Nix: Identity

CHAPTER SIX: QUANDARY

J

So far, no news had come up regarding the whereabouts about the individuals who had attacked me. While many assumed that Starlight Glimmer was behind it, I still refrained from making any rash conclusions. As for the other individual, nothing from any of our combined investigations came up.

I looked out the window of the dormitory that I had taken up residence. It was the same dormitory that I had rested in two years ago when I first arrived in this universe. Not much had changed from when I was last in, as per the Princesses request.

Not that it had much in it before I arrived.

A few books for reference were cluttered on the floor and bookshelf, a few opened up to the pages I had read for researching the individuals in question. A bed lay in the middle of the room, covers folded nicely. The floor was composed of a shiny maple wood, each plank laid perfectly symmetrical to each other. From the light coming from the window, I could see dust particles fluttering down from the ceiling onto the curtains and floor.

I sighed as I looked out the window onto Ponyville, watching the townsfolk go about their daily routine. A feeling of calmness swept over me as I watched them work. My universe may be significantly more advanced than this one, but it lacks in one aspect: a sense of tranquility.

My eyes drifted over the town and then onto the Everfree Forest. Its dense growth of trees covered the entire landscape, a shroud of mystery and intrigue that piqued many a pony’s interest. Compared to the sleepy calmness of Ponyville, it was a stark contrast, filled with apprehension and slight fear.

A harmonious relationship of sorts, I supposed. Each needs the other to thrive in some way. Just as Chaos needs Order, and Order needs Chaos.

I stared silently at the land, taking in all its features, thoughts drifting through my mind on a wind of epiphany. I found myself grasping my violin as my eyes glazed over, a pensive look appearing on my face. Unconsciously I began to play on the instrument, a melodic tune escaping the strings. It wasn’t any particular song, more of a series of notes that compelled me to think. The bow acted as my thoughts’ movements, speeding up or slowing down depending on the rapidity of each thought or the intensity of each idea. My body naturally moved to the song, swaying left and right and all around the room, legs dancing slowly and surely to the beat. My eyes closed as I thought and played in harmony, my brow furrowed in concentration, thoughts swirling around me, a torrent of ideas that I revelled in. The music sped up, all the way through, then gradually slowed. The pace fell, the end of a tune, until one final, long, drawn-out note remained hanging above the silent abyss. I held it for as long as I could, until I had to let go. When I did, the music faded away into the abyss, leaving behind a nostalgic feeling in my heart.

I heard clapping behind me, but did not start in surprise. I smiled. “Discord,” I called, turning around to face the draconequus. “I take it you enjoyed my playing?”

“Indeed,” the Element of Disharmony said. His serpentine body mixed with the head of a horse, a right deer antler, a left blue goat horn, one long fang, two distinctly differing in size pupils, a snake tongue, a goat beard, white bushy eyebrows, the right arm of a lion, the left claw of an eagle, the right leg of a lizard, the left leg of a goat, a bat’s right wing, a pegasus’s left wing, a horse’s mane, and a dragon-like snake’s tail with a white tail tuft demonstrated his unusual anatomy. As such, he was technically a chimera, a creature composed of the body parts of different animals. As he spoke, a deep, rich voice that was disarmingly charming came out. “I must say, I am impressed by your playing.”

“Thanks. I try.”

“Really? No retort, no sarcastic comment?” He laughed. “Has the Guardian truly changed that much in two years?”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re one to talk. Look at you. You were this universe’s Spirit of Chaos, and now you’re one of its greatest protectors.” I smiled. “In two years, you’ve changed quite a lot, haven’t you?”

Discord snorted. “That’s nothing. I’m only protecting what is mine.”

“You mean, what you care for.”

“Well, of course I do! If I didn’t, then it wouldn’t be mine, would it?”

I chuckled, leaning back against a wall, violin drooped at my side. “So what brings you to my humble abode, oh master of Disharmony?”

“Psh. Mocking me, are you?” He casually raised a clawed hand and used a bit of his energy to bend reality. The books at my feet suddenly melted, and the wall turned to rubber.

I sighed. “Please don’t do that.” I raised my own hand, and my eyes glowed briefly white. A second later, there was a flash of light, and reality returned to normal.

