As the door to the hospital room burst open and government agents swept in with weapons drawn, we all froze, me and Pinkie putting our hooves in the air with my heart frozen in my chest.
This feeling was hounding me, coming back second to second, crushing me when I wasn’t expecting it, attacking me every other moment.
“We heard something,” Stephanie said, scanning the room. “Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah. We’re fine Steph,” AJ said, slowly. “Ya’ll mind not waving those around?”
I could hear the bite of restrained anger in her voice, and I realized I wanted that too, I wanted to be angry, I wanted to be furious. I wanted to let myself break for a moment as I’d been keeping myself together for too long. Crying in my friend’s arms wasn’t enough to cope anymore.
As they lowered their guns, I set my hooves back on the tile, and looked to Pinkie, who was still holding hers up.
“I… think you can put your hooves down, now, Pinkie,” I whispered, the tightness in my throat telling me that I was close to crying.
It was a clinical, numb observation. I was going to cry soon.
“Sorry,” Stephanie said, voice ashamed and stepping back but I couldn’t see her face, fixed on her shoes. “It’s clear. You can resume your post.”
But as the agents turned to left, I followed them.
“Shy?” RJ asked, alarmed as she tried to follow.
“I need a moment. I just… I need a moment a… alone,” I said through the cracking of my voice.
Somehow, they didn’t stop me. Somehow I wasn’t dragged back and chained to the bed so I would do my job as an element of Harmony.
I heard Stephanie, the agent, apologizing as AJ said something about a plan. Pinkie’s voice whimpered in the background, asking if it was something she did.
But I was in the white hallways by then, far enough away that I could see only doctors and nurses. No bright pony colors, nothing familiar.
I opened my wings, and a nurse cursed softly as I took off and flew out of the doors into the parking garage, barely enough room to manage the turn before flying out and into the open air.
“Why?!” I screamed as I climbed, punching the air and feeling childish even as tears blurred my vision.
“Why can’t it just stop?! Why do I have to be important!”
“Woah.”
I dodged and flapped my wings frantically to hover as I wiped tears out of my eyes to see who I’d nearly run into.
It was a pegasus in a suit, carrying a rifle and looking very worried.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” I whimpered.
“Let’s land on the roof, it’s alright.”
As he guided me to the roof of the hospital, which looked like a military encampment from how many people and tents were set up, he touched the earpiece in his right ear with a hoof.
“Halo four leaving position for asset escort.”
He winced at whatever he got in response, as I touched down and hung my head.
“Goldenrod secured.”
I closed my eyes tight, and as tears dripped down my cheeks I shook my head.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, more angrily. “I just… I thought I could be alone for a few minutes, I…”
“You can be,” he said firmly.
I opened my eyes and looked up at him, as he moved his rifle onto his back in between his wings and turned away.
“I don’t… But you stopped me,” I whimpered.
“Only because I thought you were in danger,” he said as he looked over his shoulder. “I’ll leave you here, go back to my post, and you can have some time to yourself. That’s fine.”
I nodded, and he took flight.
After a moment, cheeks covered in tears and hooves shaking, I kicked the rough surface of the roof, in a weak gesture of anger, before sitting down.
The anger was gone, and all I had now was pain. Was I ready to Be Fluttershy? To be the Element of Kindness? I didn’t feel like it. I’d never felt like it. When we defeated Nightmare Moon, maybe. But I’d had so much time to build doubt in my mind since then. Now…
Now I kept having guns put in my face. I kept getting into situations where I was helpless.
What would I have done before I was merged?
Cry in Pinkie’s arms. Not exactly better than running out of the room. Was it better? Was I getting worse? No, the problem was feeling helpless. How were the rest of my friends dealing with all of this, I wondered, when they were all going through the same thing? They’d been hurt by Discord too.
I looked up at the pegasus who was hovering over the edge of the roof, doing his best to not make it obvious he was keeping an eye on me, but if there was one thing I was good at, it was knowing when I was being watched.
I waved a wing at him, and he broke formation again, saying something into his mic before landing in front of me.
“Yes, miss Erishy?” he asked softly.
“My codename, you… You called me… Goldenrod,” I said, just as quiet.
He nodded. “Do you like it?” he asked, with a slight smile.
I chuckled wetly and sniffled.
“Um… What… What should Goldenrod do?” I asked him, my voice wavering. “What’s her… What should the asset Goldenrod do? To make everything okay?”
