Lament of the Frozen North
Chapter 3: Awakening
“FALL BACK!”
The leader’s voice rang out repeatedly with the steel of authority over the sound of lashing rain, not betraying a hint of the fear he must have felt. “Emergency airlift NOW!! While that thing is still busy!”
One of the pegasi sky-rangers turned, flicking the rain out of her mane, and looked closely at him. “Sir! That thing will slaughter them!”
“Better them than us! We have to get back and warn the others…if those things get there before we do…no, it has to be by air…”
The pegasus gave a reluctant snort through her muzzle, staring back out over the carnage in the field below. “Sir, I know they’re our enemies…and I know they’re…disgusting…b-but even they don’t deserve to die like that!”
“We have no choice! If we try to help them, that monster will kill us all! And if, by some miracle, they do somehow manage to kill it first, they’ll turn on us the moment it goes down. We must retreat! Airlift! Now! It’s an order!”
The sky-ranger looked at the unicorn leader again, and then gave a short nod of acquiescence. She rose into the air again, hefting her spear and yelling at her fellow pegasi to evacuate the groundpounders. Many of them looked less than happy about descending to where that…thing could possibly get its claws on them…never mind flying from danger while carrying another pony. Who knew what that thing was capable of?
But, as often, the proud nature of the pegasi won out in the end, and they descended, each of them seizing an earther or unicorn and rising again into the stormy sky. The leader knew they would not have to worry about having too many passengers – there had always been more pegasi than unicorns in the ranks, and because of all the danger on the ground, there would be far more of them left than any earther at this point…
When the sky-ranger came back and seized him by the barrel, he barked an order to make for the peaks. He knew the rain and the weight of the others would slow the pegasi down - if they were pursued, they would need to scatter and lose their followers between the mountains.
“Whatever that thing can do…it can’t fly!” the sky-ranger said from above him, sounding relieved they were finally abandoning the field. “We should be safe now…”
The leader shook his head. “I doubt it. They…”
Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning and crack of thunder, and, almost simultaneously, there came a deep, guttural roar from the belly of the animal kingdom, echoing off the walls of the mountain valleys below.
The sky-ranger halted in mid-air, her eyes widening in terror, “It followed us?!”
But, in her grip, the leader raised one eyebrow and - unbelievably – smirked. “No, it didn’t…”
There was another louder, closer roar, too powerful to be muffled by the rain-choked air.
“CLOSE FORMATION AND RISE!!” the unicorn roared, lighting up his horn, and then he muttered quietly – almost to himself - “I think help may have arrived…”
*
“Valaethium: a rare metal found in the deepest deposits of rock, usually amongst natural iron and/or quartz. The ore is a deep grey color in its natural state, and a lighter shade of grey after refining, though some variance has been seen, producing shades of light blue, pink, or purple. Despite its metallic properties, valaethium shows a partially absorbing structure able to carry light through the lattice, giving it a translucent appearance. This translucence is false - the light reflected through the metal is not that absorbed upon the parallel surface of the metal, and thus, the metal cannot be “seen through”. It may be because of this molecular anomaly that valaethium possesses unique conductive properties when in contact with magic. It’s most notable capability is its ability to act as a veritable “magic battery” by draining and storing magic within its own molecular structure. Valaethium must be used with care when examining it by magical means – it possesses the ability to absorb the magic of unicorns, griffons, dragons, and other beings when struck directly with raw magical energy.
Fortunately for researchers studying valaethium, alternative methods of divination exist. Although it cannot be directly struck by a spell without mesmerizing and draining the caster, it cannot obtain the inert magic attached to a medium, such as a wand, scrying glass, or cauldron. The spell will therefore work properly when using a medium such as those listed above.”
Well, that was easy, Twilight thought with an excited smile, raising her nose from between the pages. Just as I thought, a glance at a book or two and I already know what to do…
She was just about to snap the book closed and go rummage around for one of her old wands, but – as was often the case with the most studious pony in Equestria – a deeply-ingrained habit left the rest of the passage singing to her. Well…didn’t the princess say I had to read everything I could first!? That would make sense…
Doubt then returned with a vengeance, reinforcing her nerd-instincts with all the logical reasons to keep going as she thought of what happened the previous day. Oh, I saw that thing mesmerize Princess Celestia for pony’s sake! It can’t just be as simple as waving a wand in the air! Who knows what’ll happen if I get this wrong?! She really wanted to divine the valaethium. Right away. But…
There was more to read…quite a lot, in fact…which looked as tasty to the purple unicorn as it would to a nest of bookworms…so Twilight decided to listen to the sirens in her head and keep reading.
