Secret Lightning [REWORK IN PROGRESS]

===================SECRET LIGHTNING===================

Well, I think the last chapter went fairly well, yes? That was an event that happened differently in both my and Coal Buck’s story. Maybe when I start another fanfic (I was intending to soon anyway, but still keep updating Secret Lightning for a while still), he and I can collaborate some more, perhaps on a few chapters, idk, I’ll ask him. Anyway, my chapter 19 was an actual event in my story, but an alternate path for his to have taken, to clear things up. (OMFG multiverse theory is hard). Also, I got a wonderful idea for something for me to do as a winter project. Since I have an easily customizeable copter already, why not buy a spare tail fin/rotor, main blades, and canopy, and paint the thing to look like Rainbow Dash? It’d be the fastest sub-micro flier in all of my school gym’s airspace. (lol). Anyway, this is the chapter where they finally go up the mountain and see just what the hell is going on. Also, I use Royal Brisk’s idea as well. And keep in mind, even if I make this chapter really long, detailing ALL that happens on the mountain, it is NOT the end of Secret Lightning. There is still much to discuss. Anyways, I’m going to get something to eat and then start writing, let’s see how chapter 20 goes.

===================Chapter 20: The Eternal===================

Matt shook his head. He was more confused than when he had come to this world, even more so than when he found out the mane six were humans. But then again, he had watched Dr. Who back on earth, and remembered that a lot of things involved paradoxes or multiverse theory. So he was the first one to recover, having a good idea what was going on. Well, not really, but he figured if Dr. Who/Whooves was involved, it was gonna be complicated. So he forced himself to push past his confusion and ask Twilight a question.

“Twilight, who was that guy? You said his name was…..Coal?”

Twilight shook her head as well, snapping out of her trance. “Y…yeah, he was someone we…..knew, but he left a long time ago. It doesn’t make sense that he’d come back like that, and then leave again.” She walked over to the wall closest to her, and slumped down it, crying softly.

Matt looked over at Paige. She had raised her visor to get some fresh air, and was now giving Matt a ‘go talk to her’ look.

He nodded and walked over to Twilight, sitting down next to her, comforting her.

After a minute or so, Twilight had calmed down enough to speak. She decided to talk about Coal, just to get it off her shoulders.

“A while….about two or so years ago, Coal showed up in Equestria. At first, he was a little apprehensive, but he adapted. Became one with our ways.”

Matt noticed that Scootaloo was sneaking closer, trying to hear the story. Matt grabbed her before she had time to react, pulling her into his lap and holding her. She thrashed for a second, but calmed down almost immediately. Twilight continued.

“When he first came here, he was quite…different, he talked to himself, and even admitted being attracted to ponies. But after a while, he calmed down, changed his ways. In fact, most of us started to take a liking to him. He was so nice, and willing to help anyone in need. In fact, his first day in Equestria, he helped an injured Rainbow Dash out of the everfree forest. He adopted Scootaloo there after her surrogate mother disowned her.” Matt felt a brief flash of anger. Who in their right mind would disown a little filly such as this?

But Twilight wasn’t done. “He…he saved rarity from her ex-colt friend, he had tied her up and was going to… well, you can kind of guess what. He beat the colt pretty bad, but didn’t kill him. Part of that may have been because he was injured, but I think it was because he was better than to simply kill a pony over something they almost did.” Matt nodded. This Coal person was starting to sound like a real hero, and a really nice person to know.

“After that, he kind of fell into a daily pattern, seeing Scootaloo in the morning, he was paying for her to stay at the Ponyville Inn by the way, and working at Sweet Apple Acres until sundown, and then he’d go see Scoots again to tuck her into bed.”

Matt noticed his arms were shaking. Not his arms, actually, the lump of orange fur cradled in them. He lifted her up and held her close to him, cradling her like a baby, trying desperately to quell her sobs. This little filly deserves so much, but gets so little. I can’t say I’m necessarily a fan of Coal right now, for abandoning her, but I have yet to hear why he did it.

