//------------------------------// // 43 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Twilight was at Tress’s side and casting her diagnostics spell on the limp mare. One of the most useful medical spells out there that can tell you what is wrong with a pony and where the wrong was. Twilight grimaced at what she was seeing. “Is she?” Not that Rainbow would ever want that to be true. She kept a wary eye on the demonic fruitcake dragon. “She’s alive if that is what you’re asking me. She’s not doing too well though.” Twilight was busy trying to understand how Tress did what she had, also why it left her in such a horrible state. Twilight bit her bottom lip while her ears flopped back, Tress really needed help and soon or else she was going to die. “How bad we talking here? Because I think we need to get going and soon, the monster is kind of blocking our way out of here. It’s also still moving.” It was something important to look into considering Rainbow didn’t think she could hit it as hard as Tress could. “How does having a large amount of the muscles below you’re neck shredded sound? At least the musculature around her heart only seemed heavily strained. She needs immediate medical attention to even survive or she won’t even last an hour like this.” Twilight sometimes wished her specialty was medical magic instead of general magic. “Can’t you like blast that creature with an exploding fireball or something?” Rainbow in particular didn’t like thinking that Tress was dying after what she did for them. “I can’t really do something like that Rainbow; I can only create an illusionary flame or spark enough energy from my horn to light something on fire. I can’t just manifest fire into a large ball then make it explode! Besides what if I accidentally hit you or Tress? It’s not like I want her or you to die sooner rather than much later.” A shifting movement occurred from the downed monster; Twilight levitated Tress carefully and started moving towards the pipe organ and away from monster. Twilight never liked violence and she really didn’t like being violent. Rainbow fluttered over to Twilight and was starting to panic slightly. Tress was slowly dying. They were trapped in a room with a monster that would soon get up. They had no known escape route here and if there was one they certainly had to find it soon or else. “Isn’t there anything we can do for Tress? Maybe this thing has a key we can press to get out of here?” Rainbow struck a key on the pipe organ and it caused a loud single note to play. A floor panel on a high tension spring sprung up nearby for a few seconds before sinking back into the floor. “Keep pressing keys Rainbow, I’m going to make sure Tress is secure and I’ll think of something we can do to save her.” Twilight looked at the limp form held tenderly in her magic. There had to be something she could do that could help Tress, but what? She quickly conjured a proximity barrier spell to hold her friends body still, Twilight made absolutely sure only air was passing through and that she made it correctly. It wasn’t exactly the best form of stasis but it would keep her from getting injured any further if she woke up. As long as Twilight was nearby to keep the barrier running, it would stay up. While the pipe organ was making a single note at a time the monster started to slowly moving more and more. Rainbow warily kept pressing keys and heard odd noises coming from the surrounding areas of the castle. It was about time Twilight resorted to using the memory spell. She needed to remember everything as Smart wasn’t here to remind her personally of any pertinent information she’d need about Tress. She lit her horn and cast the spell while keeping Tress in mind. Tress had her eyes activated when she did feats that even normal earth ponies would be hard pressed to copy. Tress’s hoof glowed with energy as she punched out the fruitcake currently blocking the only known exit from the room. The energy surged up her hoof and her coat was standing on end all the way down her left leg before she thrust it forward. Twilight stopped on that thought, since when has Tress ever had that kind of ability? Then again Tress never fully explored her powers and only focused on the hair related abilities she gained. Tress never actually fought using just her body as the Mane-iac. This was entering a completely untapped potential area. Wait, untapped potential? Of course! There was still a piece of the puzzle that Twilight didn’t have yet. Tress’s coat hair standing on end, zap apples being ineffective in shocking her, Zapp’s lightning attacks not working… wait what did she just think? Twilight looked all the way back into the first fight the Power Ponies held with Mane-iac, one that she didn’t participate in but was near. FIlli-second avoids the cart thrown at her and they start attacking Mane-iac one at a time. Zapp aimed his lightning at Mane-iac and yet it never seems to hit. It looked like Mane-iac was dodging it or was she? A second look the lightning was actually going through Mane-iac and she sped up slightly. Twilight’s eyes took in the sudden realization. It all went back to the lightning cable and the first few pages of Mane-iac’s introduction in the comic. “I know how we can save Tress!” Twilight had a moment of victorious prancing before a loud roar hit her from behind. Turning slowly around she saw the monster was almost on its feet and growling angrily at them. “Yeah, I would love to hear that but I still have a few rows of keys to press and I don’t think he’ll let us do that!” She continued hitting keys but at a wild and frantic pace. “How did you even know about the secret passages in the first place?” It was really strange to Twilight that Rainbow would know something like that when she was so… yeah. Rainbow was always just another face hoof waiting to happen. “My mom read a lot of adventure stories to me when I was little before… I don’t want to talk about this right now we’re about to be eaten by a fruitcake!” In her frustration Rainbow started hitting all the keys randomly. Somehow she ended up performing a disjointed more horrifying version of ‘Night on Bald Mountain’, it suited the situation they were in at least. “How are we going to save Tress?” “We need to get her outside for one! If we can’t do that she’s not going to make it.” Twilight turned to the monster as it started a charge, she closed her eyes. This was it. Rainbow looked at the last key on the far bottom right side of the pipe organ and shrugged; she lifted a hoof and dropped it lightly on to the key. The space around the organ lit up for the barest of seconds and Rainbow smiled once she saw where they ended up. The fruitcake monster slammed into the wall having lost track of its quarry and it shook its head. It roared to the ceiling in