Mysterious Alicorn

Chapter 18

By Aponymous

Once I had said my goodbye Twilight and I made our way to the lobby to meet up with the others. Twilight still smiling smugly, proud of her joke. It was strange, even in the midst of this destruction she could still find humor. It felt like it had been days since the party at Sugar Cube Corner.

I wanted to ask how the rest of the town was holding up, if anypony had died, died because of me. Not being able to talk was sometimes a blessing though, I'm not sure I could have lived with myself if I had heard the answer to that question.

Once we finnaly got out into the lobby we met up with the others, talking, trying to avoid the obvious topic at hand. I glanced around the room, ponies where everywere and most of them were burnt, blackend by soot or crying. Rarity was the first to speak to us.

"What in Celestia's name could you be smiling about. This whole day has been absolutly dreadfull!"

Twilight's smile finnaly dimmed, as though she remembered she had just made a joke about half the town burning down. "Shadow and Fluttershy finnaly admitted their feelings!"

Rairty gave me a half smile

"It's about time, you two were acting like foals."

Rainbow seemed to be about as happy for me as rarity, she however, was a bit more menacing about the whole thing.

"Good for you! Glad to see something's gone right in this mess... If you break her heart though," She took a much more menacing tone "I'll break your legs, and I think you've had enough bones broken for a lifetime."

She smiled at me and I gave her a long look, trying to figure out if she was joking. She wasn't. Neither Applejack nor Pinkie Pie said anything during the short discussion that followed, both wrapped up in thought.

As we left the hospital a horrifying thought occured to me and I quickly approached Applejack and Rarity, who were standing adjacent to each other. I caught their attention before begining the painstaking process of communication.

First I gestured at the two of them, then held my hoof about three feet off the ground, trying to ask how the fillies were.

Rarity looked confused and Applejack just glared at me with a long, hard gaze that could have reduced a dragon to tears.

"What are you trying to say dear?" Rarity was atleast trying to figure out what I was trying to communicate, Applejack just kept glaring.

I used my hoof to draw a bow in the dirt and, I must say, I did an exellent job.

Applejack and Rarity both seemed to realize what I was asking at the same time and Rairty spoke in a calm, assuring voice

"Oh! The fillies. Their with Granny Smith at Sweet Apple Acres, safe and sound."

I let out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Applejack just glared for a few more seconds before saying in a quiet, passive voice

"Despite what you brought to this town, they're fine."

I tried to pretend like I didn't hear that, I'm fairly sure she didn't notice. Closing my eyes, ears drooping, head low and slowly walking away is fairly subtle after all. I heard Rarity chastising Applejack but didn't pay it any mind, the dark cloud that had been hanging over my mind had returned, in full force.

I had caused this destruction, this chaos. Those ponys came to Ponyville for me. I trotted to the other side of the group, trying to get away from the arguing, Pinkie Pie looked up from the ground for what might have been the first time since she asked me what happened at the cottage, noticing how distraught I was. When she spoke it was with a throaty, quiet voice

"Hey, it'll be fine... we'll figure this whole thing out sooner or later."

She didn't seem to be convinced, I certantly wasn't.

"Noponies gonna ask you to leave, if thats what your worried about."

Maybe they should have. Somepony they barely know shows up, no known past, unable to speak. That pony brings nothing but destruction upon their heads, fire and injury. For all they know I could have been hunted for a good reason, for all I knew I could have been hunted for a good reason. And yet through all this, through the attack's and the destruction, they didn't want to make me go. Most of them at least.

Pinkie continue trying to cheer me up as we continued toward our first destination, making little headway, the act of it seemed to cheer Pinkie up a little though. I suppose it made sense, her cutie-mark was all about making ponies happy. She had begun making conversation with the others again and her hair seemed slightly less straight. After a while of walking we finnaly arrived at our first destination, Carousel Boutique.

Set before us was a sight of destruction. You could tell the Fire-Throwers had spent extra time torching this building in particular, the entire second floor had collapsed, you could see the burnt fabric scattered about the floor, the dummys laying on the ground, burnt almost to the point that you couldn't tell what they used to be. Rairty seemed to be taking this fairly well for someone who just had their whole life destroyed, that's not saying much though. Given the situation I was suprised she wasn't sobbing on the floor.

Her eyes were however, full of tears and she seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown

"I suppose I can rebuild, start from scratch..."

