A Gem to Brighten the Darkness

It was a new day at Canterlot High, the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and Zero Gravity was getting himself into other people’s business as usual. It was before the first bell and Zero was on the hunt for anything he could use to find out more about Heavenly Quill. So far he’s gotten no where, until a thought occurred to him. Sunset Shimmer had been the one to show Quill around the school, she might know something!

Zero rushed off to find her, he noticed her getting her things out of her locker and he ran over.

“Yo, bacon hair,” Zero hollered. “I was wondering if you could help me out with something.”

Sunset sighed and he closed her locker, she looked to Zero and crossed her arms. “Say my name right first.”

“Sunset Shimmer,” he addressed.

She smiled gently. “Thank you, now what do you need Zero? Do I need to get Celestia to bail you out of trouble again?, because you know she’s getting tired of it.”

“Not this time, I need you to tell me what you know about this Heavenly Quill guy,”

Sunset thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. ‘I don’t know much about him, just that he came here from Manehatten and he has a brother on the football team.”

“Hm, same city I’m from,” Zero acknowledged. “What’s his brother’s name?”

        “Heart Stone, he’s usually on the football field if you wanna go see him next, and good luck with Quill. He seems like the kind of guy who keeps everything to himself.” She said.

        “Interesting, alright thanks for the info. Hasta la bye bye.”

        Zero walked out into the football field and he began looked around for Heart Stone, when he realized he had no idea what he looked like.

        “.....shit, how am I going to find him.” He thought outloud only for him to come up with an idea and took a deep breath. “HEY, IS THERE ANYONE NAMED HEART STONE AROUND HERE BY ANY CHANCE, I FORGOT TO ASK WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE,”

 A tall young man with red skin, and dark gray hair over his left eye walked over to Zero. “I’m Heart Stone, what do you need man, I was trying to get some early practice in before the bell.”

        “Sorry,” Zero apologized. “But I was hoping if you could tell me more about your brother, Quill. I saw him yesterday when a few girls were thanking him for standing up against some bullies,and yet he just shrugged them off. That, and he seems so...distant from everyone else. So I wanted to know if okay he’s ok and all.”

Heart Stone rubbed the back of his head and he sighed. “I know someone was gonna ask about him eventually….” He looked to Zero, “Look man I’m glad you’re trying to help him, but it’s not my place to talk about stuff about his past. You’re gonna have to go ask him directly.” He said with a sigh.

        “Ah, the direct approach,” Zero said. “I appreciate the help, Heart Stone. Who knows, maybe if me and Quill become friends you and I can play sports from time to time. I’d love to go toe to toe with you and see if your worthy enough to stand up to me.”

        Heart Stone looked down at Zero and he smirked a little. “Sounds like a plan Zero, good luck with my brother. I hope you can help him.”

        Quill had finished all of his work for his science class so his teacher allowed him to come up to the library to pass the time until his next class. He scanned the shelves for something interesting, when when he noticed someone walking towards him out of the corner of his eye. He could tell from the person’s black spiky hair and japanese writing on their shirt that it was that guy Zero Gravity. Quill sighed and turned to face him.

“What do you want Zero?” He said in a monotone voice.

“Yo, new kid.” Zero greeted. “Heard you stood up to some bullies yesterday and wanted to thank you for looking out for the Crusaders. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon can be such bitches am I right?”

Quill sighed as held up two fingers. “One, please don’t curse when you’re talking about two little girls.” He put one finger down. “And two, like I told them it’s not problem.” He put the other finger down.

“That’s fair,” Zero agreed. “But not many people around here seem to pay any mind to others who are depressed or being bullied. That’s where me and Rainbow Dash come in, we usually keep an eye out for things like that and help out in anyway we can. But what I’m trying to say is thank you for helping them out.”

Quill looked to Zero and he sighed. “Look I know you’re here to try and find out what my deal is. I noticed you and your colorful friend listening in to me and the girls you call the crusaders. I’m gonna save you the trouble and tell you upfront I don’t need any help from you.” Quill turned back to the bookshelf, but the words he heard in his last dream popped up in his mind.

“You’re not alone.”

He glanced at Zero and said quietly. “Thanks for the concern.”

“What can I say,” Zero smiled . “I like to look out for others.”

Before Quill could respond the bell rang for their next class. Quill stood up and sighed, knowing the next class for him was gym.

Zero jumped in the air in excitement. “Alright! It’s dodgeball day.” he shouted, only for the librarian to shush him. “I hope Rainbow’s on the opposite team, it's time to see who’s really number one.” Zero looked towards Quill before continuing. “Hey do you have gym with me as well or nah.”

Quill nodded his head and he sighed, “Unfortunately yes, yes I do. Lets just go and get this over with.”

