~Chapter 21 (Part 2 of 2): . . . And Crisis~
It is a week after The Incident, and the funeral for Ink was about to start. It was to be held in the graveyard behind the castle, at a cliff that overlooked Equestria. All relevant ponies where present: The mane six where standing in groups of three in a line on each side of the grave, with Princess Celestia and Spurspark taking up one side, Chroma and Luna on the other. All were mourning, Luna and Chroma the most. The two of them were crying into each others shoulder, barely able to watch the approach of the open casket. He was not visible though; they completely bandaged him. The sight of him would have been to much.
Why. . . Why did you do it. . . Luna thought to herself. There must have been something else you could have done. . . Her thoughts were interrupted by more racking sobs.
The casket reached them, and was lowered onto two beams of wood spanning the hole below, suspending the coffin over the pit. The pony official in charge of the ceremony stepped to the head of the grave and began to speak, but Luna heard none of it. She looked up, staring at the bandaged part of Ink that was his head. How could you. . . How. . . How could I. . .
Luna. . .
She blinked. It sounded like Ink. What was that?
Luna. . . The throne room. . .
She was startled by this, and she couldn't react. What. . . Who art thou?
Please. . . The throne room. . .
Her emotions were completely scrambled by this point, but if this was Ink. . . If he somehow managed to survive. . . Tears began to pour from her eyes again, but they were tears of hope. She startled everypony around her, taking into the sky as fast as possible, sobbing, racing for the castle. She heard Celestia call after her, but she paid no heed.
Hurry. . .
She redoubled her efforts and reached the throne room in short order, descending through the window into the main. The carpet at the base of the throne had been removed, damaged by the fight and Ink's. . . body. . . but she looked around frantically. What? Where?
In the corner. . . Under the table. . .
Luna spun around, directing her gaze towards the table. Lying under it, unnoticed till now, was the jewel from Ink's amulet. But it was not in the same state as when given to him. It had a faint, violet pulsing glow, similar in it's beat to that of a heart. The tone of the violet was also similar to the colour of Ink's spirit form. It was faint, though.
She charged towards it and gingerly picked it up with her magic, staring at it. Art thou. . . in the gem?
Yes. . . Please. . . Give me some energy. . .
Luna did not hesitate in the slightest, charging up a healing spell in her horn and touching it to the obsidian crescent, dispelling the magic into it. Slowly, as the seconds passed, the rhythmic strobes given of by the gem grew brighter. After what felt like hours to Luna, it was pulsing strongly.
Thank you.
Luna began to cry again. Art thou truly alive?
Yes. I somehow managed to bind myself to this stone after defeating Nightmare Moon. But I did not have the strength to reach out to you.
She burst into even stronger, more joyful, tears. Oh, we dost not know how to express our joy at this!
She could feel faint mirth coming from Ink. You don't need to. I can feel it. She felt his own emotions reaching for her through the stone, the joy of surviving, and seeing Luna happy again. My body. . . what happened to it? Luna tried to suppress the image of his physical form, but it was too late. He saw it in her mind, and she felt his revulsion. I. . . don't think I can return to that.
Suddenly, Luna got an idea. Wait! We know what to do!
She burst out of the window of the throne room again, flying full tilt back to the graveyard. As she neared it, she noticed that they had begun to lower the casket into the grave.
"WAIT!" Luna cried out, using her full volume with the Royal Canterlot tone of voice, and the ponies below were startled. Celestia turned around, fuming.
"How dare you, sister! This is not -" Luna cut Celestia off by projecting her own thoughts to her sister.
Sister, he's alive!
Celestia scoffed. This is not the time, Luna-
WE ARE SERIOUS!
She landed on the ground next to Celestia, moving so fast that her hooves dug furrows into the turf. She procurred the stone to her sister. He saved himself by binding his soul to the amulet!
Celestia sighed and shook her head. "Luna, again this is not-" This time, she was cut off as Luna pressed the stone into Princess Celestia's chest. Her sister was startled once again, but before she could say anything, she froze. The stone made a connection with Celestia at Luna's request, and Celestia felt the presence of Ink inside.
