. “We just saw the fall of the elements of harmony, you just saw all of your parents fail. I just saw my teacher, my mentor and friend, my step mother, fail spectacularly. But this is not the end.
“We were missed by the corrupted forces for a reason. It should be obvious to you all by now, but if not let me explain it to you; we have been chosen by destiny to save them. I want to save my parents but that is not the most important task here today, no, we must save the elements of harmony, for even if they can’t use their powers, they can still use their minds. We need their wisdom more than anything else right now.”
Blackout shook her head. “I just watched my mom lose to a bunch of loser earth ponies, what the heck are we supposed to do with that?”
Amber smiled. “We use that to our advantage. We just saw where they took them, their prison of sorts, and possibly even the home of the creature that’s responsible for this.”
Color Splash stomped her hoof into the soft soil. “What about that shadow tentacle thing? It just took out Spike like it he was nothing.”
“I stopped it last night, just aim for the base,” Amber replied. “It’s not his fault that he didn’t see it coming, he was too focused on his wife. But we know it’s there, and we can avoid it, or if we have to we can fight it.”
“Amber,” Hushpuppy said. “You are insane, you can’t fight the darkness.”
“I am the light in the darkness, and I’m not small, I’m a giant,” Amber replied.
Jade looked back at the town. “What can I do?”
“You’re a dragon pony, and I bet you have some incredible skills to aid us. Can you smell ponies very well?” Amber asked.
“Mmm hmm, my dad and me sometimes play a guessing game where we find ponies by scent, I’m really good at it,” Jade replied.
“Good, we can use that,” Amber replied.
Sophie looked a little less shaken and even smiled. “Before we do this, we have to make a pact that no matter what we will work together, as friends, and win.”
Amber nodded.
“You can’t be serious,” Blackout said.
Sophie stood up, and from her mane she pulled a pocket knife. Amber didn’t know why Sophie kept such a thing in her mane, nor did she know where Sophie had actually obtained the knife. Sophie walked over to a birch tree nearby and carved into it. When she was done, a crude representation of her cutie mark was embedded into the tree.
“You see, Blackout,” Sophie said. “If we carve our mark into a tree, and swear to each other, it will be just fine.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Hushpuppy said.
“If we don’t save them, who will?” Amber asked.
Hushpuppy shook his head, and growled. “Fine, but… you better keep her safe.”
He stood up and trotted to the next tree over, he took the knife and carved his strange cutie mark into the tree. He spat the knife out and said, “I’ll save her.”
Color Splash grabbed the knife and repeated the process on another tree. “You guys are crazy, but if I don’t save mom, who will argue with me about my art?”
Blackout was next, and when she was finished she grinned. “I’m Rainbow Dash’s eldest daughter, if I can’t beat up some corrupted ponies, and an evil tentacle, than I should renounce the name Dash right now.”
Finally everypony looked at Jade. She had her eyes closed and she was shaking. “I don’t know if I can.”
“It’s okay,” Amber said. “We’re all scared, but we need to work together to save our folks. Don’t you want to save your mom?”
She looked up at Amber Light and nodded. “I do, but what if we get caught.”
“Then I’ll think of something. I’m pretty smart, despite some of the dumb things I do,” Amber replied.
“Will you keep me safe?”
Amber nodded.
Jade stood up, and walked over to the tree. She took the knife, and carefully carved her mark into another tree. She set the knife down gently and looked disgusted. “Ew, I could taste the saliva.”
“That’s because four ponies used it before you,” Amber explained. “It’s gross, but without telekinesis what can you do?”
Everypony slowly looked up at Amber as she stood on her stump. It took her a moment but she realized what she was supposed to do, it was her turn to make a mark. Amber was never one for doing things the simple way, so when she lit up her horn and filled it with magic, she knew exactly what she would do for her mark.
The mark of a rose was burned into the top of the stump, but that wasn’t all. Purple roses grew all along the base of the stump, and all five trees, Amber’s horn was a little sore but the first spell she ever properly learned was how to make purple roses grow, and by now it was an easy trick to pull off. She smiled when everything was done.
Amber looked toward the town, her eyes were full of determination, and her heart was steeled for the upcoming trial. “Come on everypony. We’re saving our friends.”