“Awesome,” Zero exclaimed. “I gotta warn you though, if we’re on opposite teams I won’t go easy on you, even if we’re pals.”

Quill looked to Zero and his eyes narrowed. “Look Zero I know you’re trying to be nice, but we’re not pals.” He walked past Zero and out of the library towards the gymnasium, only for Zero to shrug and follow along.

“If you say so.”

Quill looked down at his gym clothes, it was a white with the school’s horse head symbol on the chest. The gym shorts were black with the letters C.H.S on the pocket’s in capital letters. “Note to self, make gym clothes less boring…”

A feminine voice behind him spoke up. “Glad to see someone agrees with me. If we’re going to be sweating we should at least look good doing it!”

Quill turned to look at whoever spoke, he saw a girl with stunning white skin, and long purple hair that went to down to her back. He looked at the girl and he felt like he should know this girl.

Before he could say anything however he felt someone smack him on the back.

“Hey man! You ready to play some dodgeball?” Zero said with a smile.

Rarity had gone off to talk to her other friends in the class, leaving Quill standing there watching her go.

Zero followed his gaze and he laughed. “You're here for two days and you're already crushing on one of the prettiest girls in the school, regardless of the fact that she's way out of your league"

Quill turned and glared at Zero. “I’m not crushing on her idiot….I just thought I knew her from somewhere.”

“Sure you aren’t,” Zero smirked. “Now come on, it's game time.”

A loud whistle sounded right in their ears causing the two teens to wince and cover them. The coach was a bulky blue man with a dark blue mohawk.  He was wearing a white T-shirt accustomed with a black tie and dark blue shorts. “Enough talking! Iron Will says it’s time for dodgeball!”

Quill rolled his eyes and looked to the shouting man. “And what if I don’t want to play?”

Coach Iron Will turned to Quill and shouted in his face. “Its mandatory! Get out there and pelt the other team! Does Iron Will make himself clear!”

Quill sighed and he nodded. “Yes he makes himself loud and clear.” He said with an eye roll.

Quill stood in the back of his side of the court, he looked at his team members and he sighed. The only person of value on his team was that girl Rainbow Dash. With him, in the back was the Purple haired that had talked to Quill.

She looked to him and she smiled. “You’re the new boy here. Quill right? My name is Rarity.” She looked closely at him and she titled her head in confusion. “Actually darling have we met before? You seem familiar.”

Before Quill could respond that he felt the same, Coach Iron WIll blew his whistle and a red rubber ball slammed into the wall inches away from Quill’s face. Quill turned to see who had thrown the ball, only to see Zero With a big grin on his face.

“Keep your eye on the birdie, Quill. Otherwise, You’ll be annihilated.” Zero said as he gave a devilish grin.

Quill’s eye twitched and he slowly walked to the dividing line of the gym.

Rainbow Dash noticed him and shouted. “What the hell are you doing!? Get back behind me!”

Quill ignored her and picked up a ball, he pulled back and let it fly right at Zero’s face. Only for him to dodge it at the last second.

“Not a bad throw,” Zero commented. “But the battle is just getting STARTED!”

Quill glared at Zero and sidestepped a ball that one of Zero’s teammates threw.

Rainbow threw her ball and got that guy out, and she looked to Quill. “You got a good arm! Do me a favor and help me take outy Zero!”

Quill glanced from her to Zero before nodding. “Gladly.”

With that Quill and Rainbow Dash began to pick off Zero’s team one by one. Each of their shots were aimed at Zero but someone always got in the way. While Rainbow was playing purely offense, Quill kept glancing back at the less athletic people to make sure they were ok.

He caught several of the Dodge balls before they could harm anyone. He got a few thank yous from the people he defended.

Rarity in particular held him back and gave him a dazzling smile. “Thank you Darling for keeping those rubber menaces from ruining my clothes!.” She leaned up and gave him a peck on the cheek as a thank you gift.

Quill froze up and a blush spread across his face. He had no idea what to say to her. He began to stutter. “I..i..its.. n..nothing. uhh….R...rarity.”

Rarity giggled and patted his head. “You remind me of my friend’s little brother. He does the exact same thing when I kiss him on the cheek.” She turned her head and let out a scream when she noticed a ball heading right for her.

Quill caught it before it could hit and he sighed. “What kind of idiot purposely aims at a defenseless girl.” Quill said in a slightly angry tone.

Rarity blushed a little herself at his comment. “T...thank you Quill.”

Quill was about to respond when he felt a gut wrenching pain in his stomach.

Suddenly he found himself back in his burning room at his old house. He saw the dark figure this time clearly enough to make out a twisted smile. Then he heard the gunshot and the pain spread through his stomach.

On Zero’s side of the court, he just threw a dodgeball at Quill and it hit him right in the stomach while he was distracted.

