Chapter 9: Searching for Answers

I was barely able to sleep last night in spite of everything that has happened. Our run in with those high schoolers, Starry’s loss in the duel, my fountain exploding, what Sigmund explained briefly afterwards, and … that. The fountain shouldn’t have exploded as Mother and Father have that thing checked and cleaned at least once a month, and yet it still did. But then there was what Sigmund had me do after that incident that just left a lot more questions than answers, which made me want to sleep for the rest of the evening without dinner. I had a hard time falling asleep not believing what I even heard.

~~

“You want me to do what now?” I asked the soaking wet Sigmund after shielding me from the falling fountain water and debris.

“I understand it’s an odd request, milady, but please, just play along with the idea for now. I want to confirm something.”

“… Very well.” I walked over to the aftermath of the fountain explosion, with only the metal pipes sputtering liquids, what was left of the stone structure, and a large amount of water in the bottom that survived the blast. What Sigmund requested of me was rather simple: dunk one of my hands in the water, concentrate on the parts that were wet, and just pull it out. I had no idea where he was going with it, but I was just too fed up with what happened today to question it too much.

I took my left hand and placed it in the water, just halfway between the surface and the bottom of the fountain. Okay, my hand’s in the water. The water’s chilly, but not frighteningly cold, I could feel it just up to my forearm, and it’s oddly refreshing with how much of a day I had. Perhaps a nice shower would be a better course of action, but I suppose I could also settle for this cooling myself down. I nodded to myself as I concentrated on the parts of my arm that the water touched, then turned my head to Sigmund while pulling my hand out. “There, satisfied? Now would you please explain what exactly it is you needed to confirm?”

Sigmund just stood there wide-eyed and not exactly looking at me. “Milady, you may need to see your hand again.”

“Again? I don’t see what—” I stopped mid-sentence when I put my hand in front of me to not only feel that it was still cold and wet from the water, but to see that same water literally clinging to it. It was a like a thick glove made of liquid that flowed and rippled as I moved my hand, and it wasn’t until I shrieked and pulled it away that the water slipped right off and fell to the ground. “W-What …What was that?!”

“It’s just as I thought,” Sigmund muttered while looking to the side.

“Sigmund, do you know what’s going on? I demand that you tell me what this is this instant! That’s an order!”

“Yes, of course. It will take me time to explain in full detail, which I will most certainly do tomorrow, but to put it briefly for now—and this is just what I’ve heard in legends during my younger days—you possess a special magic only a handful of ponies are able to use. In your case milady, that was called Water Magic.”

“… Called what now?”

~~

Sigmund had to cut off the conversation there as he needed to gather the necessary staff to clean up the mess as well as order a new fountain before Mother and Father make their return from Cloudsdale. I had to turn down the food he offered as the long day left me too exhausted to not do much else, including arguing with Sigmund to get those answers. I was even too tired to react much when I found something else during my bath. I seemed to have a hard time sleeping throughout last night, thinking I finally had some rest for a moment only to wake up an hour or two later, and then the cycle repeated itself. I stared out the window to watch the heavy rainfall in between intervals until it finally stopped at least an hour before dawn broke.

The whole time I only laid on my side under the covers, changed into a nightgown to [presumably] sleep in after a short bath. It was still dark outside as I pulled out the hand the water clung onto earlier in front of me. I could still feel the cold wetness around the odd area even now despite nothing covering the hand, which was still strange in itself, but the one thing that kept clawing my mind was how Starry was doing after the Magic Duel yesterday. I understood what Granite was trying to say when she stopped me checking up on him, but I was still worried even when I plopped myself on my mattress. I pulled one of the extra pillows and hugged it tightly, imagining it as my dear friend and hoping the feelings put into it would find their way toward him somehow.

“To put it in Granite’s crude language, I’d cuddle the shit out of him right about now,” I said to myself, chuckling a little at how wrong it sounded even though she had me swearing not too long ago.

Further thoughts were interrupted when the door suddenly slammed open, jumping myself up to a sitting position in shock to see Sigmund breathing heavily.

“Lady Misty! We have an emergency!” he exclaimed.

The sudden surprise made me groan and rubbed my eyes from the lack of sleep. “What could it possibly be at this early in the morning?”

“I was going through my usual routes this morning, including the mail, and … I stumbled upon this.” He walked over to me and passed me a scroll that was loosely tied in a fancy ribbon.

I took the scroll and unravel it open. “‘To Misty, it is with great regret to say …’” I mumbled aloud as I skimmed through the letter before my eyes slowly opened fully wide up to the end. “N-No, it can’t …” The letter was shaking in my hands as my eyes started to water. I moved my head down and blinked them back, my messed up mane hung below me. “Sigmund.”