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Thirteen: Amber's Light
Passing the Torch
Chapter Thirteen: Amber’s Light
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Moving through the outskirts of town was possibly one of the most unnerving things that Amber had ever done, and certainly the most terrifying. The group moved as quickly as they possibly could while staying quiet, every single shadow stood out as being a threat. Blackout flew over head, attempting to scout out the area for them. Thankfully the possessed pegasi had disappeared from the sky after Twilight’s group had lost.
It didn’t take long in this small town to reach Amber’s home, but upon seeing the door ajar, Amber felt her heart freeze. She took off toward the door, one of the friends had said something to her, she wasn’t sure who, or what they had said. Her mind was too focused on the singular task of getting to her family.
Upon reaching the door she shoved it open only to find the house empty. She stood there for a moment in silence, and then she heard the scream from her parents’ bedroom. With blind courage she charged to the door, kicked it open and prepared to go hoof to hoof with any villainous ponies she found inside.
What she did not prepare herself for however, was seeing both of her parents rolling around on the bed, kissing and sweating, and Amber looked away before seeing anymore. They stopped long enough to stare at Amber. Amber apologized and said, “I’m just letting you know that I’m going to town hall.” She shut the bedroom door and left quietly.
Amber trotted outside, she stopped just long enough to shut and lock the front door. Interrupting that private moment was not the highlight of her day. She attempted to wipe the memory from her mind, the last thing she needed was to be thinking about that while fighting off the possessed ponies and whatever monster had captured Twilight’s group. At the very least this proved that Amber’s parents were still safe from possession. After all, the possessed ponies probably didn’t care for such intimate activities.
Despite her friends bugging her with questions all she could do was mutter, “Their fine.”
The group moved on towards town hall, now that she realized that her parents were safe, her earlier courage was dissipating and the reality of her actions were beginning to sink in. Twilight and her friends were still in danger, they still needed help, but going straight in through the front door was not going to work. There were too many possessed ponies for that to be accomplished.
Amber looked over to Blackout and let out a sigh. “Blackout, if we are going to pull this off we will need a distraction. You’re the most distracting thing I’ve ever met, it doesn’t matter how focused I am, you’ve always managed to snap me out of it, usually with a bucket of water.”
“I only used a bucket of water once,” Blackout replied.
Amber stopped dead in her tracks as she contemplated exactly what that could mean. “But you’ve dumped several buckets of water on… oh sweet Celestia, you disgusting pig.”
“You needed a distraction?” Blackout asked with an evil grin.
Amber pushed aside anything having to do with buckets, for all she cared all buckets anywhere, could go and die in a fire. “Yes, do you have any plans?”
“Yeah, I got one,” Blackout replied.
Before Amber could ask what it was, Blackout took off at such speeds that she became nothing more than a gray blur leaving a black and white trail behind her. Meanwhile shouting, “Hey you stupid ponies, I’ll take you all on for touching my mom! I’m going to kick your flanks!”
Amber quickly hid in between two houses, along with her friends. It didn’t take long before a mass of ponies excited their homes, and chased after the noise. Fear crept along her spine as she saw them, the last thing she wanted to do was get caught now. The ponies’ eyes were black, no whites, not iris color, just pure black. The angry mob chased after the sound of Blackout, grumbling. When the coast was clear, Amber gathered her team and they ducked out into the road. They quickly trotted off towards the town hall.
It took a few minutes but they quickly found themselves in front of the town hall. Amber looked at the others and smiled, “We’re here already, and we can do this without any trouble, right guys?”
They all nodded, and Amber strode forward. Her aim was the double doors. Color Splash spoke up and caught her attention. “Hey, what’s that sticking out of the window?”
Amber looked at the side of the building and saw a thick black shadowy tendril reaching out of the window, and slipping in between the homes. Whatever was making that thing was inside the Town Hall, waiting for them. If it wasn’t for the fact that Twilight Sparkle and her friends were inside this building, there would be no way that Amber would have ever entered it, but as it stood, if Amber didn’t go in, she couldn’t save her mentor, and save the town in the process.