“It is important to note that when refining valaethium there are certain practical applications for its use, and these must be taken into consideration from the very moment any natural deposit is found. Firstly, while the metal is not especially brittle, and is malleable and ductile, using a magical force to shape it is impossible due to its magic-conductive properties. Valaethium must be shaped by physical means, which requires enormous force thresholds and high temperature, beyond that of iron and most other common ores. Therefore, hoofcrafting is not possible as these thresholds are too high for ponyfolk to withstand. Therefore, refined and tooled valaethium is usually made either by dragon firecrafting, or by large, complex machinery. However, the former is difficult to procure for obvious reasons, and the latter is a long and costly process which requires a specific inventory for each different valaethium blueprint. It also creates an abundance of volatile and highly-toxic byproducts. For these reasons, there are currently no known valaethium refineries or forges in Equestria…”
Getting weirder and weirder, Twilight thought as she continued to skim over the description of the refinement process. She glanced at the half-melted lump next to the book. Well, something made it that way…must have been pretty hot alright if it’s like this book says…
She reached the final paragraph in the book – the uses of valaethium.
“Despite the difficulty and expense in making it, refined valaethium is very valuable for a number of reasons. As mentioned above, its magic-conductive nature means it may be charged and, with the proper apparatus, used as a battery for golems and other magic-powered constructs. It may also be used in armor plating for the purpose of absorbing attack spells and mesmerizing spellcasters such as unicorns on the field of battle. It may also be used as an impenetrable, re-usable insulation material whilst performing dangerous magical experiments. For these reasons, valaethium was often sought after by magicians, and those who would protect themselves against magicians, until discoveries of natural ore in Equestria became increasingly rare in the last 200 years - which is yet another reason for the metal’s rising value.”
“There is one vital matter of caution concerning its use: regular discharge. Its magic-conductive nature may be useful if applied properly, but, as with all forms of energy, there is a threshold where magic becomes volatile. Samples of the metal which have been over-charged with magic may become unstable, and – when exposed to stimuli such as extreme pressure, heat, or cold - emit a powerful magical discharge that adopts the form of whatever other magical stimuli it may have come into contact with. For example, if a valaethium helmet is repeatedly struck by divination spells and not discharged by a wand or other medium, it might spontaneously release a large burst of mesmerizing energy. Too many fire or cold spells would cause unpredictable temperature spikes around the metal, shock spells would cause it to emit lightning, and so on. Therefore, over-charging valaethium is extremely dangerous and care must be taken to discharge it after use.”
Twilight closed the book, frowning. Her eyes drifted to the piece lying on the workbench. With the sharp prongs sticking along its length, it looked more like a weapon than any sort of battery or piece of armor. Could it have been part of some machine? Or maybe a building? Twilight could only guess.
She stood and walked back up the stairs to her bedroom, stopping on the midway landing. “Spike, I’m just looking for one of my old wands. I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”
The dragon paused in dusting the bookshelves, raising his eyebrows in confusion before grinning, “Wand? Twilight, you haven’t needed one of those for years! Heh, getting rusty already?”
She pointedly jabbed a hoof at the screw-thing on the desk. “I’m not using my horn on that, Spike…”
“Oh…yeah,” Spike’s eyes widened slightly and he shuffled his feet, “Sorry Twi…I guess a wand would be a good idea…”
She sighed and left him. Spike’s mouth did run ahead of his brain sometimes. All part of being a foal, she supposed. Ah, “cub” that is…
Twilight trotted into her room and magicked her trunk open, tossing out all the various luggage she had brought from Canterlot but had somehow never got around to using in Ponyville piece by piece.
My wand…
There it was, right at the bottom. The old wand Princess Celestia had given her for whenever her horn might have been acting up or another source of magic was needed. It was long and slender, made of dark brown spruce wood. By itself, that was all it was though – a stick…
No unicorn really knew why a so-called ‘wand’ was still so often used as a medium for magic when just about any other object would do. Twilight supposed it was only for the sake of conforming to the earther and pegasus myths about magic…not to mention that the wand’s iconic appearance and connotation might give beginner magicians some kind of misguided reassurance…
In any case, it was as good a medium as she could try. Twilight had used it before, and hay, why break in a new pair of horseshoes when the old ones still worked just fine?
She lit up her horn and concentrated. The wand floated into the air and, with a sucking sound, absorbed the aura Twilight placed around it. A moment later, it began to glow a light purple and kept floating on its own. Twilight chuckled, closed her trunk, and went back down the stairs to her desk, her loyal wand bobbing along behind her.
The valaethium sample still sat there, looking innocent and pathetic next to her reading frame. Careful now. If the book was wrong…
She made sure to place herself a ways away from it, not looking directly at it for this first step. Twilight concentrated, gripping her wand in a telekinetic grip and pointing it at the valaethium. The wand began to hum, and after a moment, its point aimed solidly at the screw-thing.