He nodded for Twilight to continue. “But then one day, Dash’s father, Stormcloud, came to take Dash away, with less than good intentions. According to her, he was going to sell her to pay off his gambling debts.” She shuddered. “Stormcloud tried to…forcefully take dash away from us, but Coal wouldn’t have it. There ended up being a fight between Storm and Coal, with Coal gaining the upper hand. He nearly strangled Storm, but let him go before he passed out, warning him that he would not be so nice next time if he saw Storm’s face again. He did leave, but not willingly. Unfortunately, Dash blew up on Coal, saying that she could never love a monster like him, and that she hoped to never see him again.”

Matt nodded. It seems things were worse for Coal than he thought.

“After the fight, no one really looked at Coal the same way again. Not even Coco, the innkeeper where Scootaloo was staying. She told Coal that she never wanted him near Scootaloo ever again, and that she would take her in as her own daughter. After that, he…he just lost it. He came bursting into the library as I was reading, demanding that I send him home. After hearing his explanation, he gave me no choice but to send him back to Earth.”

Matt pulled the now loudly sobbing orange filly into a tight hug, stroking the back of her head to calm her as she cried. She really misses Coal. He made a snap decision, and a lousy one at that, but I guess if I were to be in his shoes, I may have done the same thing.

But Twilight wasn’t done with her story. “After he left, everything changed in Ponyville. Shortly afterward, Coco caught pneumonia and died; Scootaloo was tossed back out on the streets. And the girls and I…..well, none of us were really the same either, we all…we all loved Coal. In varying intensities, of course, but Me Applejack and Dash the most. It…it just destroyed us, to have him leave. We’ve mosly been able to cope, since he left, but since his….momentary reappearance, it reopened the wounds, so to speak.”

Matt looked around. Four of his team were sitting on the floor, huddled together, crying, with the other three standing over them, trying to comfort them. Even Paige was standing there, looking quite sad with a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Matt put down Scootaloo, who had fallen asleep, all that crying had worn her out.

He got up and approached Paige, who suddenly looked very panicked.

“Matt, I…I didn’t, you see…w-wait, I can….” She was silenced when Matt pulled her into a hug.

“Ssh, it’s okay, I’m not mad at you. How could I be? He was someone you loved, and I wasn’t around at the time. Even if I was, I wouldn’t have been mad. The only thing I really want is to see you happy. What it takes for that to happen, matters not to me. As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”

She hung there for a second, in Matt’s embrace, surprised at the words coming from him. It was just basically said that she loved another human while Matt was away, and he wasn’t even angry.

“Th…thank you, that means a…means a lot to me. But if it helps, that was a long time ago. And I still….I still love you, Matt.”

He smiled. “I know you do. And I love you too, which is why I’m not mad.”

At that point Twilight’s helmet started whirring, and the little hole on the front above the visor lit up, casting a beam of pure white light out, which started to form a cube.

Within a couple seconds, the face of Princess Celestia formed inside the floating light cube. “I hate to break up this beautiful moment between you guys, but Equestria is still in danger. You still need to go up the mountain and confront The Eternal. Sorry to be so blunt, but we still have a crisis on our hands…hooves.” The connection ended, Celestia’s face fading out, and the cube of light dimmed and dissolved, the projector fading back to black.

Matt looked up “She’s right. We can talk more later. Let’s get going. But wait, there’s something I gotta do first.”

He looked back at Scootaloo. The poor orange filly had woken up during the message from Celestia, and was curled up in a ball on the floor crying. There was the beginnings of a small puddle near her head, her tears were flowing that fast and strong. He knelt down next to her, gently reaching out and rubbing her head a little. “Scoot? What’s wrong?”

She sniffled and raised her head a little bit. “You…you’re going to leave me too. Just like Coal did. And I know it’s not his fault, he is going back to his time, to be with another version of me, but for the ME me, it just seems that everytime I find someone I like, they leave me.”