Amber pressed her hooves against the large double doors and gave them both a mighty shove. The inside was dark, and the floor was covered in thick black slime. Amber walked in, trying her hardest to ignore the squishy slime underneath her hooves. Her friends followed in and after a moment her eyes began adjusting. There was a large dark shape in front of them, it’s surface was smooth and the top was rounded. The walls and windows were covered in the same black slime, except for the few windows where the tendrils, like limbs, were attached to the big black shape and extended into the town.
The doors slammed shut behind them, making Amber jump forward. Her friends quickly turned and saw a tendril pushing the door shut. They were trapped!
“So the little pony has come to ruin my dreams?” A dark, slithering voice said from somewhere near the black shape.
“Who is that?” Amber asked, she could feel her hooves begin to shake.
“Why I am the nightmare, the dreamer, the one who slumbers. And your town is so peaceful in its sleep. ”
“Is that what you did to them? Are they sleeping right now?” Amber asked.
“Yes they are, they are all asleep in my wonderful dream. Do you want to join them?”
“No, I don’t, and I won’t let you hold them any longer,” Amber shouted, her horn lit up and a sudden burst of flame shout forth from her horn to light up the room.
The black thing was a giant inky slime, oozing shadows, and tendrils, no eyes, no mouth, nothing that would explain what the heck it was. Except that for a brief instance she caught a glimpse of what was inside it’s blubbery mass. A pony.
“Where are my friends? Twilight Sparkle, and the others,” Amber demanded.
A high pitched shriek filled the room and Amber pressed her hooves to her ears in an attempt to cancel out the sound. The sticky ooze on her hooves got stuck to her fur and mane. Gross.
“You dare use fire on me? You insolent little insect. I will crush you for this. You want your Twilight Sparkle, you can have her!”
Something swooped out from the rafters above them, and Amber had only a moment to roll to the side as it crashed where she had just stood. Slime now coated her fur, she was disgusted at herself and at the slime, but she was more worried by the alicorn standing in front of her.
Twilight Sparkle spread her wings wide and proud, her horn glowed with a dark red light, and she wore an evil grin. “You’ve been a naughty student haven’t you?”
“What the hay, Twilight if your free why are you,” Amber started, and then she saw the black eyes. “Oh crap, you’ve been turned already?”
Amber’s friends stepped back, but two pegasi landed in front of the door. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, both covered in slime, and growling at the group like rabid animals. Amber took a step toward them, but a red beam of energy shot out and hit the ground in front of her hooves. Amber focused on Twilight.
Darn it, I’ve never won a battle against her in practice, I don’t stand a chance in a real conflict What can I do now?
“You know if it wasn’t for Rainbow Dash’s intervention, I would have already dumped you for my student,” Twilight said coldly. “She convinced me that this was normal behavior and that I should instead be trying to help you learn how to get past your anger, if it wasn’t for her I’d have left you. In all honesty it’s not really worth continuing this experiment.”
“Experiment? Rainbow Dash? What in Tartarus are you talking about?” Amber questioned.
“Aside from how you were conceived, I still find myself shuddering when I remember what Maud tricked me into doing. Trixie was also exposed to great amounts of dark magic during her younger years, dark magic that had left a permanent scar on her magical abilities, the fact that the damage showed in you after you started using magic was only too curious for me to ignore,” Twilight explained. “I needed to see what kind of power you would have.
“Sadly I discovered that you were incompetent, could barely learn to use spells, and were far too hard to control. You don’t deserve my tutorage, there are dozens of other ponies in this backwater town that could have received my advice, but you, you got it. I wasted so many years on teaching you, and all for what? For a half wit to go around and abuse the power that she’s been given as small as it is?” Twilight finished with a scowl.
Amber’s heart dropped out of her chest, and settled somewhere on the floor. She sat down, and instantly regretted it as her rump was covered in slime. She didn’t bother to get up though, she just felt useless. She knew that some of what Twilight was saying right now was true, even if it was horrible, she couldn’t be sure that everything Twilight was saying was a lie.
Have I really been nothing more than a burden on Twilight?
“Come here, and I’ll bring you into the darkness with me. There you could find the power needed to gain my respect, you just have to allow yourself to dream,” Twilight said.