“RULES OF NATURE!” Zero sang while he was doing a little dance of his. “And they run the when the sun comes up, with there lives on the line!”

While he was singing, he noticed Quill holding the side of his stomach in pain.

“Oh come on dude, I didn’t throw it that hard.” Zero noted. Only to notice a patch of red on Quill’s shirt.

Quill fell to his knees, before blacking out fully and collapsing on the floor. Rarity screamed and knelt by him. “C..Coach he’s bleeding!”

Coach Iron Will ran over to him and knelt by him. he moved his shirt to find the place he was bleeding. It was on the upper part of the side of his stomach. The blood was coming from a round darkly colored scar. “Someone get the school nurse now!”

Rainbow nodded. “Got it coach!” She took off running out of the gym. Iron Will took off his tie and balled it up before pushing on the wound to stop the bleeding.

“Oh Shit!” Zero exclaimed while running towards Quill’s unconscious body. “Is he gonna be Ok coach?!”

Coach Iron Will looked to him and he sighed. “Its not much blood, but Iron WIll has no idea what kind of wound this is. We need the nurse here now!”

Rainbow ran back in with the school nurse. The nurse hurried over to Quill and knelt by him. “It looks like the bleeding stopped but he still looks like hes in alot of pain. Someone help me take him to my office.”

Quill felt like he was on the cold hard gym floor for hours. When his mind finally came back to him he felt a soft surface under his body. he slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit up, only to feel a shooting pain in his side.

The nurse gently pushed him back down onto the bed. “You can’t try to sit up yet. You took a hit pretty hard on what looks like an old wound.”

Quill looked to the woman and slowly questioned, “H.. how did I get here?”

The nurse looked to him, “From what I heard you took a hard hit from a Dodgeball and it reopened that sound on your stomach. I had to call your mother to get more information on it. You do know you shouldn’t be playing games like that so soon after getting hurt.”

Quill placed his hand on his side and he sighed, “So you know what it is then… Please don’t tell anyone.”

The nurse shook her head and gave Quill a soft smile. “My job is to help students feel better now tell their secrets to people. Now then you need to lay back and get some rest ok? Your mother is on her way to take you home.”

Quill nodded and layed his head on the pillow.

The nurse’s phone rang and she answered it. A few moments later she sighed. “I have to go for a moment Quill. Just stay there until your mother arrives.” She stood up and headed out of her office.

Just as Quill closed his eyes to rest , the door to the room creaked open slightly, causing Quill to tilt his head in confusion.

“Guess who’s back,” sang the familiar voice. only for the door to be kicked opened by Zero who was holding two lunch trays. “Back again. Zero’s back, tell a frie-”

Quill sighed and he looked to the door. “Stop singing, I’m already in enough pain i don’t need a headache too.”

“Well, singing wasn’t my best quality anyways.” Zero shrugged. “I would have used the window but as you can see, I’m carrying two lunches.”

“Two trays? One for you and one for your ego?” Quill said sarcastically.

“If by ego you mean my stomach then yeah, but no its not for my stomach. It’s for you.” Zero explained. “I was already planning on visiting you during lunch and my girlfriend thought you might be hungry so she gave me her food since she wasn’t hungry, that and she said eating after exercise can make her sleepy.” Zero put the tray of food next to Quill. on the tray was a bowl of rice along with apple juice, while on Zero’s tray was the same thing with the addition of a burger. “Sorry that there’s no burger, Twilight still enjoys those.”

Quill looked to the tray his stomach did let out a slight growl. He slowly sat up wincing slightly from the pain in his side. He put the tray in his lap and began to eat the rise with the chopsticks Zero left on the tray. “This doesn’t get rid of the fact that you were the one that put me here Zero. I hope you know that.” He took a sip of the apple juice as he spoke.

“Hey, I can’t deny what happened,” Zero admitted. “That my good man is etched into history, but that doesn’t mean I can’t apologize or make up for it.”

        “You could apologize, but whether or not I accept it is another story entirely.” Quill said with a slight glare at Zero. “Why would you use that much force to begin with. If you had hit the girl beside me by accident she’d be worse off than me. Maybe next time you should actually think before you do something.” Quill said angrily.

        “Well…” Zero chuckled nervously. “Something like that already happened. I misfired and hit Fluttershy by mistake, except she wasn’t bleeding.” Zero said before taking a bite of his burger, only to stop halfway. “You don’t mind me eating meat do you? I kinda went through the same scenario with Fluttershy and she was a little uncomfortable with this, so I ate after I left.”

        Quill rolled his eyes, “I am a vegetarian, but I couldn’t care less what you eat. Everyone is entitled to their own choices… unless those choices involve nailing someone in the stomach with a dodgeball.” Quill said coldly.

        Zero stopped eating and closed his eyes, he told a deep breathe reopened his eyes before he began talking once more. “So...something bad happened to you huh.”