Twilight immediately threw a sealing spell around the wand and turned so she had no view of the valaethium at all. Can’t risk it, even if I am the third node here…
She cast a divination spell on the wand, and suddenly had a feeling of plunging deep within a deep, brown abyss with wooden walls and a horizon so narrow she could crash into the side at any moment. It felt almost like she was trying to squeeze her whole body through the grains of her wand. Still, having suffered far worse in her time in magic school, Twilight kept her head and continued her spell.
Eventually, the discomfort of pushing into the wand faded and Twilight was aware of a tingle in the tip of her horn, eventually running all the way down to the base of her spine. When she opened her eyes, she saw the library, but she saw the inside of the wand as well.
Great streaks of luminescent magic floated peacefully and unbroken through the air. Little glimmers peeked out from every corner. And there were ambient, rich colors to every one of them: gold, deep red, light blue, and rich greens.
But the largest nexus ribbon hovered right before her, colored by the last spell that hit it. It was a silvery color that shone like a minted bit. Beautiful…
But then a split-second later, the reality of what she was looking at hit her. Twilight immediately went cold. The valaethium…it’s practically overflowing! It could discharge any second!
Twilight pushed through the wand to the valaethium sample itself, the lights around her growing larger and brighter with every hoofstep.
This sure has seen a lot of magic of all kinds, more than I’ve ever seen in one medium. No doubt about it, this thing was over-charged recently…better discharge it myself before it goes off on its own and becomes a mesmerizing time-bomb like the book said…
Twilight focused her magic again, amplifying her senses and gripping the ribbon the wand had divined from the valaethium. She ran her senses over it, feeling the touch of the spell, trying to work out its resonance and intensity with her magical hooves.
But no, she couldn’t seem to find where she could grip it to gently dissociate the magic.
C’mon, c’mon where are you? She grit her teeth and probed deeper, feeling the solid rub of the magic against her senses. The spells the valaethium absorbed had all been rock-solid, obviously cast by skilled beings. Twilight would normally have approved of that, but it also meant shattering the spells could be difficult without making a mess of it.
Frustrated after several moments, she groaned again in aggravation and plunged her horn right into the center of the ribbon, breaking it in half.
With a crack that rang in Twilight’s ears, but did not exist in the real world at all, she cancelled the spell and pulled out of the wand.
Clack! Her old wand hit the floor lifelessly as Twilight’s second vision faded.
She swayed on her hooves with the momentary vertigo…and was suddenly aware of Spike holding her up. “Twilight!! What happened?! You just jumped and started stumbling around!” His eyes were wide and his claws were clenched hard in her mane. He was obviously remembering what had happened to the princess yesterday…
Twilight shook her head, “I’m okay, Spike. I just had to take a bit of a jolt to make sure that thing doesn’t cause any more trouble…” she nodded to Applejack’s find, still resting on the desk looking innocent. It’s probably for the best Spike doesn’t know how dangerous that could’ve been if he’d dropped it or accidentally breathed fire on it…
“Are you sure?” That was one thing the unicorn loved about her little dragon assistant. No matter how often you assured him you were alright, he’d always go out of his way to make sure you had everything you needed.
She nuzzled him fondly in reply. “I’m sure, Spike, but…”
Suddenly, there was a loud pounding on the door. As Spike ran to answer it, Twilight took a deep breath and straightened her legs.
Okay, it had been a good start to find out the thing had been absolutely full of magic from somewhere, but she still needed to divine it again shortly to find out more about where and how-
“TWILIGHT!!!” Spike’s voice suddenly yelled from the entryway, sounding ecstatic, panicked, and disbelieving all at the same time. “She’s AWAKE!!!”
*
“I told you to stay at the library, Spike!” she admonished him as he, huddled in his plastic orange seat, trembling as he looked around. She knew he was deathly afraid of hospitals.
But he narrowed his eyes and scowled at her stubbornly, “I’m not missing this, Twilight! I found her, remember!”
The unicorn groaned, “Actually, Pinkie did…”
Spike looked down, slightly crestfallen. “Oh yeah…”
Pinkie Pie shuddered slightly, halting in the air mid-bounce. “Uh, please don’t remind me…”
Twilight noticed with a smile that at least Pinkie’s spring was back today. She did seem a little happier. And why not? That pony she found close to death has just woken up!
“I do hope the poor darling’s alright,” Rarity said with a shudder as she paced in a circle, “she must be absolutely terrified after what happened to her!”