“Yes, Lady Misty?”

“I want you to stop everypony on staff right now from what they’re doing and organize them into search parties,” I commanded with a shaky breath, my head still down. “Have them comb the streets of the city and find whatever clues of where Starry was last seen, and I want this started as of fifteen minutes ago.” I set the paper to the side of my bed before I quickly skimmed through my closet for something to wear on short notice. I didn’t care how I looked, I just wanted to get into something decent. So I went with a baby blue blouse and a white skirt.

“It will be executed immediately, but what are you planning to do?”

“I’m going to tell Granite what’s going on, and then have a word with Mister … with Marine Night and Olive Heart and see what they’ve done with Starry. Find us if any of you come across anything useful that might help us in locating him.”

“As you wish, Lady Misty, and best of luck.” He bowed slightly before quickly leaving the room with the door shut behind him.

I changed from my nightgown to the set of clothes I chose as soon as I was alone before I rolled up Starry’s letter. I opened the large window doors that led to a small balcony and unfurled my wings for takeoff. “If this turns out to be some sick joke, he’s going to have such a smack to the face when I find him!” I swore before I flew out of my room and made my way to the West side of Canterlot where Granite resided.

Dawn was just breaking as I flew high in the skies, keeping myself observant in all directions in case of passersby and any sign of Starry left behind in the streets. I gripped Starry’s letter tightly in my hand as I grew more frustrated and worried.

“Misty! Hey! Down here!” a familiar voice called out, interrupting my thoughts and search.

I looked down to see it was Granite in a set of sweats, probably on her usual morning jog. I swooped myself down to a hover just above the ground in front of her, seeing her whole face reddened and covered in sweat upon closer inspection.

“Misty! You’re not going to believe what happened! Star—!”

“I know,” I interrupted as I held up my letter. “I assume he left you the same thing?”

She nodded as she held up a rolled up letter of her own, gripped inside a hand wrapped in bandages. “Is it true? Is Star really …”

I was confused for why she had bandages around her hand, but I shook myself out of it. “That’s what we’re going to find out from Marine and Olive.” I turned back and flew towards Starry’s residence while Granite was following close behind. “We need to hurry. If we get there fast enough, he might not have—”

“Look out!”

I quickly turned forward upon Granite’s warning, but reacted too late as my head suddenly rammed into something green and black. The momentum sent the both of us flying before falling to the ground in a rough manner. I heard pieces of paper rustling about after the impact, but didn’t pay too much attention of what they were as I sat up with a groan.

“Ow. I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t see where I was going.”

“It’s fine. Have you seen my hat?”

“Um … Oh! Here it is.” I picked up a ragged, black bucket hat from the ground at my side and did my best to remove whatever dirt was on it. “Again, I’m so sorry for the …” I looked up to the stallion I flew into before my eyes widened. “Wait a minute, you’re—”

“The guy that went bonkers over that gem eating colt the other day!” Granite finished.

“Huh?” He was rubbing his head before he opened his eyes and glanced between us. “Oh yeah. I think I remember seeing the two of you earlier. Thanks,” he said as he took his hat and placed it on his head before he stood up and gave me a hand. “So what brings you two around these parts this early in the morning?”

I gladly took his offer and pulled myself up to standing before I patted whatever dirt was on my skirt. “We’ve lost our friend and are going to see his parents to find some answers. Yourself?”

“I was going to turn in a form to a certain boss of mine and …” he patted his worn out jacket and reached its insides before panic grew on his face. “W-Wait, where is it?”

“You’re resigning from the guard academy, Nil Thunder?” Granite asked as we both turned to her. She was holding a piece of paper under her arm and two black books in her hands she was skimming pages over. “And what’s up with these notebooks? One’s a bunch of mare names with their measurements and the other with notes on complicated magic … Wait, is this—?”

“None of your business, I’m afraid. Thank you,” Nil interrupted as he took both notebooks and his form before shoving them back in his jacket. “Now, if either of you could possibly tell me how I can get to a Marine Night’s residence, I’ll just be on my—way?!”

The tall pegasus was suddenly pulled down to Granite’s level as she gripped on his collar and glared into his eyes. “Funny. That’s actually where we’re going, and I say those notes does have business with me. What can you tell me about this Earth Magic and this Wielder crap?”

Earth Magic? Wielder? Sigmund mentioned something like that, too. “Granite, did that notebook mention anything on Water Magic by any chance?”

She looked up with a raised brow. “Huh? Actually, yeah. I think I saw something like that on there, too.”