Hello, Princess. I'm. . . sorry.
Celestia's eyes were wide, and a single tear of joy ran down her cheek. "I. . . I can't believe it."
Luna turned to the other ponies gathered around, who were staring at them with various emotions plastered on their faces, from confusion to rage. She activated the magic in her horn and projected Ink's presence from the gem to them all.
Hello.
They all stopped, and as recognition reached them, they all began to burst into tears of joy. "Everypony, we know how to bring him back. At least, we hope so."
They all stared at her wide eyed. She turned to Celestia and Twilight. "We will need the combined magic of the three of us. We must repair his body and bind the stone to it."
Celestia and Twilight turned to each other and back to Luna, somewhat skeptical. Twilight spoke first. "But, something like this has never been done before-"
"Because there never was reason to! Nor a method! Because his soul has been stored within this vessel, we may be able to transfer it back to his body!"
They still looked unconvinced, but then Ink spoke up. Please. It's my only chance. Just then, a crack formed in the stone, shocking them all. If your going to do it, hurry. This stone can not continue to bear me like this.
Twilight and Celestia set their faces, determined, and nodded. Celestia lifted Ink's limp body from the casket and laid it on the ground between her, Luna, and Twilight. They rested the stone in the middle of his chest, next to his heart. Luna and Celestia decided that with Twilight's magical prowess, she would be most able to pull the spell off, so they channeled their power into her. The other ponies of the mane six gathered around and focused, and the Elements of Harmony formed around their necks. Twilight realized what they were doing, and summoned hers as well. Using the Elements she channeled more energy from her friends, further enhancing her spell.
Her horn began to glow purple, and as the spell grew more and more powerful, the light at the end of her horn grew brighter and brighter, turning white with such high power. Her eyes shot open, and they were the characteristic flat white like when she was casting an overpowered spell.
The drain of energy from the other ponies began to take its toll; Rarity was lying on the ground, out of breath; her, Pinkie, and Fluttershy cut off their supply of energy to stop themselves from fainting. Rainbow and Applejack were sweating and shaking, pouring as much power as they could into Twilight. Applejack collapsed, barely conscious, but Rainbow held out for a couple more seconds until she fell unconscious, lying in a heap on the ground. Celestia and Luna were beginning to feel the toll of the spell as well; they were starting to pant.
Twilight stood there, charging the spell for over a minute, and all the while, the stone containing Ink was cracking a little more, bit by bit. It was just about to shatter when Twilight finally took one last pull of power from the Princesses, charging the spell to the point of flaring with the brightness of the sun. She released the energy into the stone and Ink's body, causing them to glow white.
They began to levitate, and the stone distanced itself a few centimetres from the body, and suddenly, it burst into a few fragments that shot forward, piercing the flesh and embedding itself inside. There was a little spurt of blood, but part way through the air, it stopped. Slowly, it began to withdraw back towards Ink's flesh and absorbed into it. The bandage wrappings vaporized, and floating there was the charred husk.
But, as the spell worked it's way through, the burns and breaks repaired themselves, starting from the tips of the hooves and working its way towards his head. It finished by repairing his eyes, and there was another flash of light. Ink dropped to the ground, the changes caused by Nightmare Moon still present in his oversized wings and darker fur. Twilight passed out, Luna and Celestia collapsed, crawling over to the still motionless form, and Chroma sprinted over, dropping to all fours and wrapping herself around him. She watched him, waiting, hoping for any sign of life.
Luna rested her head against Chromas side, wanting to see their efforts come to fruition before she too blacked out. They sat there, impatiently awaiting Ink's return to them. "Come on, come back to me! Don't leave me!" Chroma cried into his chest, dropping her head against it. She tilted her head back up, and she kissed him, long and hard. She pulled back, staring at him once again.
Slowly, his eyes opened.
~END: THE FIRST JOURNEY~