A Fair Soul

CHAPTER 12
Learning

Luna was having a hard time getting to sleep before the sun rise came. She paced back and forth in her
room murmuring to herself.

"What was that dream?" She questioned.

When Luna had returned home one of the inhabitants was having a nightmare. Being the protector of
the night Luna opened a path to the dream. What she found in the dream was by far the most disturbing
dream she had ever seen.

In the dream there were creatures she had never seen or even heard of before. They were bipedal and
wore clothing all over their bodies. They wielded frightening weapons in their claws. They fought and
killed each other. The blood of the fallen flowed freely covering the ground, and walls of long hallways.

It took Luna awhile to realize this was Shards dream. Luna fought hard to hold down her dinner when
Shard shredded through a large number of the bipeds.

"How could Shard dream of such things?" She whispered harshly under her breath. "Why would he
dream of not one but two he held dear dyeing?"

Luna thoughts drifted back to the scene of his two fallen friends lying next to each other. The four
remaining stood over them with solemn expressions. Red was crying into one of her paws while the
others remained silent.

Meanwhile in the castle gardens the old god of chaos was fairing no better. His chaotic mind was full
of confusion and chaos. Normally he would welcome his chaotic mind, but that is only when he can
understand it. And this he did not understand. He had walked a rut into the garden while he pondered
the voice he had heard.

Moments before

"Well Discord it is good to connect to you again." Spoke a monotone voice.

Discord jumped when he heard the voice in his head. Before he could say anything the voice spoke
again.

"Discord I don't have much time before I run out of power." It spoke quickly and full of malice. “I just
want to inform you that we are here and my host's mind is breaking. I will soon be able to take control
and free you from your prison thus up holding my part of the bargain."

Present time

Discord Continued to pace trying to wrap his mind around the situation. He wondered who he had
struck a bargain with. The fact that one of the terms was him being freed meant that he had made
contact with something while he was sealed away, but he did not recall ever meeting anypony.

Discord rubbed his head in frustration kicking up some dirt.

"Why can't I remember?"

I awoke from my slumber. The carpet beneath my head was wet with my tears. I felt overwhelming
sadness from relieving the death of Lorry and Golem. I let my tears continue while I tried to calm myself.
To my surprise I felt a little calm already. I looked around and soon realized why.

I found seven of the eight ponies in the same room sleeping nearby. The lavender unicorn and the grey
one who had played that beautiful music were especially close. I considered getting up but they all
looked so peaceful in their sleep that I did not wish to rouse them. In my mind I thought of how I would
be able to move without waking them. I felt a light in my head ignite when I devised my plan.

I began to slowly and quietly break myself down into smaller shards. The shards that broke off then
hovered over the bodies of the ponies and safely landed on the floor. They then started to form as
hooves, followed by legs, then a torso. My head was the only thing that lay on the ground until it too
broke apart. There was a brief moment where I could not see, but it passed.

I now stood outside the huddle of mares, with them being none the wiser. I still did not want to wake them by accident, so I tread slowly taking in my surroundings.

The home was roomy and welcoming in the daylight. The floor was hard wood with a rectangle carpet at its center. A variety of furniture was spread about the room as well as other decorations. I found the grey pony's cello resting in the corner of the room.

My eyes lingered on it calling forth the memories of last night. The sheer power and emotion in her music was captivating. It was as if she had touched my soul and fused her passion with it. I had felt myself hypnotized into sleep by her performance causing my rush of memories. I wasn't sure if I should thank her or scorn her. I was soon reminded that I could not express either in words when the one with the shades appeared.

She shouted something that woke the others, but the tone did not seem to be that of anger. They all looked somewhat concerned about something, but only whispered among themselves.

They soon walked toward the door and motioned me to follow. I complied grabbing my cloak. I flipped the hood up when we exited the building, and followed them through the streets.

Just as the day before, many ponies were giving me strange looks. I also noticed a greater abundance of heart decorations, and what appeared to be chocolate. I also noticed that the lavender unicorn and the cello player were watching them.

'I wonder what is going on around here?'

We soon arrived at the library where we all entered. I was the last one to enter and heard the door slam shut and lock. I twisted to see the face of a particularly angry unicorn. The lavender unicorn made menacing steps towards me shouting words I could not comprehend. I could feel myself shrink under her furious gaze. I fell backwards on a book, and landed on the floor. She continued her verbal assault until her snout was pressed against my artificial one. Needless to say I was terrified of her violent change in attitude. I continued to cower under her gaze being thankful for the first time I could not understand her.

Fortunately for me the other ponies came to my rescue and pulled her off of me. They dragged the fuming unicorn to the rest of the group and started arguing.

I raised myself to my hooves after making sure I was safe from their prying eyes. I then walked to the closest book shelf to set my next plan in motion. With hundreds of shards I lifted the book shelf’s entire contents into the air. The books all opened with one shard positioning itself in front of the first page. I took one last glace to the mares to find them still arguing. I took a seat and felt my consciousness slip as knowledge from the many books poured into my open mind.