Rainbow Dash paused in her matching circle through the air, an unusually thoughtful expression on her face, “If she even remembers it, Rarity…”
Applejack craned her head upward, “Ah think she would remember what done got ‘er wrapped up in th’ hospital, sugarcube…”
Rainbow shook her head, sitting down in the air and looking at the ceiling, crossing her forehooves, “Actually, Applejack, ponies sometimes don’t remember the accident or whatever when they wake up in hospital. After something shocking or traumatic happens, the memory’s usually not there after the pony wakes up…”
She hovered there for a moment before she was suddenly aware of everypony’s wide eyes on her. “What?! It says so in Daring Do and the Search for the Lost Sphinx Tribe!” she said, looking slightly embarrassed. She closed her eyes and quoted the book perfectly from memory, “‘Daring stared, her head pounding and her mouth still full of salt, at all that was left of her boat floating onto the sand. She couldn’t remember how her boat crashed on the shore of the Sandwash. There was only a crack of thunder, a giant wave, a splash of spray, she had pulled the tiller as hard as she could, and woke up in the morning on the sandbar with no idea how she got there!’” The pegasus did a triumphant backflip in mid-air, grinning down at them all.
Twilight groaned under her breath, beginning to regret ever having coaxed Rainbow into reading those pony-feathering adventure novels. It was true – ponies who had sudden accidents often had no memory of it afterwards. If they were unlucky, there was a good chance their mystery mare wouldn’t be able to tell them everything about what had happened…
Well, right now, the most important thing is…she’ll live.
The drill-sergeant unicorn doctor walked out of the recovery ward, drawing an immediate stir of attention. He was frowning deeply, his muzzle clenched and face exasperated as Doctor Needles banged out of the ward after him.
“I tell you, sir, I am RIGHT!!! Check it yourself! The symptoms all match! It is the simplest of conclusions to make!” Doctor Needles shouted shrilly.
“Indeed it is, Doctor Needles,” he growled back, “which is why it absolutely astounds me that a medical professional like yourself could make such a blatant mistake that couldn’t be expected of a five year-old foal! That is not possible for a non-unicorn!”
“It is the only explanation that makes sense!”
The other doctor rounded on him annoyed, “It makes no sense at all! If you truly are Ponyville’s ‘head doctor’ then I fear for the health and well-being of every one of the princess’ subjects in this town!!”
Doctor Needles flushed so dark Twilight wondered how his head didn’t explode. He began spluttering incoherently in livid anger as the six mares watched with wide eyes. When he noticed they were not alone and his Life Flight counterpart was moving toward Twilight and her friends, Doctor Needles deflated and shot the younger doctor a look that promised he’d hear more of this later.
Both stallions were red in the face and looked about ready to start trading bucks, and Twilight knew she had to get them on track quickly. “She’s woken up?” The question came out a lot more urgently than Twilight intended. Though she still sounded less annoyed than she felt.
“She is awake,” the Life Flight doctor said slowly and heavily, “thanks to our beloved Princess Celestia, her vital signs are stable and she shows signs of a safe return to consciousness.”
“Oh, thank goodness!” Fluttershy said with a wide smile, closing her eyes and rising a few feet into the air, tucking in her forehooves happily.
“But…” the doctor continued, his frown deepening, “even though kinetic and cognitive processes seem to be recovering normally, the patient has remained silent since awakening. We informed her where she was and asked her to remain calm in the ward…but she didn’t give any sort of acknowledgment. There have been no visible signs of distress or pain. We believe the patient may not yet have returned fully to awareness…we considered a state of psychological trauma and catatonia, but…her vital readings are inconsistent with signs of shock…”
What? Twilight raised one eyebrow.
He looked at her uncomprehending expression, “I think it’s better if you see for yourself. Please follow me, everypony…but please, try not to crowd our patient. Her mental state might be volatile at the moment…”
And with that, he swiveled in a crisp movement and pushed through the swinging doors to the recovery ward. Twilight nodded to the others and walked through.
“Not you, Doctor Needles…” the unicorn said pointedly as the old sawbones made to follow them in. “I do believe you have done more than your share for our patient at this time…” He closed the door in his snarling face.
What was that all about? Twilight wondered.
The recovery ward had become a familiar sight after Rainbow’s frequent crashes and all the times Twilight and the others had managed to drag her to hospital over her loud protests. The sterile-but-cozy atmosphere was compounded by beds lined up against the walls, curtains hanging from racks on the ceiling to guarantee a measure of privacy, large windows glowing with sunlight at both ends of the room, and the solid reassurance of spotless medical equipment hanging from the headboards behind the beds.
This time, however, the curtains were half-drawn around a bed to leave it hidden from the other patients in the recovery ward and several nurses were standing around it. There was a faint blip of the electrocardiograph still attached to the patient.
The black mare’s yellow eye was open – the other still hidden behind bandages - staring at the doorway. Twilight couldn’t help but stare. She had never seen such an eye before. The irregular shape had been difficult to notice before with her eyes closed, but now…
The socket was abnormally long and set deeply into the skull beneath a heavy brow. At first glance, the mare looked cross-eyed, but on closer inspection, Twilight could see her socket was rotated slightly outwards from a pony’s and looking straight ahead gave her that appearance.