Amber looked up into those dark eyes, there was no love there. Twilight loved Amber, as a student, as a friend, and as a step daughter. There was no way that Twilight could be saying all these things right now, whether they were true or not, they were tainted by malicious anger. Luckily Amber had an idea on how to fix this.
”Okay,” Amber said lamely. She stood up and walked with slow heavy steps toward Twilight Sparkle.
One of her friends, jade, shouted, “No, Amber. Don’t trust her, she’s corrupted.”
“I know, but I want to be powerful,” Amber said.
When she reached Twilight she reached out and hugged the corrupted alicorn. Twilight returned the embrace and a cold pain shot through Amber’s heart, sinking through her bones, and her mind. Amber’s horn lit up, and an orange light cast itself over the room, she channeled the magic through her horn, and then through her body. There was a horrifyingly loud zap, and both Twilight and Amber let out howls of pain, as lightning crackled off of Amber’s body and through Twilight’s.
Shocking herself in order to injure Twilight, hopefully snapping the alicorn out of her corrupted dark sleeping stupor at the same time. Amber kept the spell up, and the seconds passed slowly, painfully, she couldn’t count how long she had held the spell for, but it felt like hours, hours of agonizing pain as each one of her nerve endings screamed at her to stop. The edges of her vision began to darken, and she finally had enough.
Amber dropped the spell, and slumped against Twilight’s shoulder. Something hot ran down Amber’s nose, and over her lips. She tasted copper.
Twilight straightened up and pushed Amber back a little, holding her up and looking into her eyes. Amber saw the purple eyes shed grown so accustomed to seeing, and saw the worry held inside them. The worry quickly turned into fury and she looked up at the shadowy blob with a death glare that Amber had not seen from Twilight before.
“You stupid, sniveling, conniving, son of a cur,” Twilight snapped. “I’m going to rip you to shreds, and pour salt on what’s left, and as it the chemical reaction burns you like acid I’ll laugh. You will bubble and foam and I will be laughing!”
Angry Twilight sure is scary.
Twilight leapt into the air, and as she did, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash caused after her. Twilight turned around and lightning crackled off of her horn and struck the two of them down. Twilight turned as her friends fell limply to the ground, twitching. Amber watched as Applejack leapt from the rafters but, Twilight swatted her away with a wing and proceeded to shoot lightning at her.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stood wearily, the color returned to their eyes, along with a very confused look.
Lightning is the key to snapping them out of this, well either that or just pain in general will do the job.
Twilight shot lightning at the slimy mass of darkness and another high pitched shriek sounded. That’s when Pinkie Pie jumped off of the rafter and although Twilight adjusted her aim to shoot at her, Pinkie did an impossible dodge mid air and landing on Twilight’s back sending her to floor. The tendril at the door whipped away from and raced toward Twilight.
Amber stood up, and although her body was shaking with pain, she focused more magic into her horn and flames spilled forth. The flames struck the tendril and another less powerful shriek sounded throughout the room. Amber stepped forward, through the pain, and the fear, she found a righteous burning fury deep inside, and latched onto it. The blood running down her nose grew worse.
The tendril squirmed on the floor, but Amber stomped on it, hard. It vanished.
Amber spun around to face the giant slime and watched as Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack all held an enraged Pinkie Pie down. The three tendrils sticking out of the windows slipped into the room and whipped around wildly, lashing at everything in sight. One of them hit Applejack, sending her sprawling and sliding along the slime covered ground. Another one grabbed Rainbow Dash by the wing and Fluttershy was thrown off of Pinkie Pie.
Just as Pinkie stood up, lightning crackled and struck Pinkie dead center in the chest, she didn’t fall over but she screamed out in pain. Twilight turned and shot lightning at the tendrils but they easily dodged the attacks. Twilight was focusing on individual lightning bolts, trying her best to hit them, but they were too fast.
Amber shook, her head throbbed, her horn was burning from the strain, and all she could taste was copper. That’s when the dragon appeared.
Amber’s eyes went wide as a slime covered Spike charged Twilight. A window broke, and Blackout flew down and swung a hefty looking hammer down onto the tendril holding Rainbow Dash. The hammer slipped from Blackout’s hooves and hit the floor sliding. Amber pushed herself forward, her body screamed in pain, but she walked through it. The only thought running through her head was that she had to end this madness now.