He took in my tone and appearance, and he set his rifle aside behind an AC unit on the roof before stepping a bit closer to me.
“The asset with the codename Goldenrod is well known to need the presence of her friends, and a feeling of safety, in order to enact the purpose of the artifact she possesses,” he said simply.
It was probably right out of a situation report, if I had to guess. The magic of friendship, put into military strategy.
I looked up into his eyes but I didn’t see a military evaluation of me. He was worried about me. I would be worried about me too.
“I’ve been shot at… more than a dozen times in the last few days,” I whispered as more tears gathered at the corner of my eyes.
“Can I have permission to hug you?” he asked softly.
I nodded, and he pulled me close, holding me firmly. He wasn’t a friend, he wasn’t family, I had no feelings for him beyond appreciation. But he wanted me to be okay. He was being kind, and I refused to treat that as anything less than genuine.
I cried yet again. It’s all I could do, was cry. I didn’t have the energy or anger to struggle or rail against the injustice of it all, my bruises and healing minor wounds left me weak, and I knew it. But the random agent I only knew as Halo Four didn’t worry over it.
Eventually, I pulled away slightly, and he let go.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted.
“Well, Discord’s not likely to shoot you, so at least you won’t have to worry about that threat,” he said casually, fetching his rifle again.
“He’s putting on a game,” I told him. “Where we have to find him, or he’ll turn New York into a giant apple.”
He laughed, before he saw how serious I was, and his laugh petered out.
“Well,” he said, thinking about it. “That sounds bad. So you’ll have to go find him.”
“Except Twilight’s still too weak to stand, and Pinkie keeps falling asleep and I’m broken,” I whimpered.
He put a hoof on my shoulder, and waited for me to look up at him before he spoke.
“Being there for your friends doesn’t mean physically being there,” he told me. “If you have to be there over a radio, if you need to support them in your own way, that’s fine. But we’ll be here to support you all. If we need to get you to them quickly to use the elements, we have a helicopter nearby, we have several pegusi and griffon agents like myself. We will help you.”
I nodded, but I wasn’t looking at him anymore, I had a thought.
Maybe merged, I could be even more helpful than I had been in the past?
“Um… could… Can I get an escort to a Best Buy?” I asked with a sudden hopeful smile.
He seemed a little taken aback, but nodded as he started planning over the radio, as a plan was coming together in my mind.
I was a techie. I knew how to make things work. Maybe that would help.
As I trotted back into Twilight’s hospital room, after washing my face, the first thing I heard was May’s voice.
“Thirty-eight minutes.”
“Erishy!” RJ said as she spotted me, grinning.
Twilight looked very relieved to see me as I walked in, as well, but she was in the middle of talking to everyone else.
“Using Earth’s magic is a good idea, and we’re definitely hanging on to it,” Twilight said, quickly. “But, we also need physical protection.”
“Shy Shy! You… Woah,” Pinkie paused as I opened the bag I’d had on my bag and dumped out a bunch of boxes and tactical harnesses that the agents had already adapted for ponies days ago. “Shy Shy went shopping!”
I blushed a bit as I opened a box and took out a small smartphone, activated it, and opened the video chat program I’d loaded onto them all during the flight back. I then strapped it into the harness so the camera would face forward from the shoulder, and then I held it out to Rainbow Dash.
“Oh sweet, bodycams?” Rainbow asked, slipping it on.
“Good thinking, Erishy,” Twilight chimed in, smiling thankfully. “That’ll help the agents keep an eye on us from afar.”
“It’ll help you, me, and Pinkie be there, when we can’t be,” I said softly but firmly as I made a second harness and it became clear I only had three sets and a laptop.
RJ nodded, setting her jaw as Dash scoffed.
“We work as a team!” Dash objected.
“No. You and Rares are with me, everypony else needs to stay here,” RJ said firmly.
“What?” Twilight squawked. “After what I just told Dash about sticking together?!”
“That’s fine for planning, Twi,” RJ said. “But in the actual fight? Twilight- look at yourself.”
Twilight didn’t, instead pointing at RJ’s ear. “Look at me! Look at you! You got shot, too!”
“A graze. Already scabbed over. But, how many painkillers are you on, Twilight?”
Twilight’s eyes darted briefly to the IV drip keeping the worst of her aches away. “So we’ll tape it to me,” she said. “We’re not breaking up the team.”
“And what about Erishy. And Pinkie?” RJ said.