She was not beautiful, Twilight noticed, catching Rarity’s grimace while the other unicorn looked her up and down. Her muzzle and most of her neck were hidden behind bandages as well, but Twilight could see the square shape of a heavy jaw underneath the gauze, and what she could see of the neck was almost-skeletally thin, showing off the bones, cords of muscle and blood vessels beneath.
Her shaggy, uncut coat was a black - but not a very dark or thick one - managing to look only like a permanent dirty streak of soot. Her mane was abnormally wiry and coarse, colored a deep, dull red interspersed with a few strands of black that managed to make it look dirty no matter how hard the nurses must have tried to clean it out. Her back was swollen and wide, proportioned to a horse’s body. However, her legs were shaped for a pony, thicker than a horse’s, and while they were longer than most, they were still not long enough to stop her back and rump from looking ridiculously bulky. She must stomp around like an elephant when she walks, Twilight thought, maybe that’s why she wears those boots.
She was completely silent, staring straight ahead at the doorway, not acknowledging any of the new arrivals to the room with so much as a flicker in her gaze. Pinkie Pie immediately flinched back, still not her bubbly, bouncy self, while the other ponies looked at her curiously. Rainbow was, for once, quiet, gazing at Ponyville’s visitor. She raised a hoof and waved it in the air.
No response. Not even a shift in her gaze.
“These are the ponies who found you, miss,” the doctor said to the patient. “It was lucky they managed to get you here in time…”
She did not answer.
Fluttershy gave a short gasp, “I-I think she might be like one of my possums, doctor!”
He blinked. “Miss Fluttershy?”
The yellow pegasus’ eyes widened in reminiscent panic as she started speaking. “My little babies always choke! They fall down and start to die with their eyes open when some big animal scares them! I don’t want the poor dears to be scared to death, so I pick them up and carry them on my back, sing a song, and they perk right back up! Maybe she’s scaring to death! Here…”
Already in half a panic, she zipped up to the mare’s side. “Put her on my back! Maybe after I fly around and sing to her a little, she’ll wake up!”
Twilight facehoofed, “Fluttershy, your possums were just playing dead! They were never in any danger…and neither is she...I hope…”
Fluttershy stared at Twilight, and then slowly reddened and slunk down to the floor with an embarrassed grin on her face at the looks she was getting from everypony in the room.
Thankfully, Rarity came to her rescue, “Well, she could indeed be ‘playing dead’ as you put it, Twilight. Remember what the good doctor said about crowding her,” she put on a voice that Twilight had never heard her use before – a cooing, whiny little sing-song somepony might use to coax a newborn foal to eat. “The poor darling might not know where she is or what happened! She might be ever so afraid…just waiting for the big, scary ponies to leave her alone…”
From the tone in Rarity’s voice and the half-sympathetic, half-disgusted look she was giving their patient, it was obvious what she was thinking. Since the mare was cross-bred, silent and unattractive, Rarity had apparently decided she was simple and mentally-disabled too.
And she may well be for all we know. Twilight frowned, not caring for Rarity’s false concern or her snobbish assumption, but the fact of the matter was – they couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t responding to anything, and the only cases she’d seen like that were shock, catatonia or…
She had a sudden thought, “Do you think she might’ve been mesmerized, doctor?”
She heard Applejack gasp behind her, no doubt thinking of the incident with the princess.
At that, instead of being intrigued or startled, the doctor surprised Twilight by letting out a heavy, long-suffering sigh, “Miss Twilight Sparkle…not you too! I just spent two hours disabusing my noble colleague ‘Doctor’ Needles of that notion, and now I hear it from a magician?!”
Twilight raised her eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Miss Twilight Sparkle…she’s not a unicorn…it’s impossible! To be mesmerized, one must be capable of casting live magic. And that’s not to mention somepony must counter-cast to cause it, and who would do that to an earth pony?! It makes no sense!” he sighed, rolling his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe he was hearing something so ridiculous.
“Whoa whoa whoa! Back up a second there!” Rainbow said, rising up and hovering a few feet over the floor like she usually did to get their attention, “what’s this maser-masma-mismur-…?”
Twilight ignored her. “She’s just staring right ahead, doctor, as though she was looking at something. And you said she doesn’t respond to anything but her heart or brain activity doesn’t match catatonia…” Excitement began to bubble up through Twilight as the cause of their mystery mare’s condition became clearer and clearer. Looking at her now, Twilight wondered how she hadn’t spotted it the instant she walked in.
“As I spent the last two hours repeating…” the doctor groaned with his hoof pressed to his face and eyes squeezed shut, “a creature that cannot channel magic could never be mesmerized, no matter similar the symptoms appear!”
“I’m ever so sorry Twilight dear, but that’s quite true,” put in Rarity, who, like all unicorns, had sat through safety classes as a filly and was well aware of the dangers of being mesmerized.