Spike swung at Twilight, but the alicorn teleported away. Amber took a step forward. Blackout regrouped with Amber’s group, and although they looked scared, they looked unhurt. Amber took a few more steps, her head screamed with pain. Spike noticed her, and charged, the madness clear in his rage filled black eyes. Amber’s hoof hit something metal. The hammer lay at her hooves.
I bet that I could use this.
Amber picked up the hammer with her telekinetic grasp, and just as Spike reached her, she swung hard. Her blood pumped hot, her body ached, and she wanted nothing more than to kill the slime and go to sleep. She hit Spike across the jaw, and sent him flying over the ground before he landed a few feet away, and slid through the slimy floor until he brushed up against a wall.
Amber walked forward, and saw a beam of blue energy flew by her, lancing her cheek. Amber screamed in pain as she turned, and faced the white unicorn, saw the black eyes, and with mind numbing swiftness she swung towards the unicorn’s forelegs. The unicorn leapt back, inhaled deeply, her cheeks puffed out, and finally she exhaled a gout of flames at Amber. Amber couldn’t dodge the blast, and she knew it. Her mind raced, and the flames crawled towards her as time slowed down to a crawl. She looked around.
There was no escape, no safety. Her only defense was the heavy hammer she held in her magical grasp. She had the hammer. Without hesitation, Amber threw the hammer at Rarity’s head. The hammer flew, but its aim was not true, as it barely bumped against the white unicorn’s skull. But the weighty object was more than enough, as the unicorn was knocked to the side, and crimson liquid ran down the side of her face, her eyes fluttered for a moment before returning to normal.
Yep, it’s pain that snaps them free of the control, but I suppose it makes sense that if they’re asleep all you need to do is wake them up.
Amber turned to face the slime. And flinched as two tendrils came whipping toward her at lightning speeds. Twilight tried desperately to shoot them, she hit one of them, and it vanished in a cloud of smoke. The other one, smacked against Amber’s chest.
For a brief moment, Amber felt a bit silly, she came in here with a group of untrained youngsters, she knocked out a dragon, beat his wife, and electrocuted her own teacher. Sure they had succeeded in saving their friends, but it looked like that wasn’t going to be enough to save her.
The surging pain in her chest made her lose any thought’s as she was sent flying through the air. Her body was racked with tremendous agony as she flew through the interior of the town hall, she looked down at the slime covered floors and wanted to laugh as she thought about how hard it would be for the town to clean this mess up.
The wall was quickly approaching; her vision was blocked entirely by black slime covered wall. Then she stopped, she stared at the wall for the longest moment before she looked around, her body ached from the movement. Everypony had stopped moving as well, the tendril that had hit her was perfectly still, it was almost as though she was staring at a still image of the events before her. The window that Blackout had broken through shone brightly onto the slime monster, and from its light Amber could see the pony inside.
It was a brown mare with a silver mane; she looked old and wore glasses. Mayor Mare, she was the giant slime creature. Amber felt bad knowing that Twilight might kill her after time resumed and Amber hit the wall. After all, having her student die would probably destroy her, and that broke Amber’s heart. She didn’t want to be that much of a burden.
Not to mention how hard this would hit her parents.
How would Maud and Trixie react over this? Would they ever be able to return to a normal life? Have another kid? Do anything other than fall apart? Amber wasn’t sure that either of them could ever recover from this.
Amber closed her eyes, and prayed, prayed to whatever gods might be listening that everypony could move on after this. Amber wasn’t sure how she knew that the speed and trajectory she was currently moving at would crush her spine, snap her neck, and break many other bones, hopefully her death would be quick, because that did sound really painful.
“It won’t have to be this way,” A young mare whispered into her ear.
Amber looked but couldn’t see anypony.
“What, what’s going on?” She found herself asking. “Are you an angel?”
“An angel, well I’ve been called that by many ponies before, but usually they end up calling me the devil after they realize just who I am. But you might be too young to understand what I’m talking about,” she said.
“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Amber asked, but she wasn’t sure how she knew he’d have the answer.