        Quill turned to Zero, his eyes were slightly wide. “What makes you say that?”

        “Oh come on, it's written all over your face.” Zero began. “You’re so gloomy, you want to be alone, your brother said he can’t talk about your past. And if that didn’t give it away, you started bleed after I hit you on the side, meaning you must have gotten a pretty bad wound recently. that, and your attitude sucks.”

        Quill opened his mouth to talk, but nothing came out but a sigh. he looked down at this tray. “So its that obvious? I didn’t think you’d be smart enough to figure all that out… I didn't think anyone would put two and two together. I bet you want to know what happened now don't you?” Quill said as he looked to Zero.

        “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I will say this.” Zero said as he gave a serious look on his face. “Don’t succumb to the darkness inside your mind, if you do...you’ll never come back.”

        Quill was speechless after hearing Zero’s surprisingly sincere advice. Quill let out a sigh. “Zero answer me one more Question and answer it honestly. No jokes and no sarcasm.”He turned to face zero wincing slightly. ‘Why do you care so much?”

        Zero gave a soft smile. “Well that’s personal too, but I can tell you this much. I hate to see people like you without any friends or someone to rely on. I mean come on, as far as I know you haven’t look happy since you got here. So come on, crack a smile once in a while. You’re in a better place.”

        Quill looked down as he took in Zero’s words. He started to shake a little and he looked to Zero with a smile in his face.. “T...thank you Zero.” The smile looked odd on Quill's face, like it's been awhile since he's smiled.

        Zero stood up and cracked his back, “Well, I’ve had enough emotional chat for one day, time to take my leave.” Zero walked over to the window and opened it. “Hm, we’re on the second floor, kinda hoping we were on the third.” Zero unzipped his backpack and took out a grappling hook before attaching it to the window then looked at Quill and gave a thumbs up. “I’ll catch you later, oh and I’m sorry about the whole dodgeball thing.”

        Quill watched him with a confused look on his face, “What are you doing? Please tell me you're not going to do what I think you're about to do.”

        “What? You said people are entitled to their choices, plus doors are too mainstream.” Zero said before jumping down. “BY THE WAY, I THINK YOUR MOM’S HERE!” He shouted. “ALSO, DON’T TELL CELESTIA I DID THIS! SHE CAUGHT ME AT LEAST FIVE TIMES NOW!”

        Quill blinked and tried to register what just happened in his mind. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “There is something seriously wrong with him.” He concluded with a nod of his head.

Not so long after Lila walked into the room and ran to Quill. She hugged him tightly which made him wince a little. “I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU QUILL! WHEN I HEARD YOU GOT HURT I DROPPED EVERYTHING AND CAME RIGHT OVER.”

Quill gently pushed her away and he gave her a slight smile. “Lila not too tight… my stomach still hurts a little.

Lila looked at Quill and noticed his smile, she began to tear up. “Y..you're smiling! Quill you're smiling! Its been so long since I've seen you smile!” She held him in her arms and smiled happily.

Quill slowly returned the hug and he smile grew bigger.

Twilight Sparkle sat with Zero at the Sugar Cube Corner bakery happily sharing a milkshake with him. “So how did it go with Heavenly Quill?”

        “We had a little bit of a sappy conversation and told him one of my philosophical thoughts and he finally cracked a smile, so I think he’s coming around.”

        Twilight smiled softly at her boyfriend. “That’s good, maybe we can get him to hang out with us sometime. I have seen him in the library before, so maybe he and I can… as you would say ‘nerd it out’.”

        “Yeah, that wasn’t the best choice of words and that’s not what I said.” Zero said nonchalantly. “But I think it’s a little too soon for him to start hanging out with us, he needs a little more time to himself.”

        Twilight nodded a little “I guess you are right, but maybe we should try and talk with him. Rarity seems to think that they met before.”

        “Hm, so he wasn’t crushing on her,” Zero said while drinking his milkshake. “I was a little worried there, maybe Spike still has a chance.”

        Twilight laughed , “Spike will realize that she’s too old for him soon. Speaking of Spike I have to head out and pick him up from soccer practice. See you later Zero.”

        “See ya later, Twi.” Zero waved. “Tell the little guy to come over my to place so we can finish that final boss together.”

“Will do,” Twilight confirmed as she walked out the door, leaving Zero to gather his thoughts on today's events. He started chewing on his straw as he thought about Quill more and more, Zero didn’t care much about his past, but more about what he’ll do from this point on. He knew his smile was an honest one, but that doesn’t mean something wouldn’t come along and take it away from him. whether the darkness in his heart will take over or not will be up to him in the end.

“Heavenly Quill,” Zero frowned as some of his dark thoughts began to cloud his mind.

“How long will your heart be darkened by the shadows of your past.”