Discord gave a dejected sigh. “I keep forgetting that your power rivals mine.”

“Nonsense. I’m just better at wielding Chaos than you are.”

“How ironic.”

There was a knock on the door. Discord teleported over to it and opened it with a swing of his hand. With another careless swing, he flung the knockers inside. I managed to catch them with my telekinesis and slowly lowered them to the ground. “Discord!” I scolded. “That is no way to treat guests!” I looked at the guests and smiled. “Especially when those guests are your friends.”

Discord mocked a gasp. “Oh my, how could I have been so careless?” He leaned in. “I am so sorry, Fluttershy, will you ever forgive me?”

The yellow pony was about to answer her friend, when Pinkie spoke up. “Oh! Look! A dragon!”

Discord looked offended. “Pinkie Pie, dear, you know I am not a dragon. I am a draconequus.”

“Dragon, draconequus, what’s the difference?” she responded cheerfully. Discord sighed exasperatedly, raising a claw.

“Er, anyway,” I interrupted, before Discord warped reality in annoyance, “what are you doing here, girls?”

“Twilight says you might be interested in something,” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Really? Do tell, I’d love to hear what that Princess has to say,” Discord said.

“She said that she wants Jared to come along with her to that town that Starlight Glimmer used to be leading. It might help gather some leads on where she is.”

“Twilight also gets a chance to check up on the town!” Pinkie exclaimed.

I nodded. “Sounds good to me. Who’s going?”

“Well...Princess Celestia wants most of us to remain behind, and most of us are busy anyway...so it’ll be you, Twilight, and Shadow…”

“Alright. What time should I meet them?”

“Now would be good!” Pinkie said, smiling cheerfully. “They’re already on the train. Shadow said you’d meet them there anyway.”

I shook my head. “It’s probably too late to get a ticket anyway. I’ll just run there.”

Fluttershy gave me a confused look. “Run? I thought you couldn’t run all that fast, Jared.”

I grinned. “With a bit of Chaos Control, I can run at the speed of sound. Should be fast enough.”

Fluttershy and Pinkie nodded, while Discord looked bored. “Oh, dear, I was actually thinking of having some actual fun with you, Jared.”

I gave him a sly wink. “I’m sure you’ll manage.” I gave them a two finger salute, then, after summoning some Chaos energy, I sped off at the speed of sound.

“I told you he’d make it,” Shadow quietly murmured as he and Twilight rode the train to the mysterious town.

Twilight gave him an awed look. “Yeah, I never doubted you...but he’s actually keeping up with this vehicle!”

Shadow shook his head and grinned. It was a nice grin, one that was distinctly different than the dark one he would have given a while back, before he entered Equestria. “He’s capable of the impossible, remember?”

“Of course; how could I forget?”

Meanwhile, I was calmly running by the train, boosting occasionally to keep the pace. While I was by no means as fast as either Sonic, Shadow, Rainbow, or Nix, I could certainly hold my own in a simple race; before being completely outclassed, of course. The train reminded me of the board game Candyland, with its coaches in the shape of sweets. Twilight and Shadow resided in the first coach behind the engine, which was in the shape of a brown and pink cupcake. The coaches behind were more of a cake shape. The locomotive was similar in design to the common steam locomotive, tubular at the face and a square box for where the engineers would ride. It was pink and purple, the windows in the shape of hearts. The face also had a small heart on it. The cowcatcher—an inclined platform placed in front of the train to ram animals off of the tracks— was a dolphin-grey, with two rows of hearts embossed upon it. Pinkie must really like this train, I reflected as I ran.

“Er, sir?” one of the pony engineers called. “Are you sure you don’t want to hitch a ride?”

I gave him a thumbs up. “I’m fine, really. In fact—” there was a competitive gleam in my eye; “—I’ll make it there before you can!”

I grabbed extra energy and boosted to just under Mach 2, accelerating so quickly ahead of the train that it soon turned into a miniscule speck in the distance.

A short time later, I arrived at the end of the railroad. I slowed by dragging my heels and took a second to look at my shoes. They were dirty from all the running, but thankfully didn’t fall apart. A few minutes passed, and then the train arrived. It applied its brakes, gently coming to a stop at the bump. Twilight and Shadow got off. The engineers gave them a nod, gave me an odd look, then reversed the train and headed back to Ponyville.