“You’ll only die if you don’t choose to use it,” she replied.
“Use what?”
“The power inside yourself,” she explained. “There is a reason that Twilight choose you for her apprentice, you just have to look deep inside. Trust me, your story is just beginning. Right now, it’s time you finally accepted the torch, it’s been passed to you, now take hold of it.”
Amber closed her eyes, and she could see it. A bright orange light, it was warm, and full of energy. She could almost touch it, she reached out with a hoof but it was just a little too far to touch. She scowled, and then lashed out with her magic, if she couldn’t reach out to, she’d bring it to her. The second her magic touched it, her entire body burned brilliantly. Energy flowed through her, pure power, stronger than she had ever felt before. When she opened her eyes again, all she could see was white.
Amber howled, and time resumed but instead of hitting the wall, she willed the wall to be destroyed. White energy and orange flames whipped out form her body and slammed against the wall, leaving nothing to stop her. She flew through the hole, and decided that she wanted to go and stop the slime now. She suddenly stopped mid air and saw all the ponies below her, the entire town had surrounded the town hall, their dark eyes and scorn, were now aimed at her.
She waved a hoof, and thought that it would be better if they all woke up now. Suddenly the entire town blinked in unison, and when they opened their eyes again, the color had returned. Off in the distance Amber saw Trixie and Maud hiding behind some wooden crates and watching. Amber nodded, and smiled at them. Then she floated back through the hole she had made.
Inside she saw the slime, but it was different now. Mayor Mare was a small ball of light surrounded by a deep dark shadow, that shadow reached out with lines in many different directions, but largest line drew southward, like a giant string being pulled taught.
Amber looked at the string and crushed it with a thought, white light and fire burned it down. The slime began melting, and Amber reached out mentally, she wrapped a kinetic cocoon around Mayor Mare and pulled her free from the slime.
After laying the sleeping pony on the floor, Amber floated down to her side. Twilight stared at her with wide eyes, her lip was trembling. Amber ignored her and pressed a gentle hoof to Mayor Mare, she saw a pit of darkness inside of the pony underneath her, and Amber reached for it mentally, and washed the darkness away.
Amber landed on her hooves and let out a deep breath, the power, the energy, the magic, all of it left her in an instant. She looked back at Twilight, and smiled.
“See,” Amber said, something hot and coppery fell out of her mouth. “I told you I was good.” She looked down and saw the pool of crimson running out of her mouth, her nose, she even felt the liquid running down her ears and eyes. Amber sat down and thought about it, it sure seemed like she was bleeding a lot. Well I defeated the nightmare slime thing and saved the town, guess I can take a nap now.
Amber didn’t even get to lay down before the blackness swept over her, and all she could hear was Twilight screaming, what she was screaming was hard to make out, it was like Amber was underwater, though that might be blamed on all of that darn liquid running out of them. She fell into a dark world, one with no dreams, one where she didn’t’ feel the pain of her injures, nor had to worry about the ponies around her, too bad she knew she’s have to wake up soon.
***
Amber woke up, her body was full of dull throbbing pain, and she felt the not so comfortable bed beneath her. Everything was white for a few seconds as her eyes slowly adjusted to the sterile white lights above. Trixie was sobbing into Maud’s neck while Maud held her tightly. Twilight stood on the other side of Amber’s bed.
“What happened?” Amber asked weakly, her voice was horse.
“You…” Twilight seemed lost for words, she closed her eyes and finished, “You saved our lives, Amber. But you nearly died.”
Trixie gasped. “Don’t tell her that! My precious little foal does not need to know that!”
Maud stroked Trixie’s mane. “Shhh, she needs to know. Or else she might try to use that power again.”
“You are forbidden from using that power, do you understand me,” Trixie snapped.
Twilight nodded. “That power could easily kill you if you use it again. I think for now, you should avoid using it if possible.”
Amber shook her head, the world spun out of control, so she stopped moving. “I don’t know how I did that, but it was amazing. It was like I was a goddess.” She stayed quiet for a moment before asking, “How is everypony doing?”
“The village is freed from that thing’s grasp. Mayor Mare is being checked out by some doctors in the next room over, she looks fine though. Amber you and your friends were very brave, I should have put more trust into you and for that I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized.