and waited for its voice to reverberate through the halls before its eyes narrowed and it immediately set off out of the room. Twilight opened her eyes to find herself in the foyer to the castle, she looked to Rainbow is shock. “It’s always the last one isn’t it?” Rainbow said smiling. “You skipped hitting fourteen different keys and any one of those could have been the one to get us out of there.” Twilight wondered if brains were optional in Cloudsdale, but Rainbow did just save all of them so she should just give her that one. “Details, details, at least we’re not down there with big and fruity anymore. Also we’re right next to the door leading outside. So come on, we need to save Tress and you said you can do that once we got outside!” A huge roar was heard going throughout the castle and it sounded like crashing sounds were heard going through the floor, Rainbow cringed slightly. “Yeah, we still need to deal with that thing huh?” “Well it’s not like Celestia is going to suddenly get up off her throne to aid her citizens in mortal danger and there are no other ponies around here to help us!” Even as she said this Twilight was already in the process of levitating Tress and opening the door and charging outside. “Speaking of help I need yours right now. Get me a cloud with as much lightning as you can possibly stuff into it, we need it like yesterday!” “I’m on it!” Rainbow zipped off for the sky. Twilight needed a cloud filled to the brim with lightning? She was getting that cloud filled to the brim with lighting. She was not going to let her friends down. Upon getting a good distance into the sky Rainbow noticed there weren’t very many clouds around, of all nights for the sky to be clear. She’d get what she could gather and then bring it back to Twilight. With speed she had a good small black cloud crackling with lightning, but it was all she could find. She hoped it was enough and quickly winged it back to Twilight. “Rainbow how did you; you’ve only been gone for ten seconds.” Twilight was impressed with how fast Rainbow managed to get the cloud she needed. “Yeah, so how should I position it for the monster?” It seemed like the more important thing to deal with at the moment to Rainbow. “It’s not for the monster, it’s for Tress!” Twilight quickly pulled out her ten foot collapsible pole and levitated Tress. She started running for the river as Rainbow had just given her an idea of how to deal with the monster. “Come on Rainbow, follow me!” “What.” It was a little known fact that lightning could kill a pony, this led Rainbow to wondering if Twilight was really about to kill Tress? Weren’t they best friends? “Just trust me, I have a plan!” Twilight’s mind was racing with an idea, but she need to get the lightning off to Tress to help her survive a bit longer. Crossing the bridge and coming back to the river to find it was still roiling; Twilight smiled and skidded to a stop ten feet away. She carefully sat Tress down and opened a hole in her barrier and carefully stuffed her ten foot pole into Tress’s left armpit. She even prepped a diagnostics spell, if she were wrong she’d be killing Tress and if she were right this would strengthen her enough to survive the self inflicted injuries she caused to herself. “First thing, Rainbow hit the pole with as much lightning as you can. You have to trust me that this won’t hurt her.” Twilight now understood how Tress’s super powers worked in full. In her saddle bags one of the stone orbs gave off a soft orange glow. “I… I believe you. Here goes nothing.” Rainbow didn’t like what she was about to do, but she did it anyway. She aimed and she bucked out at the cloud and it expended all its energy in one go. The bolt lasted for a good five seconds. Tress’s body was thankfully held in place by the barrier as it jumped slightly at the energy forcing its way into her. Twilight immediately had her diagnostics spell on Tress and was watching something miraculous. The torn ligaments, the shredded muscles, the shattered bones in her shoulder and left hoof were slowly fixing themselves. The bone pieces were sliding back into place and even fusing back into one completely unbroken bone. However her torn muscles didn’t completely regenerate but they were in much better condition than they had previously been, her body had prioritized the bones and the area around her heart first. “Rainbow, Tress is doing much better now. Thank you…” Her voice was weak and there were tears in her eyes. Twilight’s first, best and most important friend she has ever had was going to live. A roar sounded out behind her, next part of the plan then. “Steven, can you lend me a little help please!” The river serpent popped up out of the water spooking Rainbow for a moment before she realized he wasn’t very scary or evil looking at all. Kind of odd after seeing all the weird things the Ever Free Forest had. “Hello again my little friend, what’s the matter?” The river serpent noticed that Twilight had a friend in a barrier and a look of concern crossed his face. “I need help crossing the river again, Rainbow I need you fly up and find a way to knock the monster into the river when it flies over it to get at us. Steven, can you please roil the river up even worse than this?” Twilight smiled happily when Steven nodded. He liked ponies and didn’t mind helping them. Rainbow shot off into the sky and saw the monster winging its way towards the river, that thing was relentless. How was she going to…? A sparkle appeared in her eyes. She needed to do a Sonic Rainboom and right now, her friends were depending on her! She flew high up while keeping an eye on that monstrous visage sharing her sky. “This one is for you guys!” Rainbow dove straight for the demonic fruitcake dragon with both hooves pushing to go as fast as she could, slowly a pressure cone built up in front of her and then she pushed her hardest as the monster was almost over the river. The monsters eyes went wide at the sudden streak of rainbow colors that shot past its head and then promptly exploded right between its wings destroying them. The monster fell into the roiling river and the water quickly battered it and started to seep into the crack on its body, it started screeching as it begun dissolving into the water. Tress opened her eyes slightly to see a huge rainbow explosion and watched the monster fall into the water. It was roaring in pain and something else. “Beautiful.” Tress immediately got the unicorns attention. “Twilight…closer…” “Don’t try to talk Tress you’re going to be okay, save your strength.” Twilight moved Tress closer to herself all the same. “Something… tell… pain…” Tress felt herself moved closer to Twilight and she spoke into Twilight’s ear. “Twilight I…” The whisper caused Twilight to look on in shock just as Tress blacked out again.