I kept working on the third vest, and setting the laptop up, setting it to that only Rainbow’s speaker would be active for us to talk out of, but we would get audio from all of them. But I knew that Twilight was looking at me, and Pinkie as she tried to stifle a comical yawn.
I knew how I looked, too. I was beat up, I was bandaged and aching everywhere. I felt my cheeks hot from the embarrassment of knowing I was weak.
“Erishy’s almost as banged up as you, Twi,” RJ said, putting my shame to words. “And I was all set to bring Pinkie with us, but I don’t know when she’s about to take another power nap. I know you wanna help, and I know we need to stick together, but that ain’t the smart move here.”
RJ sighed, and pinched her eyes shut while we were all quiet.
“The smart move is y’all staying put, Twi,” RJ said, her voice rough. “You, Erishy, Pinkie- you’d just get in the way. Ya gotta get better, sugarcube. And ya gotta let Rares, Dash, ‘n’ me-”
“And me. I’ll go with you,” Stephanie said.
“Okay,” Twilight whispered. “Okay, I can… I can see reason. But… we need more than what we have here. We need physical protection, and anything we can do to protect your mental state from Discord’s tricks.
“Ooo! OOO!” Pinkie squealed, waving a forehoof excitedly. “I know! I know! We should- Oop! Naptime again!”
Then, she flopped over, and instantly started snoring.
“Didn’t she just take a nap?” RJ said.
I took the third vest and approached Raritony as Twilight and RJ talked over spells.
“Sorry it’s not very stylish,” I said apologetically, smiling a little.
“Darling, fashion has a time and place, and for this little mission? Well, you’re the finest of fashionistas this time around,” she said gently, putting the vest on before hugging me with one arm.
“Thanks,” I sighed as I went back to the laptop, muted and deafened it, and connected to the video call.
Three images came up immediately, from three different locations in the room, giving me an easy view of the whole room, and I finally relaxed a little, smiling.
“How about enchanting a riot shield from one of the officers outside?” Raritony offered. “Play on the sympathetic magic angle?”
Twilight’s eyes lit up. “That’s… a really good idea, Raritony!” she said.
She chuckled wetly, wiping tears from her eyes. She was still struggling with having to stay behind, choking back her arguments over it, but she had something new to focus on.
“Too bad we don’t have the shield of Barricade Safety,” she continued softly.
“Barricade who?” Raritony asked.
“Earth pony soldier, from way back,” RJ explained. “Bigger’n Big Mac, and twice as sturdy. Never used a spear or sword, just his shield.”
“Oh right! Quite the dashing figure, as I recall,” Raritony said.
“He was,” Twilight said. “And his shield was famous for protecting all the citizens of old Equestria. Legend says, it once helped him save an entire village from a flight of dragons, breathing their hottest flame.”
Dash whistled. “Nice,” she said.
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “If we had Barricade’s shield, I’d only have to do a fortification spell with a sympathetic magic booster. The legend surrounding it would do the rest of the work.” She sighed. “But we’re a long way from Equestria’s National Museum.”
Stephanie came back in. “I think we got him. There’s a skyscraper ten minutes from here that has more chaos manifestations than any other site in the city. You guys ready to check it out?”
“We can’t all go,” Twilight said, her voice low. She had her hooves balled up in the sheets, her eyes glassy. “Fluttershy, Pinkie, and I will be staying. But in addition to Erishy’s body cameras, we need a more robust way to communicate.”
“We can set you up with a rescue radio,” Stephanie said. “I’ll make sure we have a private channel.”
Twilight nodded. “Can you also get… four riot shields? I need to do a quick spell.”
Stephanie cocked her head. “What for?”
“To protect you guys from Discord’s magic,” she said, rubbing at her face. “Though, again. I wish we had Barricade Safety’s shield.”
“Barricade Safety?” Stephanie said.
“Think Captain America, but in the medieval ages, for ponies,” RJ said as I scurried out of the room, fetching a flat screen TV that I scooted inside and started setting up so that Twilight could see the body cams clearly without hunching over a laptop.
Stephanie nodded, vaguely. “And… his shield would be better, why?”
“Well, to use your Ghostbusters metaphor, again…” Twilight started. “It’s like the Statue of Liberty from Ghostbusters Two. It’s a symbol. It’s something that appeals to the best in each and everypony. That gives it a lot of inherent power that the right spell can wake up in no time.”
“Would… a replica work?” Stephanie asked.
