Son of Chaos

by twow443

Holding Back the Storm

Chapter 11-Holding Back the Storm

I teleported Sweetie Belle and myself behind Twilight's house. “Phew. Thought we wouldn't make it for a moment there.” I panted.

Sweetie wasn't looking at me, more focused on our surroundings. Then she whipped around and said, “Shade! Shift!”

Without thinking, I shifted into Spike. “This isn't going to fool anypony for long.” I said. “I can sense Spike inside the library.”

“You told me that he wasn't too angry at you.” Sweetie said. “Maybe he can talk to us. Do you sense anypony else in there?”

I frowned, casting out to sense out the whole library. “Nope. Twilight wouldn't be here yet anyway, we left her at the clubhouse.”

“She won't be there for long, Shade! Come on!” Sweetie shoved me. I smiled at her, then proceeded to shift into Twilight. We hurriedly crossed around and entered.

“Spike?” I yelled in Twilight's voice. “You here?”

“Yeah!” We heard the little dragon move around. “I'm coming down!”

“Sweetie, lock the door.” I said.

“Why?” she asked.

“Trust me. We aren't going to have a lot of time here.” I said. Shrugging, she turned and locked the door.

Spike came down the stairs and walked over to us, giving me a hug. “Glad your back! Did you find Shade?”

“Well, not exactly.” I said, shifting into my unicorn form.

Spike's eyes widened and he fell back. “Shade?! Don't do that!”

I smiled as Sweetie started laughing. “Sorry Spike.”

He grunted and we all walked into the middle of the room. “So, why are you here? You know that Twilight's still looking for you.”

“That's the thing Spike.” I said. “We need to know where Diamond Tiara and her father are.”

“Oh, well I think that Diamond's at home.” Spike said. “At least, I assume so. I don't know where her dad is though.”

“Hmm.” I thought. “I sure hope her dad isn't there. It wouldn't be good if I saw him right now.” As I said that, my fangs extended out of my mouth.

Spike shuddered. “Yeah, maybe you shouldn't try now then.”

“One more question, Spike..” I started, but stopped as Sweetie shouted.

“Shade! Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity are coming!” She said.

“For the love of my mother!” I hissed. “Why are they following me everywhere?!” I swept Spike up in a hug. “Thanks, I owe you a bowl of gems.”

My dragon friend wriggled free. “You sure do. Do you have any idea the questions that I'm going to be pelted with?”

The three of us laughed at that. I paled as we heard knocking on the door. “Spike! Open up, I don't have a lot of time!” Twilight yelled.

“And neither do we. Ready Sweetie?” I asked. The young filly nodded and jumped on my back.

“I want to travel in style this time!” I rolled my eyes, nodded to Spike, and cast a teleportation spell just as we saw the door open.

. . .

“Ugh, could you PLEASE stop cutting it so close!” Sweetie complained.

“Sorry.” I said as we landed on Filthy Rich's front porch. “Isn't my fault that Twilight's always on my tail.”

Sweetie huffed. “Whatever. Hey, we're here.”

I decided to keep my sarcasm to myself and just nodded. “Wait.” I said as Sweetie was about to knock on the door. “There's no way he'll talk to me like this.”

“Oh, right.” Sweetie said. “Why don't you just shift into Scootaloo or Apple Bloom? We can say that we wanna hang out with Diamond.”

“Good idea.” I took a deep breath, then channeled my inner energy. I felt myself shrink, then my back started itching for a split second. Suddenly, I felt nothing.

“Wow, you look just like her!” I heard my friend exclaim. I held up my hoof, which was orange. “That's weird. I was aiming for Apple Bloom.” I said. “Why did I change into Scootaloo?”

“Aw, we'll figure it out later.” Sweetie said. “Come on, we don't have a lot of time!” She banged on the door.

As we waited, I was thinking hard. I never had any issues shifting before. Could it be that because chaos was happening around me, it was starting to affect my body? Discord had said something about me having the power of chaos. I didn't want it, but if this kept up I don't think I would have any choice in the matter.

I resisted the urge to sigh as Filthy opened the door. “Hello girls. Did you need something?”

It took everything I had not to shift back to normal and bite him. In fact, I felt my fangs growing, so I looked down. Sweetie took the hint and spoke for us.

“Yes sir. We were wondering if Diamond was here.” She said.

“Yes. Her friend Silver Spoon is here also. Would you two like to come in and play with them?” he asked.

Sweetie and I nodded as he let us inside. We started for the steps as he walked back to his library. Suddenly, my neck flared up in heat and my vision tinted red. Sweetie must have noticed because she rushed at me and virtually pushed me up the stairs. Apparently she was a lot stronger then Scootaloo, because she pinned me.

“Shade!” she whispered fiercely. “Control yourself!”

“This is all his fault!” I hissed, my fangs fully extended. “Let me go!”