Matt didn’t know what to say. This little filly probably never had had a parent figure for very long, IF she ever had a parent figure besides Coal. Matt decided that he would have to fix that.

”There, there” he cooed while scooping up the still sobbing orange filly.

He picked her up and cuddled her, calming her down. When she stopped sobbing, he started talking softly to her. “Ssh. It’s okay. You won’t ever be alone again, I can promise it. You see, I have a bit of a proposal to make to you, Scoots.”

She stopped sniffling and pulled back a little to look at him with big, teary eyes. Matt’s heart nearly exploded.

“Okay, so, after we go confront this thing known as The Eternal, I can honestly promise you that Paige and I aren’t going anywhere. When we get back from the mountain, would you….would you like to live with us?”

The filly’s eyes nearly popped out of her head in excitement. “REALLY?!?! YOU MEAN IT?!?!”

Matt chuckled. “Yeah, Scoots, of course I mean it. I would never leave you out on your own, all alone.”

With that, she jumped out of his arms and started bouncing around the house yelling

“YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES!!!!” Matt chuckled, as he was reminded of an episode of MLPFIM.

“Just one thing, Scoots.” She stopped quickly. “We still need to go up the mountain. And until we get back, I need you to stay here. I promise, we will be back. But for now, I need you to stay here, where it is safe.” Matt was heartbroken as her face fell.

But then, she ran up and wrapped herself around his leg “You better come back, okay?!” she almost demanded. He chuckled. “Of course.”

She nodded gently and slowly untangled herself from around his leg.

The whole group gathered by the door, and after a few goodbyes, stepped out into the open air.

As they started walking, Paige asked Matt “Do you really think it’s a good idea to become Scootaloo’s father figure?”

He shrugged. “Why not? I’ve always wanted a daughter, and this way, we can both be parents without….”

They both blushed. It was funny, they were both heavily armored and carrying weapons, and yet the subject of sex was awkward for them.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, to say the most. Downright boring, more like it. (for the sake of moving things along, I’ll skip it)

They arrived at the cave mouth. Finally. They took one look back at the safe house, and stepped inside.

Almost immediately, they were surrounded by a few hundred undead soldiers, mostly skeletons.

They were pinned. Neither side made a move. Matt knew of they started attacking, the sheer numbers of the undead would prove too much for them. He drew his broadsword off his back. Paige drew her Katana, and posed in a crouching stance, ready to dive into battle. Matt gave her the slightest of a head shake, telling her no, stand down. She looked confused but complied.

Matt held his sword, blade pointing straight up. He closed his eyes and concentrated. At first, there was the littlest flicker of flames from his hands. But then his gloves retracted from his hands. His helmet folded back over his face and sealed, and his sword began to grow warm. Half a second later, the blade was completely engulfed in fire. He had essentially made a fire sword. He concentrated a little more, and a large bolt of lightning joined the fire, arcing and crackling up and down the blade. He quickly opened his eyes and barked out “Everybody down!”

As soon as they hit the ground, he jumped a little, spinning a full 360 degrees, slicing a horizontal line in a circle around him. As soon as the line connected into a circle, a wall of fire and lightning blasted out and destroyed every skeleton in the area.

“Well…” Matt panted as everyone stood back up, “I guess I won’t….be doing..that..again…for a while.”

The maneuver had taken a lot of power out of Matt, and even though he could feel his power refilling to full capacity, he was still a little tired from that.

After he caught his breath, they walked into the inner chamber inside the cave. A human man could be seen sitting on a throne-like chair in the center. Matt knew something wasn’t right, but they approached him anyway.

As soon as they got within a couple feet of the throne, large black tentacles of pure darkness sprang out of the ground, and held them all down to it.

“Argh, what do you want from us?!” Matt yelled as he struggled against the pillar-like tentacles of cold and darkness.

“What?” chuckled the man in the throne in a deep, yet also high-pitched voice. “I’m not allowed to say hello to my own son?”

==================END CHAPTER 20==================

Shit just got real this time. that is all.