Amber’s laugh was strained and it seemed to catch everypony off guard. “I told you I was capable. Next time you better clue me in, or else I’ll come into town trying to rescue my parents again.” The memory of what she caught her parents doing flashed in her mind and she cringed. “Ew, just… no. Don’t make me see that again.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow and a sly smile grew over her lips. Trixie blushed and hid her face into Maud’s chest. Maud stared flatly at Twilight and said, “What? We’re married, and we didn’t have any kids around. We’re entitled to do that.”
“You two never change do you?” Twilight asked rhetorically.
“No, we don’t,” Maud replied.
Trixie squeaked.
Amber smiled, closed her eyes and drifted off back to sleep. She was happy to know that everything was okay, and that her parents had been saved. It felt like things were going to change for Amber from now on, and hopefully she would get to go on some adventures with Twilight now. It felt like this was just the beginning of what was to come.
Heart of Shadow: Passing the Torch
Chapter Fourteen: The Painting
Chapter Fourteen: The Painting
Passing the Torch
Chapter Thirteen: The Painting
Written by TheCrimsonDM
“You were truly an inspiration to behold,” Color Splash said excitedly.
Amber walked alongside Color Splash as they made their way through the inside of Twilight’s Tree Castle, their hooves made comforting little sounds against the wooden floors. The canvas being carried on Color Splash’s back was covered with a white tarp.
“Really?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, you were covered in flames, and you even had flaming wings made out of fire and… well I’m going to have to paint it for you,” Color Splash said. “Though you did start that fire that nearly burned down half of the town hall… and you almost died.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me. If it wasn’t for the fact that I saved Twilight’s friends, and Mayor Mare, I would be in deep trouble right now,” Amber said quietly.
The lecture she received after getting out of the hospital about starting fires was a long and boring one, thankfully puking in protest made Twilight shut up, too bad that she was vomiting up blood at the time. Her body still felt very weak, but after hearing about what Color Splash had planned, she couldn’t help but join in.
“So, have you been feeling any better?” Color Splash asked.
“Kinda. I’m still a bit woozy, and weak. I haven’t even been able to lift my spoon to feed myself. Having my parents try and feed me has been awkward, and doing stuff with my hooves is really hard.”
“Uh, I’m an earth pony. I always do stuff with my hooves,” Color Splash replied.
“Yeah well I’m not, and it’s really hard,” Amber said defensively. “What are the others up too?”
“Jade and Sophie have become really close. Hush Puppy is avoiding Blackout as much as possible, but Blackout keeps showing up at our meetings, she says she’s waiting to make fun of you. I actually thing she’s just lonely. As for me, I’ve been painting as always,” Color Splash said.
“That’s nice, are everyponies parents doing okay? This is the first time I’ve been out in awhile,” Amber asked.
“Yeah, Rainbow Dash is kinda upset that she lost to a giant slime monster. Spike is surprised that you took him down so easily, and Rarity has been avoiding everypony completely. I guess breathing fire was uncouth or something,” Color Splash said that last part with a roll of her eyes. “As for Twilight, well she’s been visiting you, and doing research. Like she normally does.”
“That’s good to hear,” Amber said.
They stopped in front of a door, Color Splash opened it and together they walked inside. Twilight Sparkle sat on a couch and smiled at them. Amber sat against the wall and watched as Color Splash set the canvas down, the tarp stayed on.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, I wanted to ask you for some funding for a special art project of mine. I know that you would consider helping me out anyways, but I would very much like to show you a taste of my skills. So I painted this portrait just for you, it’s a representation of how our government works, I really hope you like it,” Color Splash explained, her tone was almost professional.
Twilight smiled. “I’m sure I’ll love it.”
Color Splash grinned happily and Amber couldn’t help but to snicker. Color Splash had no concept of what was acceptable, but Amber did, and she knew exactly how Twilight was going to react.
The tarp came flying off with a tug of Color Splash’s hoof and as Twilight’s eyes focused on the painting, they grew impossibly wide. She opened her mouth and inhaled deeply as she prepared to scream. Amber just sat against the wall, laughing.
The End