“To do what? Kill him?” the filly shot back. “You'd just prove his point! Nopony would ever believe you, and even if you stop Discord, it won't help! I know you! You wouldn't harm anypony that isn't a threat to you. Yes, he ruined how everypony looks at you, but we can fix this! Now listen to me and CALM DOWN.”

She might have said all that in a barely contained whisper, but I caught her meaning. She was right, if I killed Filthy, I wouldn't have any chance at redemption. Sighing, I forced myself to relax, feeling the burning pain on my neck cool off. My vision cleared and I slumped down, feeling my fangs retract. “Thank you Sweetie.”

The filly sighed, sitting next to me. “You know, if you are your own worst enemy, that might just be what's wrong.”

I gave her a glance as she continued. “Well let's think. All Discord did was mess with how everypony looked at you. You are especially sensitive to emotions, so it's hard for you to stay calm when everypony's mad at you for no reason.”

“So, we need to get away from everypony so we can find him.” I said.

Sweetie nodded. “Yeah, by the way. Why are we here?”

I looked at Diamond's room. “I had a hunch.”

. . .

Spike sat down quietly as Twilight angrily paced back and forth. “So he was here, and you didn't find anyway to make him stay?!”

“I'm sorry, Twilight!” The young dragon said. “They caught me by surprise!”

“Spikey.” Rarity started. She was also there with Rainbow. “You said “they”. Was my sister here also?”

Spike nodded. “Yeah, she told Shade when you guys were coming to the house.”

“I don't get it Twilight.” Rainbow said. “Why can't you just teleport to where they are?”

“I don't know!” Twilight snapped. “I've tried over and over. I remember that he told me that he enchanted that necklace he wears. I think that it's interfering with my magic.”

“Can't you just locate his body, Twilight?” Rarity asked.

Twilight shook her head. “His body is different then from ponies. I never had a chance to really examine him.” She looked at her assistant again. “Spike, what did Shade ask you?”

“Well.” Spike started. “I think he said something about Diamond....oops.” He held his claws over his mouth, but the damage was done.

“Of course!” Twilight yelled. “He would go to the source of all his problems!” Suddenly, her eyes widened. “We need to go!”

“Twilight dear, what's wrong?” Rarity asked, worried.

“That mark amplifies his emotions!” Twilight said. “If he gets angry..”

“Right! We need to go!” Rainbow said. “Use your magic, Twilight!”

Rarity and Rainbow stood still as Twilight cast a teleportation spell. They disappeared from the room, only to reappear two seconds later. “Um.” Rainbow started.

“That necklace must have a temporary shield spell on it.” Twilight moved. “That explains why he's always in a building. That spell keeps anypony from teleporting close to him for a while when he goes in a building. We could wait, but it'll be too late. He's teleporting from building to building.”

“We can run there!” Rainbow yelled. “Come on! We can't let him get away again!” Rainbow and Rarity dashed out of the library.

Twilight started, but stopped to look back at her dragon assistant. “Spike, we need to talk later.” The baby dragon gulped as the unicorn dashed out.

. . .

I had asked Sweetie if she could ask Diamond Tiara if she knew how the story about me had started. When she had finished, I teleported us to Sugercube Corner. I made sure to land us in the back so nopony would see us. “Well?” I asked.

“Okay. So apparently that day I was sick a week ago, there was this weird red and black pony with yellow and purple eyes. He had wings and some of us THOUGHT he had a horn. Anyway, he was going around saying that you devoured the souls of an entire town when you had been in Canterlot.”

I thought back to that period. Celestia had taken me on a trip to Manehatten, so I could see a little more of the world. I told Sweetie that and added, “It doesn't add up. I think that Discord wants me to leave the town.”

“But how would that help him if he wants you to hurt somepony so that you'd get kicked out?” Sweetie asked.

“It doesn't matter for him either way.” I said, it suddenly clicking. “All he cares about is that I go and find him. That's why he kidnapped Celestia.”

Sweetie was quiet. “So, now we have to go look for him.”

“I do.” I said. “You aren't coming with me. It'll be too dangerous.”

Sweetie looked at me defiantly, “That's not gonna happen. I'm staying with you!”

I sighed. I knew from past experience that Sweetie would not quit until she won an argument. “Fine, but when we find Discord, I'm sending you straight back, understand?”

The filly nodded. “Fine, we have one more stop to make.” Still looking like Scootaloo, I laid my hoof on Sweetie's shoulder and we were gone.

. . .

Twilight was discouraged. She had gone over to Filthy Rich's house, but she had missed them. Filthy had been outraged that Shade had tricked him, but Twilight assured him that she would find him. Rainbow had flown off, so it was only her and Rarity that sat downstairs.

“It's all my fault.” Twilight groaned. “If I hadn't attacked him, maybe we could have gotten some answers. What really happened to him.”