Twilight tapped her chin. “Hm... you know, it probably could. Scientifically speaking, it’s the idea that has power, moreso than the actual shield. I mean, I’d have to tweak the spell a little to compensate, but… yeah. Why? Did a Canterlot gift shop appear in the city?”
Stephanie grinned. “No, but I may have something just as good in my apartment. Is this a spell you could teach to Raritony? Something she could do en route?”
Twilight nodded. “Well, yeah. It’s a pretty low-powered spell. No offense, Raritony.”
“None taken,” Raritony replied, tying her mane back. “I’m fully aware that when it comes to magic, I am much more suited to detail. I leave lifting the big eff-off rocks to you, Twilight.”
“Twenty-five minutes,” May said.
“Crap! We gotta get moving!” RJ said, waving everyone toward the door.
Stephanie nodded and pulled out her weapon. Aiming it away from us, she checked her safety and clip. Dash pulled me into a hug, and tucked her head against my neck.
“We’ll get him, Shy,” she whispered. “We’ll get him for you, I promise.”
Then she pulled away, as I sniffled and felt very very small, in between a sleeping Pinkie and the hospital bed holding Twilight.
“Wait! The shields!” Twilight said. “Raritony could do one replica, but four high-level shield strengtheners in quick succession needs my endurance!”
“Then we’ll just have to make the one I have in mind count,” Stephanie said, as she holstered her gun.
RJ leaned down to Pinkie and kissed her on the forehead. “Take care, sugarcube,” she whispered.
“What could you have that could possibly compare to Barricade Safety’s shield?” Twilight said, flopping her forearms exasperatedly.
Stephanie grinned as Dash flew over to Twilight’s bed. “You’ll see. It’s ‘something pure,’” she said, with a wink.
“Well- What about mental shielding?” Twilight shrieked.
“I’ll teach my trick on the way, Twi,” Dash said, dropping down to hug Twilight tight.
Twilight bit her lip while she and Dash held one another. Her eyes darted to each of us. “I don’t like this...” she squeaked.
“Neither do we, sugarcube,” RJ said, trotting back to her bed, rearing up on her hind legs so she could see Twilight better. “But this is the hand we’ve been dealt. We gotta use it.”
She wrapped her forelegs around her. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She swallowed audibly. “Good luck, RJ. I’ll keep working on my end. Maybe I can provide some remote magical assistance.”
“Thanks, Twi. We’ll keep ya in the loop,” RJ said. “Promise.”
RJ dropped back down, and I walked up to her, wishing we had more time to prepare, but all I could think was I wanted them to come back safely as RJ hugged me.
“Be careful,” I said weakly.
“You too,” she replied.
“Heh,” I chuckled. “It’s not hard to be careful in a hospital, RJ. You’ll be doing all the real work, as usual.”
RJ pulled back and gave her a look. “Now, you know that ain’t true, ‘Shy. You gotta keep an eye on Twilight and Pinkie. That’s a hoof-full if I ever heard of it.”
I giggled. “I guess you’re right. Oh! What about Sam?”
Her eyebrows shot up in realization. “Crap,” she hissed. “In all the excitement- Hey Steph?”
“Yeah?” she said.
“Think the hospital’d make an exception to Sam staying in this room?” she asked. “I don’t want her in the fight anymore than these three. Erishy’ll keep her in line.”
Stephanie scratched the back of her head. “Um. Maybe? I’ll… probably have to call in favors,” she said. “Maybe they can say she’s a recovery helper or something.”
“She’d help me feel better,” I offered. “Animal friends are just as comforting as, if not more comforting than, my pony ones.”
“I think I can swing that…” Stephanie said, her tone telling that she’d warmed to the idea. “Hang on.” She pulled out her cell phone again, and stepped just beyond the doorway.
RJ smiled at me. “See there? You’re already helping.”
“Okay, okay. Good luck, RJ,” I said, my cheeks hot.
“Gonna need it.”
We released each other, and RJ walked over to May, patting her on the head as she smirked up at RJ. “Watch the shop. Right?” she said.
RJ smiled back at her. “You know the drill.”
May put her phone down again and hugged her tight. “Stay safe, hayseed,” she said.
“Promise, squirt,” RJ said, hugging back.
They parted, and RJ joined Stephanie, Raritony, and Dash at the door.
“Alright y’all,” RJ said. “Let’s do this.”
Just as they stepped out the door, Pinkie woke up with a gasp, scrambling to stand. “Wait! I’m awake! And I remembered my ideaaaaaa!”