“Well, Nil Thunder, I believe we can assist each other with our circumstances,” I said with a fixed posture and hands on my hips. “As my friend Granite Stone had said, we were on our way to Marine’s residence as well, and we would be more than happy to escort you there. In exchange, we require your assistance in answering some questions about that complicated magic. This isn’t a request, either. If you refuse, then I, Misty Crystalwaters, will be sure to figure out how I can use that other ‘special notebook’ of yours against you once I bring it up to my parents’ lawyers.”

Nil’s eyes suddenly shrunk to the size of pinpricks. “C-Crystalwaters? As in the Crystalwaters of the Crystalwater Rain Corporation?”

“The very same. Do we have a deal?”

“… Dude, I’d do as she says,” Granite suggested. “If you know about her family, then you know you’ll wish my fist to your muzzle to be the last of your problems if you don’t work with us. Capiche?”

“Y-Yes, of course! It would be my pleasure to answer some questions to some … cute, sweet little fillies like yourselves,” Nil said before forcing a very wide grin.

“Excellent. Glad we came to an understanding,” I said with a smile before I nodded to Granite to release him from her death grip. “Oh and don’t think about running away from us, either. We know who you are and we have connections with the Royal Guard if you haven’t guessed already. We’ll hunt you down to the ends of Equestria if we have to.”

“Th-That won’t be necessary.” Nil cleared his throat and fixed his hat. “Shall we get going then? Onward!” He then started walking ahead of us with stiff steps while we followed behind him.

“Pst, Misty. Is this even all right?” Granite asked. “I want to know as much about whatever the fuck this magic is as you are—even though I have no idea why—but isn’t blackmail going a little too far? Compared to my standards of delinquency, this is pretty rotten to the core.”

I sighed. “You’d be surprised what else Mother and Father have taught me in hopes of taking over the business. It’s not my cup of tea, but if I didn’t resort to something, I was afraid he might get away. As for why I’m interested in this magic, I’ll have to explain later once we get this Starry business taken care of.”

Granite nodded while we kept a close eye on the shady looking stallion ahead of us. I think both of us could agree without saying that he looked pretty off to be a cadet of the guard academy.

~~

It didn’t take us long to reach Starry’s home. Things were starting to get brighter as the morning pulled ahead, but it was still early enough that other ponies around might still be sleeping in. When we reached the door, I turned to Granite standing beside me while Nil occupied another side. “Granite? Would you do the honors?”

“My pleasure.” She popped her knuckles along with the stiffness in her neck before she made a strong back kick on the door with a battle cry. Nil yelped while the door was torn off the hinges and fell to the floor inside. Granite then stepped on the door. “Marine! Olive! Get your arses down here! We got a word with you!”

“What the hay is going on here?!” Marine exclaimed as he and his wife quickly came down the stairs in their nightwear. “Granite, you and Misty better have a good reason kicking our door down or—Nil Thunder? What are you doing here?”

“Don’t mind me. I just came to drop off this form while I ran into these two,” Nil held up his resignation form from behind us.

So they are acquainted somehow. I still don’t see this Nil being part of the guard academy looking like that. I shook my head off of those straying thoughts before I looked up to Marine with a glare. “Marine Night, Granite and I also have something that you two should see and demand some answers from.”

We both handed our letters to the parents. They quickly skimmed through them before their faces suddenly paled and looked at each other. “This can’t …”

“Is it really?”

The couple then dropped the letters and ran up the stairs inside the house. “Hey! I’m not through with you!” Granite exclaimed as she followed them before Nil and I came up behind her. I made sure I had both of our letters with me.

We ended up in Starry’s room that was in a mess and smelled of rain and old pasta. His school supplies was spread across his bed, most of his closet and drawers were empty, a plate of lasagna—Starry’s favorite dish—was sitting on his desk uneaten, and a large damp stain was seen below a closed window.

“No …” Olive trailed off with tears watering up her eyes as she covered her muzzle. She collapsed to her knees. “Did he somehow hear us?”

“Hey!” Granite stomped over to Marine and grabbed his collar before pulling him to face her. “I’m asking what the fuck happened last night?! Where’s our friend?! What the fuck did you even say to him?!”

Marine stood there with his head down and in a state I’ve never seen up until now: a face marked of tears. “I’m sorry. I just, I’m not … obligated to say.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?! You drove him away! You should know what happened! Why won’t you fucking tell me, dammit?!” Granite was starting to tear up as she dropped him and weakly pounded his chest. “Tell me, dammit! Tell me … please, just … tell me.” She then dropped to her knees and elbows before bawling on the spot.

Getting the gravity of the situation, I collapsed onto own my knees and started bawling as well. My tears fell to the floor and my fists were tightened on my lap. Olive started sobbing on Starry’s bed while Marine just stood there and cried silently. The next moment I heard a piece of paper being placed on Starry’s desk before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Nil kneeling beside me with a furrowed brow. “I think we’re done here. We should get out while we can,” he whispered.