“Maybe not!” Twilight was ecstatic now, jumping up and down on her hooves and grinning. “Valaethium! That’s it! The valaethium did it!”
Rainbow facehoofed, hovering in the air with a half-annoyed, half-weary expression on her face, “Okay, I’m officially lost now…” Even Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were staring at her in confusion.
The doctor frowned. “Valaethium? You mean the magic-imbibing metal, Miss Twilight?” Most of the ponies were looking at her with blank incomprehension, but as a well-educated medical professional, he had apparently heard of it before. He shook his head, “That might cause it, yes…but there is no such metal in this part of Equestria. Anyway, even if there were, it would only react if somepony - and again, a unicorn – deliberately struck it with a live spell! And what manner of unicorn would be that foolish?!”
Twilight stopped bouncing and looked up at the doctor through half-closed eyes. “As a matter of fact, Princess Celestia tried to divine a sample of it just yesterday after my friend Applejack found it in her fields…” she replied dryly.
For the first time, the doctor looked surprised. Really surprised. His eyebrows nearly rocketed right off his face - his eyes needed the extra room. “That-that’s impossible!”
While he struggled to find more words, Applejack looked at Twilight, then at the mare, “Yeah, that does sorta look like wha’ we saw, Twi, but like tha’ doc said…ya’d need to use magic to get the valley-thingamajig buckin’…”
“Can somepony please tell me what the hay they’re talking about?!!” Rainbow yelled, drawing startled looks and scowls from the nurses. Everypony else shrugged, figuring they might as well go with the flow.
“Not always, Applejack! Today I read a book about it and I divined the piece you found…” Twilight was really excited now, her eyes wide open, grinning, and horn sparking eagerly. “It was over-charged! Valaethium’s like a steam engine! Pump it up too much and it blows it off all on its own! Somepony must have hit that valaethium with too many spells! And when it discharged, it mesmerized her!! ” Twilight gave a self-congratulatory whoop and blasted off into a somersault in the air that would’ve made even Pinkie envious. “WOOHOO!! Mystery solved!!!”
The doctor, finally managing to compose himself, shut his mouth with an audible snap, “Miss Twilight Sparkle…let’s…not jump to conclusions here…”
“But it’s not jumping, doctor…” Twilight chattered excitedly, “It all makes sense! You thought she wasn’t mesmerized because she’s an earther, but she has - it’s obvious! We found a piece of melted valaethium - which hasn’t been seen for years here in Ponyville! And we found both of them around the same area at the same time. And it goes without saying the only way to mesmerize a non-unicorn is – valaethium discharge!”
He ground his teeth together, now starting to look faintly embarrassed, “I admit, if you found both her and a piece of valaethium…that might be possible, but…we have no way of knowing she came into contact with the metal at all…or even if it did discharge in such a manner…it could just be coincidence,” he said feebly.
Applejack snorted at that, “I ain’t no magician, doc…but just what in the hay are the chances a pony turns up in a pickle o’ magic should be impossible fer an earther…at precisely tha’ same time ah foun’ a metal that we ain’t never seen before an’ kicks back magic like that…and still be coincidence?!”
The doctor seemed to not have an answer for that, so Fluttershy very quietly put in, “I-I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all, Applejack...”
The door to the ward banged open, and Doctor Needles rushed in. “I told you!!!” he said triumphantly, pointing his hoof at his counterpart, “I told you she had been mesmerized! But you just had to go all high and mighty and insult my intelligence, my competence as a doctor and…”
Seeing the unicorn’s face start to turn red, Twilight butted into Doctor Needles’ rant sharply. “Aaanyway, now we know what the problem is - I can bring her out of it!”
Twilight stepped forward towards the bed their mystery mare was on and gathered her magic, forgetting in all her excitement where she was and who was with her. This is so relieving! After all of this grasping, all this worry, we can finally wake this mare up and help her get back to normal. We’ll know who she is and what happened to her too.
She didn’t hear the alarmed shouts and cries of warning from the nurses and the two doctors as her horn glowed brightly, spilling light over the mare.
*
She heard their screams as they fought. Leathery wings beat mercilessly at the air, deafening screams, howls and roars rang in her ears, and the ground was clogged with snow, mud, blood, and debris. Their leader shouted orders nopony seemed to hear or care about.
Far above her, she could see the two leviathans locked in mortal combat, snapping at each other with their teeth. Their other, smaller enemies were attacking them both, spreading their wings and landing on both combatants, digging their claws into them and hanging on like leeches as the two dragons wrestled with each other in mid-air.
She knew neither of them would be able to survive the swarm for long. She had to end the battle between them fast. She spotted the cannon, the gunner nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had abandoned it, or maybe he was gone or dead. She ran over to the cannon and pulled the crank, aiming it skyward.