"He is my responsibility!" Shouted Twilight

The eight ponies were in a heated argument about whether Twilight over reacted or not. The others except Rainbow thought she was too harsh on him for going out alone. So far the other girls were not convinced with her reasons, but see showed no signs of simmering down yet.

"Relax Twilight. He didn't even do anything." Commented Vinyl

Twilight glared at her and said "Why are you so relaxed?! What if somepony saw him?"

"Twi ah'm not sayin' your wrong, but nopony saw him." Applejack stated. "Seein' as he got out without you or anypony else noticing ah think he's prutty good at hiding."

"I agree with Vinyl and Applejack." said Fluttershy earning a look from everypony there. "He is a nice stallion that has received a lot of mistreatment since he got here."

Fluttershy's comment caused the argument to stop. Applejack and Twilight both frowned as they realized they were the ones along with Rainbow to give him a hard time.

"Y-Your right, Fluttershy," Twilight said.

Now that the argument was over Spike saw his chance to get her attention. He had been trying to get her to turn her much needed attention back to the stallion with no success, but now that he saw his chance he wasn't going to waist it.

"Twilight that stallion is doing something!" He screamed tugging her tail.

All the mares turned to look at the stallion. Everypony let out a gasp at what they saw. About four dozen of Twilight's books were floating around the room.

Twilight shook her head in disbelief. Every now and then some of the books would have a page flipped while they hung in the air. Unable to process what was happening Twilight Tried to get his attention. She first walked into his field of vision to look into his eyes. His eyes were no longer the light blue they once were. Instead they were an unresponsive bright white. She walked a little closer but he still showed no response.

"Umm, Hello mister crystal pony?" She asked waving a hoof in front of his eyes. Still no response.

Everypony else walked over admiring his shards and the floating literature.

"Can he not hear us Twilight?" asked Octavia.

"I don't know..." Twilight trailed off. Her eyes grew wide at a sudden realization. "Is he reading?!"

As if answering her question a book beside her flipped a page. Twilight was astonished by the possible intelligence of this creature, but at the same time frustrated with how it could read all these books at once with no possible explanation.

"I'm not even surprised anymore.” Octavia said with a sigh. "It seems he can just do the impossible."

"So what now?" Rainbow asked. "He seems pretty out of it."

The girls all look at each other with a shrug.

"Well ah should probably get on back to the farm." Applejack said walking to the door. "Ah haven't done any apple bucking in a while."

"O-Oh I should go feed my animals." Said Fluttershy

One by one the mares left until it was just Twilight and Octavia. Octavia shared a warm smile with Twilight and sat down with her to drink some tea. For the first time in a while they relaxed and chatted about trivial things.

Hours past and the sun still hung high in the sky when the stallion closed the last three books and gently placed them back on the selves. His eyes flickered back to their normal blue and looked around. He saw only two ponies at a table drinking tea and holding a conversation. It was then that he did something unexpected.

"Well Twilight I am glad to have made friends with you." Octavia said with yet another warm smile.

Twilight was about to offer her gratitude as well when a stuttered voice that echoed interrupted.

"F-F-Friend"

Octavia and Twilight jumped and frantically search for the source. Their eyes rest on the stallion with his eyes in their natural light blue. They were about to call out who had spoken when the stallion pointed a hoof at them. At first they believed he was pointing out where the voice had come from, but when they turned around they didn't see anypony. When the two mares turned back he was still pointing.

"F-Friends?" He asked in an echoed voice.

Octavia and Twilight gasped.

"You can talk?" Octavia asked, quickly recovering from shock.

There was a long pause before he responded "Yes."

Twilight stepped forward towards him. "MY NAME IS TWILIGHT." She spoke slowly with the gesture of pointing at herself. "T-W-I-L-I-G-H-T."

The stallion cocked his head at her. "T-Twi-ligh-t?" He asked in his stuttered voice.

Twilight nodded. "YES TWILIGHT. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" She asked in the same fashion.

There was another long pause until he pointed at Twilight. "T-Twilight." Twilight shook her head and was about to start again, but he pointed at himself. "Shard."

Octavia then walk in beside Twilight. "Your name is Shard?" She asked.

He paused then nodded. "Yes."

Later that evening.

Dear princess Celestia

I was right! The creature or stallion has displayed a vast amount of intelligence and broke the language barrier between us! How he did it seems impossible but I will ask him that when he gets a better grasp of our language. For now his speech resembles that of a baby learning to talk. He struggles often with understanding as well as speaking. I have to speak slowly with him and repeat myself for him to get it. But this is so exciting I can't wait to learn everything about him!

Your intrigued student

Twilight

As Shard fell asleep that night he was far from alone. A being inside his head had felt his mood brighten much to his dismay.

"Shit" cursed a monotone voice. "This is going to be harder than I thought."