I nodded and was pulled up to my hooves before we went to Granite’s side. I wiped my face before placing a hand on her back. “Granite, we need to go,” I croaked. “We can’t get anything out of them right now. We should leave them alone.”

Granite slowly stood up and put an arm around my shoulder. She felt heavy, but she might have been weak to stand on her own for a bit. Nil was the first out before I pulled the both of us towards the doorway as well. Granite stopped me and turned back to Marine who still stood there. “I swear … when this is all over, I will break every bone in your body if it’s the last thing I do,” she snarled. Her violent promise seemed to have given her some strength back as she stood up on her own and walked out of the room. I looked back to the crying couple in their son’s room. My eyes furrowed slightly as I knew this wasn’t over before I followed the other two out of the household.

~~

“So … where are we heading now?” Nil asked after a painful amount of silence passed as we walked.

“My mansion. We’ll discuss about your findings once we get there.”

“Right. Sorry to hear about your friend being gone, by the way. I think I know a little of why you were so … demanding earlier from that alone.”

“She’s not always like that, you know. Misty can be pretty sweet when you don’t rub her the wrong way. Me? Don’t get any wrong ideas.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I may not know the situation with this Star kid’s family, but he must have some eye to admit his crush to the both of you.”

My face suddenly turned hot along with Granite’s before we both turned to Nil. “H-How do you know that?! We never showed you our letters!” I exclaimed.

“Oh. I just helped myself to these while you weren’t looking,” Nil smirked as he held up two familiar pieces of parchment. “Kid’s got good handwriting under levitation, I’ll give him that.”

“When did,” I said as the two of us patted ourselves if he was fooling around. Finding out they were the real deal, I swiped them from his hands. “Give us that! Those aren’t for you to read so casually!”

“Like my own notes?”

“… Point taken,” Granite conceded.

“Anyways, I probably wouldn’t worry about him so much if I were you. I think he’s faring for himself pretty well.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Well if the sequence of events are in line, I believe—”

“Lady Misty!”

We turned to the source of interruption to see Sigmund and Cinny the maid running toward us with a peculiar pony in a tarp in tow. The two were short of breath as they came to a stop in front of us.

“Lady Misty, I think, we may have a lead, to where Starry went,” Sigmund said between breaths.

“You do?! What did you find?!”

“Cinny found—who are you?”

“Don’t mind me, I’m along with these two for the ride, apparently,” Nil answered as he tipped his hat to him. “Nil Thunder. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise. Anyway, Cinny found this young colt sitting in an alley who claimed to have seen somepony passing by late last night.”

Cinny then pulled the tarp out of the pony’s head, making the three of us gasp when we saw a familiar fiery mane.

“The gem colt?!” Nil exclaimed.

“Never mind his diet,” I interrupted as I walked up to the colt who had his head down. “Excuse me, you said you’ve … Oh dear.” When I held up his chin, I recoiled from the state of exhaustion and desperate hunger in his expression.

“I … might have seen somepony,” the poor colt croaked.

“Was it a colt?! A unicorn?! Please! You gotta tell us!” Granite asked as she came up and suddenly shook the colt’s shoulders.

“P-Please, need … food.” His eyes closed and fell limp to the ground like a ragdoll. He went immobile while Cinny screamed.

“Motherfucker!” Granite swore. “What should we do?!”

“You heard the colt! He’s starving to death!” I exclaimed. “Granite, lift him up and let’s get to the mansion, stat! We’ll get him some food there!”

“Right!” Granite quickly heaved the colt on her back while Nil picked up the tarp and knapsack that were dropped. We then dashed off to my home before we lose our only lead to where Starry might have went. Along the way, one phrase from the letter spoke to me in his voice.

“Both of you are very important to me, and honestly? I might have grown a crush on you two from all the times the three of us shared together. Don’t ask which of you I’d choose, though. I don’t think I could ever pick one over the other out of favoritism, though I guess being indecisive isn’t a good quality to have, huh?”

I would not end our relationship here, not when he hasn’t even heard my own and Granite’s feelings yet, and especially not when the three of us haven’t talked about where we’d go from here.

Mark my words, Starry. When we find you, I’ll tell you everything like I should’ve done a long time ago. Even if you did become dangerous somehow, Granite and I won’t have any of it, and we’ll smack it into you if we have to.

Author's Note

So the chase is on and the mysterious gem-eating colt has made a reappearance. What info will he provide that could help the girls? What will the girls find out about their newfound powers? Will Nil's head explode from the influx of it all? You'll have to tune in next time to find out. Until next time,

This is Dudeler, signing off.