“I must hit the right one…”
She took a careful aim through the sight. The green one, she had to hit the green one. Right in its neck…
BANG!!!
The missile sailed high, but at the last minute, the red one darted forward and snapped at the green one’s wing. He missed, and tumbled through the air right into the missile’s path…
“NO!”
The red dragon roared in pain as the missile hit it in the back. It spread its wings and, with a powerful stroke, propelled itself away from its green kin, snapping at the enemies still clinging to it and roaring in rage.
A mix of horror and relief swept through her at the fortunately non-lethal mistake. She pulled the lever, lowering another missile into the cannon and taking aim. This time, there was nothing in the way, and the thing wasn’t moving. She almost had a clear shot…just a little more…
But the green one had seen what had happened. Completely unaware of the fangs and claws of the creatures still attached to it, it swiveled in mid-air, turned its head down…
…and looked directly at her.
She could almost see the rage in those terrible, molten eyes between the crosshairs…
Terror shot down her legs and seized them up. But not before she hit the trigger again.
The cannon’s nozzle exploded in a blinding flash of light.
*
As the light faded, Twilight looked down into that single visible eye.
The pupil flickered, and then contracted. A booted hoof twitched.
And Tartarus broke loose.
She sat up with a muffled yell of surprise behind the face mask. And then, predictably, she gave an enormous, high-pitched scream of agony as broken ribs, bruised muscles, punctured organs, stitched fang bites, and dozens of bone-deep scratches made themselves known all at once.
Nurse Redheart immediately reared up and placed her hooves on the mare’s barrel, hushing her and yelling at her to lie still. The mare took no notice, screaming and lashing out with her hooves. One connected sharply with Redheart’s face and knocked her flat on her rump. The other came within a hair’s breadth of Twilight’s neck.
She backed off immediately, shocked, as the mare continued to scream and flailed with her bandaged legs at the respirator mask and ECG leads attached to her chest.
She had been strapped to the bed of course, but then her eye slammed open again, and, with a howl, she began to pull herself upright, snapping the straps open, popping the IV needle right out of her leg and stretching the ECG leads as her heart rate went haywire. The room was full of the sound of panicked yells and screaming.
“Nurse!” both doctors yelled at the same time, galloping for the patient.
Twilight, still shocked from almost taking a hoof to the face, looked around in confusion. There are already nurse mares in the ward, she thought.
But no, the doors banged open and a couple of beefy stallions in green scrubs barged in, throwing themselves at the mare and trying to wrestle her back down into the gurney.
“Take it easy! She’s hysterical!” the Life Flight doctor yelled from the side as he levitated a syringe into a bottle of thick orange fluid. He turned around, “Hold her still! This should put her out…”
But as he lowered the syringe, the mare’s boot shot out and she knocked it from his grip. The syringe went spinning end over end to embed itself in the floor right next to the unconscious Redheart’s face. The doctor backed off quickly, yelling at the nurse stallions to restrain her.
One black, booted hind leg shot up and smashed one of the nurse stallions in the gut. He doubled over, wheezing, as his friend struggled to hold the flailing forehooves. But it was no good. The mare visibly braced herself and butted her head into the stallion’s neck. He yelled in pain and let go.
SNAP! The last strap around her barrel broke.
Twilight couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Right before her eyes, the mare pulled herself up again - despite broken bones and muscles cut to ribbons - with an agonized groan. She put both her forehooves on the respirator mask and…RRRRRIP…tore it off.
She visibly gulped down a breath of air before choking and spitting out some thick white-green fluid from her muzzle. Her face was quite long, elongated into a beak-shaped snout with thick lips and teeth that looked too small for her. The spitting noises she was making sounded deep and heavy.
She raised a hoof to her bad eye, feeling the bandages, and staring down at herself for a moment, before ripping the ECG nodes from her chest and looking up at the doorway. And the six ponies and one dragon in front of it.
Fluttershy immediately gave a squeak and tried to hide behind a table. Pinkie, surprisingly, followed her lead without a single popper or welcoming balloon appearing in her hooves. Rarity gasped and began to back away, levitating up a loudly-protesting Spike and holding him out in front of her as a shield. Applejack flinched, but stood her ground, digging in her hooves, flicking her ears back and snorting. Rainbow - of course – had spread her wings wide and adopted a menacing pose in mid-air.
Twilight locked eyes with the mare. The single eye she could see was narrowed and glimmered with a mix of hot anger and sharp pain. Twilight knew words would do no good. She lit up her horn and shot an immobilizing spell at her.
But, incredibly, with a thump and the sickening grinding sound of bone against bone, the mare rolled off the bed and hit the floor, right on top of the stallion she had winded. Twilight’s spell hit the wall harmlessly.