The other's moved to comfort her as I rummaged around, I couldn't help but feel as though it would be inapropriate for the one who wrought this to console her. What would I say, even If I could speak? Sorry those ponies burnt down your house looking for me, guess thats life. As I looked for anything salvagable I came across a large mirror, the one I had used to admire my new outfit. I wiped the ash from it and once again used it to inspect myself.

Before me stood a pony, almost unreconizable as the one from only a few days ago. Ash covered me from head to hoof, matching my color scheme but still noticable. Heavy bags had formed under my eyes, scorch marks covered a good portion of my body where the fire had singed my coat. Before me stood a battered, broken pony who looked as though he had just left a warzone. At least the outside matched the inside.

I shook my head, trying to dismiss such negative thoughts. If I was going to get to the bottom of whatever was after me, I would have to focus, I had time for self-pity later. I turned from the mirror to check on the mares, who had begun rummaging through the wreckage, the same way I had. Rarity seemed to be doing better, whatever they had told her seemed to brighten her mood, even only a little.

LINEBREAK

The wreckage of Rarity's house had left us in poor spirits, we had found a few things that survived the fire but there wasn't much. Conversation had died down after a few minutes of wandering around the wreckage. We had all become absorbed in our own thoughts, either wandering, trying to get their minds off what we were doing, or absorbing themselves in self pity.

Once we got moving to our next destination the others began talking again. It was nothing more than small talk, trying to avoid the obvious subject at hand, but it was comforting to have them speak. The silence left me alone to wallow in my own self pity, something I'd like to avoid. Eventually we arrived at our next destination, Sugar Cube Corner.

Whatever poofyness had returned to Pinkie's hair during the time spent walking had vanished. Her whole color scheme seemed to diminish in hue the closer we got. By the time we got there it looked like she was going to cry.

Sugar Cube Corner had faired better than Carousel Botiuqe but for some reason, it seemed worse. Perhaps it was how idillic it normally looked, perhaps it was the fact that because some of it's original shape still stood it was more reconizable, but either way it was bad.

All that remained was a burnt, barely standing shell of a building. The second floor remained intacted, even if only barely. There was spattering of color every now and then, places untouched by the fire for the most part, only acting to make the burnt sections much worse.

Pinkie Pie was completely silent as she trotted into the build, taking a seat in the middle of the room. Looking worse than before, if that was possible. She just sat there, looking almost like a statue, staring at the burnt wreckage of her home. The strangest thing was the lack of motion, the only sign of movement was tears streaming down her face, a sharp change from her usual mannerisims.

Once again, the other 5 attempted to comfort Pinkie as I rummaged around. I didn't find much, nothing of import. I took a quick glance at the 6 mares before doing a double take. They seemed so perfect, so in sync. Each so different but fitting together, like a puzzle. It was then a wonderous idea occured to me, one that hopefull could cheer Pinkie up.

I picked up a piece of chared wood and approached the mares. They gave me a confused look and I smiled and started drawing. My drawings were crude but legible, first I drew 6 ponys, then 6 houses. I crossed the six houses, eliciting a small sob from Pinkie Pie.

I felt bad for that, but I was sure this would cheer her up, I drew a much larger house, then six mares adjacent to the large house. My freinds just sat there for a few moments, stareing. After a couple of seconds Pinkies eyes seemed to double in size, she gasped and with a sudden explosion of pink, her hair poofed to its normal size and shape!

"OH MY! THAT'S THE GREATEST IDEA EVER! THE ABSOLUTLY GREATEST BESTEST IDEA EVER!"

It was the reaction I was hoping for, even if it did break my eardrums.

What was he suggesting? You figure it out! xD

Sorry this took so long...

I would like to adress an anonymous reveiw I got... First of all, Thanks for an amazing reveiw, this was great and helped a lot.

I'm specificly going to talk about the 'evil' things he does. I specificly didn't have him do anything I wouldn't do myself. I would gladly kill anyone who wanted to hurt my family or freinds. Also, he is basicly a foal, he doesn't have memorys and therefore doesn't have as much of a sense of right and wrong than most ponies would. What he knows is that ponies are hurting his freinds and he has the power to stop that. He knows that he shouldn't kill them, but he doesn't have all the time and experience most people have to gather empathy.

By self-control I meant he was paniced and needed to concentrate and control his magic carefully as to not kill them, but I can see how it would have been interpretted as that.

Fluttershy only saw him kill one pony, she was unconceies for the rest of it, and the stallion she saw him kill was in mid knife swing when it happened.

I can understand all your points and thank you so much for bringing them up, thanks for the praise!

I need to label this fic as hurt/comfort...

-Aponymous