“You got faster,” Shadow said as we watched it go.

I smirked. “You got more social.”

He chuckled. We began walking to the town.

“Does this town have a name?” asked Shadow as we neared the outskirts of the town.

Twilight shook her head. “The first time we came here, it didn’t bother giving itself a name.”

“How odd,” the black hedgehog commented.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” I said suddenly, pointing at the town’s residents. Their gaze turned to where I was pointing.

The ponyfolk acted similarly to how Ponyville’s residents acted, but it was their faces that threw me off. They were all smiling a wide smile, stretching from ear to ear. They seemed unnatural, foreign, and fake to the eye.

“Ugh!” I groaned. “Reminds me of the Joker’s grin. Creepy.”

Twilight shook her head. “Somehow, the influence of Starlight Glimmer still remains in those smiles.”

Shadow nodded. “Thank goodness you managed to liberate them somewhat.”

I nodded my agreement, and together we walked towards the creepy town.

The first pony we met gave us a creepy smile. “Welcome!” he said, the wide smile still plastered on her lips.

“Er...thanks, I guess,” I replied, unnerved.

Shadow ignored their welcoming.

Twilight, on the other hand, got the most attention from the ponies. Many of them remembered her from when she and the Mane Six arrived in their town. Several came up to her and thanked her continuously. Twilight, though grateful, was slightly embarrassed.

“Princess Twilight!’ somepony called. I looked up and saw a pink unicorn run up and give Twilight a big hug. Behind her trailed a dark blue pegasus with a white mane and a light blue unicorn.

I didn’t recognize them, but Twilight did. “Sugar Belle!” she exclaimed as she hugged the pink pony back. “And Night Glider and Party Favor!”

Sugar Belle nodded happily. I noticed her cutie mark. It was a purple and teal cupcake with a red cherry on top. Probably a baker, I thought. I looked at the others. Night Glider had a crescent moon with two silver feathers around it; for what I was unsure of. Party Favor had a pink balloon toy for his, which most likely referred to an ability with balloons.

What an odd group of ponies, I thought.

“How are things with the town, guys?” Twilight asked.

“It’s going great!” answered Night Glider. She flew up and around excitedly before landing back in front of the alicorn. “We’ve managed to get everypony his or her Cutie Mark back.”

“Who are your friends?” Party Favor asked.

“This is Shadow the Hedgehog. You may have heard of him?” Twilight pointed at the black hedgehog, who managed a small smile.

“Oh, him. One of the saviors, right?” Party Favor nodded, then turned to me. “Who’s he?”

Shadow smirked. “Do you want the full title, or…”

Sugar Belle gasped. “He has a title?”

I bowed politely. “Jared Berberabe. The Ghost, the Spirit, the Runner. Embodiment of Hope, Controller of Chaos. Green Lantern. Wielder of the Tetraforce. Avenger and Justice Leaguer. Detective, Writer, Philosopher, Theoretical Physicist, Marksman. Guardian of the Omniverse.”

They gasped. “The actual Guardian?” Sugar Belle gasped. The entire town heard this, turned to face us, and bowed.

I stood and rubbed the back of my head, a cheeky smile on my face. “Uh, I know I’m famous and all that...but I’m not royalty.”

They all stood, embarrassed, but I assured them that there was nothing to be embarrassed about with a smile.

“So, Twilight!” Sugar Belle began. “What brings you here?”

A serious look came across Twilight’s features. “We’re...investigating Starlight Glimmer.”

“Really? What for?”

I answered, “We suspect that she was one of the two individuals who had attacked me in the Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“She attacked you?”

“We suspect. It’s not a given yet; we just want to find out more about this character.”

“I see. Well, we’ll all be happy to help if we can,” said Party Favor.

I began my questioning, asking everything the town knew about Starlight Glimmer. Not much was known of the pegasus’s past. She somehow acquired the funds to create this town from something, though from what was also unknown. The ponies had come here out of their own free will, thanks in part by the propaganda Starlight had been spewing. The promises of friendship and equality proved extremely tempting.