“We can't change the past, Twilight.” Rarity said. “Right now, we just need to work harder at finding him.”

Twilight was about to reply, when her horn flashed white. A beam shot from it and struck the ground. In a flash of light so bright that the unicorns had to cover their eyes, they looked at the figure of Princess Celestia.

“Princess?” Twilight asked.

“Twilight, my faithful student.” Celestia said with a tired smile. “And it is nice to see you also, Rarity. I don't have much time to talk right now.”

“Princess, what's going on?” Twilight asked. “Ponyville's seeming to tear itself apart.”

“It's Discord.” Celestia said, much to the two unicorns surprise. “I know that you and your friends sealed him up with the Elements of Harmony, but he has been freed, and has captured me. I'm speaking to you with a spell, but I do not have the energy to maintain it for long. Where is Shade?”

Twilight put her head down, clearly upset. “He's running Princess. It's all my fault. Somepony tricked everypony into believing that he attacked Fluttershy. So when he came here for help, I almost killed him.”

Celestia was quiet for a moment, but spoke up. “We will talk about it later. For now, you must find him.”

“Why is that, Princess?” Rarity asked.

Celestia's figure started flickering. “Because he is going to come look for me. And if Discord gets his hands on him, Equestria is doomed. I have faith in you.” Then with a flash, the princess disappeared.

Twilight and Rarity exchanged glances. “Come on Rarity. Let's go gather our friends.”

. . .

Fluttershy was at her home, calmly cleaning up. Ever since the “incident” she had taken to staying indoors most of the time, especially after dark. The shy pegasus was truly upset by what had happened during the last week. Her friends had advised her to stay home or with them until everything had been sorted out.

Fluttershy sat down in her living room and sighed. “What can I do to help?” She looked toward her window. “I know that it just isn't true. It couldn't have been him.” She jumped as she heard a knock on the door. “W-who is it?” she stuttered.

“It's me, Miss Fluttershy! Sweetie Belle!” At the sound of the friendly voice, Fluttershy relaxed and moved toward the door, opening it. She saw Sweetie Belle with Spike laying on her back.

“Oh hello. Come on in.” she said. The filly walked in and shook Spike off her back.

“Hey, I was tired!” he complained.

“Hush up.” Sweetie shot back. She turned to the older pegasus. “I know that this might be too soon, but he wouldn't let me go with him unless we came here first. I'm going to wait by the door.” She scooted off before Fluttershy had a chance to ask her a question. When she turned back to Spike, he wasn't there. Instead, a young male changeling stood there, tears running down his face.

“Hey.” He said, trying not to lose it. “I told you I would look like a changeling when I was here.”

Fluttershy didn't move, still in shock. Then her gaze fell on his neck, prompting her to rush forward and tackle Shade, giving him a big hug and kissing him hard. Sweetie made it a point to NOT look away from the window.

When they broke apart, Shade looked at Fluttershy with a confused expression. “But, I thought....They said I hurt you!”

Fluttershy put her hoof on the confused changeling's mouth. “Shade, I thought it was you, but then I knew that it wasn't.”

“How?” he asked her.

Fluttershy smiled. “He looked like a unicorn, but his eyes were yellow.”

“But I can change my eye color all the time.” he said. To prove that, he flashed his eyes several different colors.

“He wasn't wearing his necklace Shade.” Fluttershy said softly. She watch Shade's face as he understood what it meant. She smiled again as he started jumping around the room, excited as a filly.

“Yes! I knew it! I knew it wasn't me!” He calmed down too soon for her liking. “But it doesn't help. Everypony still thinks that it was me that hurt you.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I'll convince them. You need to go stop Discord.”

“How did you know....Oh.” Shade understood. Fluttershy had seen Discord before, so she would remember his eyes. Fluttershy blushed as Shade leaned in for another kiss...

“Shade! We got company!” Sweetie yelled.

“I was waiting for that.” the changeling said, sighing. Sweetie ran over to him as Fluttershy said. “Wait, you're taking her also? Won't it be dangerous for her?”

“I promised to send her back as soon as I find Discord.” he said. “And don't worry. I'll stop him.”

“Shade.” Fluttershy said as the duo prepared to disappear in front of her. “Don't forget. No matter what you are or who you look like, you're still my stallion.”

Shade winked at her with a smile. Sweetie Belle waved as the two of them disappeared.

Comments

[Baron Von Weirdo]

Daaaaaaw

[Wet]

Woo!
Ponies Acting Reasonably!

[SHRIK3]

GREAT CHAPTER

[Colt in the Moon]

I want to say something great about the chapter. But no words can express the awesomeness

[twow443]

1629984 Thanks! I look forward to hear your input!

[twow443]

1641322 Thanks a lot! Really! I'd tell you that the next chapter is tonight, but you aren't quite there yet.