The still-gasping stallion attempting to grab the patient and pin her to the floor, but she dug in her good hoof and bucked him in the face with a smash that would have impressed even Applejack. His muzzle exploded in a fountain of blood, and he fell over screaming.
Twilight felt her eyes go wide as, incredibly, the mare lifted up her enormous back and stood shakily on all fours, together with the hideous grating noise of pieces of bone clacking together. Despite everything, she had to admire this mare’s pain threshold – most ponies would be on the floor screaming in agony.
“Now! Before she can move!” Rainbow yelled, before zooming at full speed at the mare.
“Rainbow! NO!!!” Twilight yelled, too late.
The mare lifted her head just in time to be tackled by the pegasus. She did scream then, at the feeling of all that weight smashing into her injured body at once.
Rainbow tried to pin her down, but, with apparent ease, the mare tossed Rainbow off her and rose again. Rainbow tumbled into another bed with a yell of surprise, knocking it aside and revealing Doctor Needles cowering underneath. Whimpering in dismay, the old doctor ran for another bench, well out of the mare’s range.
Applejack lowered her head and started winding up for a charge, pawing at the floor, but Twilight shook her head, pointing with her hoof. When Applejack looked closely, she saw what she meant.
The mare was having trouble staying upright, her eye was glazing over with pain and her thick, knobby knees looked about to buckle. Apparently, that Rainbow Crash she had just taken had hit harder than they thought.
“Stop!” Twilight said, before she realized what she was doing, “Nopony’s going to hurt you! You’re in a hospital! In Ponyville!”
The horse-pony’s tattered ears twitched slightly at that, but she made no reply beyond slowly collapsing onto one of her forelegs and pushing herself back up again with a groan.
And at that moment, Doctor Needles rushed up behind her with the syringe he’d just filled from the other bench. The mare turned her head slightly, but he had come from her blind side and she didn’t see him until he had jammed the needle in her flank.
The mare twitched, let out an indignant growl and tried to buck the doctor. But her hind legs didn’t go more than a few centimeters before they failed her and she slumped gracelessly down onto her rump, struggling to keep even her head upright. Her eye squeezed shut as she grimaced.
“Easy now…” Twilight said slowly, taking a nervous hoofstep closer. That sedative should slow her down. “We just want to help y-“
The mare snapped her head up when it was inches from Twilight’s, the single eye now wide and alert. Her legs promptly straightened, and, with loud crackles and pops, she charged, bowling Twilight and Applejack over as the others screamed and tried to get out of her way.
She banged through the ward doors, and was gone.
“After her!” the Life Flight doctor yelled, poking his head up over the table he’d taken refuge behind. “If she tries to run away in that condition…”
“It’s alright, doctor,” Doctor Needles replied smugly. “She won’t get far once the serum I injected into her takes effect.”
Twilight didn’t doubt he was taking extreme pleasure in the look of indignant fury on his colleague’s face, but right now she had more pressing concerns. Like getting her head out from between the unconscious Redheart’s hind legs and stopping that crazy mare before she did herself another injury.
Ow…that shoulder’s going to be sore for a while… As she got up, she heard shouts of surprise and the beat of running hooves from the hallway. Rainbow pushed herself the right way up dizzily and flexed her slightly crooked wings, snorting “Thanks so much for your help everypony!”
“We’re sorry, Rainbow dear,” Rarity replied, poking a red face around a curtain, “But we were just so surprised…we couldn’t help ourselves…”
Applejack finished untangling herself from the curtain the mare’s charge had got her wrapped in and facehoofed, “Ah can’t believe ah’m doin’ this…” before heading for the door with Twilight and Rainbow hot on her heels.
The hallway was alive with yelling and the sound of hoofbeats as nurses and staff everywhere dropped what they were doing as the injured mare struggled by them. She was obviously hurting, dragging each hoof along the floor towards the entrance.
As they got close, Twilight spread her hooves and stopped her friends. “Wait. She’s in bad shape. We’d better be gentle…”
“Gentle?” Rainbow snorted angrily, “that crazy featherer threw me into-”
She fell silent as the mare, her back to them, groaned audibly and collapsed onto her belly, dragging herself along by her forehooves.
“Wait…” Twilight whispered again, as she sensed what was happening.
She crawled like a helpless filly towards the double doors as onlookers took their cue from Twilight and stood back. Twice more, the mare crumpled and dragged herself back up again, her breathing labored and pained.
As she reached the door, Twilight reached out with her magic and swung it open for her, much to the gasps of the ponies in the lobby.
The mare dragged herself to the doorway and raised her head shakily. Her eye opened.
She saw the fields outside.
She saw the river.
She saw the acres.
She saw the town square of Ponyville.
Her mouth opened.
She spoke a word in a voice heavy and thick with disuse.
“…No…”
And she fell on her face unconscious.