As evidenced by how the ritual of removing their Cutie Marks was described, Starlight was not an ordinary unicorn. If she could easily remove a pony’s Mark, there was no telling what else she could do. Magically, she may not have been as powerful as an alicorn, but she was definitely not to be trifled with.

I shook my head as I finished my last questioning. Not much had come out of it that a bit of logical reasoning could conclude. I turned to Twilight and Shadow. “We don’t have much that we don’t already know,” I told them. They nodded dejectedly.

Sugar Belle looked down. “I’m sorry, Jared. We weren’t exactly so aware of Starlight’s origins.”

I waved off her depression. “It’s no one’s fault but Glimmer’s. She’s just good at hiding her past.”

My eyes wandered around the town absentmindedly, while inwardly I was ruminating. Gradually my eyes moved up to a house at the edge of the town, just outside the equal sign structure. It piqued my interest in that it was oddly placed. “What is that?” I asked, pointing.

Sugar Belle’s eyes followed my finger. “That? That was where Starlight Glimmer used to reside.”

I turned and started walking towards it. Night Glider protested, “Er, Jared? I wouldn’t bother.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“That door’s been bolted shut for a time, and the windows are covered.”

I smirked. “That seems to warrant a search to me.” Without another word, I resumed walking.

I reached the door a few moments later. I tried the knob. True to Glider’s word, it was locked shut, and no amount of wiggling would loosen it. I glanced around the sides and saw that the windows were indeed curtained. Odd, I thought, looking at the door. Why is this locked?

I pushed, and found that it would not budge. At this point, the others caught up to me.

“Huh?” Twilight asked. “That’s odd; the door wasn’t locked the last time we were here.”

“In fact,” Party Favor continued, “nopony has entered this house in such a while!”

I nodded. “Which means something had to have come in recently to have locked it. Shadow?”

I gestured to the door and stepped back. Shadow nodded and walked up to it.

“Chaos...Blast!”

It was small, but strong enough, shattering the wood into tiny specks. The metal bar that had blocked the door fell to the ground with a clank. As the smoke cleared, we walked inside, with me wafting an arm around to remove the smoke.

Inside was a mess. Stacks of paper were all around, on the ground and desk. A few bottles filled with unknown fluids were on a shelf that rocked with the Chaos Blast. A few banners lay at the back, and an old, mahogany bookshelf, still filled with volumes. In the back was a bedroom.

While these were of varying interests, they weren’t what caught my eye.

It was what the room lacked.

“Do you guys see it?” I asked them.

Twilight gave me a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

I waved an arm around. “There isn’t a shred of dust in here! Do you realize what this means?”

Shadow’s eyes widened. “Someone’s been here recently.”

I looked down and closed my eyes, concentrating all my focus on my sense of hearing, listening for the distinct and distant sound of hooves stomping.

I heard it downstairs.

My eyes shot open. “Whoever they are, they’re still here!”

I raced forward towards the bedroom and threw the bed away, revealing a trap door. I threw it open and dove down the steps. The hooves grew distant until they were no longer within my range of hearing, yet I knew that I had to keep up with them. I heard Shadow and Twilight, as well as the three other ponies, follow after me.

The trapdoor led through a tunnel which I rapidly cleared. There was an opening that led to the outside, on the outskirts of the town. I looked down and saw hoof marks in the dirt, leading up the mountains at the south.

“There!” I exclaimed, speeding off at the speed of sound towards the mountain pass. Shadow followed at the same speed.

Whoever it was that had been in the house, it was obvious they were trying to vanish into the mountains. Unfortunately, they had too much of a head start, and the mountains zig-zagged all around, obstructing the view at certain levels. To cut time short, I made a sharp turn at a side and leapt forward, straightening out my body to cut through the air. I landed on the other side of the precipice, snow flying around me. I didn’t wait for Shadow to follow, getting to my feet and speeding around the mountain.

Eventually I reached the entrance to the mountain’s caves. I slowed to a grinding halt and took in the entrance. Based on the hoof marks, the pony was most definitely in there somewhere. Snow covered the top of the mountain and blanketed around, coating the rock surface with a layer of coldness. Shadow suddenly appeared by my side with a teleport. Twilight and the others shortly arrived and also took in the mountain.

“Well?” Shadow said. “What are we waiting for?”

I nodded, and we entered the caves.