“SCOOTALOO!”
At the sound of that scream coming from two of the Crusader’s I freeze up in panic, dreading what may have just happened. Twilight and Spike on the other hand took off running as soon as they heard it, and there looked to be many others heading in that direction as well. Once I get control of myself again I rush after them, only to be blocked by a crowd of ponies in the way.
I struggle my way through the gathered crowd until I find myself at the grisly scene. There behind a cart with her ruined scooter lies Scootaloo. There she lay bleeding from various wounds, the worst of them being from the stump of her wing, the rest of it being a few feet away. Nearby I see the forms of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle being held by their sisters as they cry and try to reach their friend.
Taking in the rest of the scene I see Rainbow Dash being held back by both Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie as she tries to reach the young filly, while Twilight is casting spell after spell trying to save the young one. Hope rises within me as she looks to be putting everything she has into a final effort, but it is soon lost as she collapses without any visible effect. When the others see this they all realize what this means even without Twilight’s words. “She’s gone. I can’t do anything else for her.”
Seeing the hopelessness on all their faces snaps something inside of me as all the spells I know and learned run through my head in denial at this. I am about to give up myself until I remember one spell, a most dangerous spell, that I have that may be the only thing left to save her. The cost of using it however…
I push that thought away as I move forward and start pulling things out of my packs, thankful for whoever it was that left the message to bring everything. “Twilight, it’s not over yet. I have one spell that may help but I need you to move everypony and everything back so I have room to cast it. No time to explain, if it’s going to be done it needs to be started now.”
She looks as if she is about to argue with me, but seeing the look on my face seems to give her hope again and she starts doing as I say and organizing those that can to clear out the area for me. I bring out my journal and turn to the page I had the spell transcribed to and start reading through the requirements for it and stop when I realize I am missing a key part. I look up in panic until I notice Rarity across from me, still comforting her sister.
“Rarity! Do you have any diamonds around!? I need one of a good size and quality for this spell to work!” She just looks up at me with a shocked expression before stuttering. “I-i-i may have a few left over, but how will they help her out?” I just shake my head at her wasting time like this. “It’s the key part of this spell, if I don’t have it there is no chance of saving her, if you aren’t sure what to grab just bring them all!”
I turn to another nearby pegasus as Rainbow Dash is worthless right now and Fluttershy is keeping her calm. “You! I need you to bring me down a cloud and keep it nearby until I’m ready to use it.” Without checking to see if they went to do so I turn back to Scootaloo and begin my preparations.
I first gather all my chalk and crush into a fine powder with my magic and proceed to draw out the magic circle. I leave the five points open for now as I need to do something special for those later. I take my time to double and triple check every symbol that I have to write out as well as make sure not a speck of chalk is out of place. Once I finish that I pass the book over to Twilight so she can check over my work while I dig out a small groove for all the major points except the one for magic.
As soon as I finish that I fill each of the carved out sections with the appropriate substance while I quietly recite the instructions to myself. “For earth is the purest of salts drawn from the ground. For air is the clouds plucked from the very sky. For water is water drawn from a clean source. And for fire is a substance that can burn unassisted.” Luckily I had some salt and water on me, and any oil would work though I had some cooking oil with me for some reason. Those with the cloud I had ordered retrieved were all I needed for those points as the fifth would be where I would be standing as I cast the spell.
Soon enough all the preparations were ready except for the diamond I asked Rarity to get. It was a rough fifteen minutes since I sent her out and I knew time was slowly slipping away. As I was about to send Spike or somepony else to find her I spotted her racing her way back to us. When she arrived she thrust a good sized diamond at me before she collapsed next to her sister. Judging from the sweat and dirt covering her I assume she didn’t have any left at her place so had to hunt one down in the gem fields.
Now that everything was ready I took one final look at my journal before turning to Twilight to say one last thing. “I’m sorry.” With that I brought up a shield all around the circle while she just stared at me blankly. With her being drained from before I knew she would have no way to stop me so I turned my full attention to what I was doing. Levitating the diamond to above Scootaloo in the center I cast one spell that I swore never to do except in an emergency.
“Power that binds me, now be set free;
For this is the hour, to unleash my power;
And as I have sworn, to show my true form.”
At these words I feel the power that I swore to never use until I could control them return to me. I struggled to keep them from flowing out of control as the energy reacts to its sudden freedom by flaring higher than what it should have been. I only then realize that sealing off this power only made it come back stronger when I released it so I poured everything into the spell before I could lose control.
As I do this I am vaguely aware of Twilight and her friends pounding on the outside of my barrier, but soon this too was lost as everything except what is in the circle fades to white. Soon another figure starts to appear within the circle, and I am glad to see that I’m not too late. There sitting by her body is the spirit of Scootaloo crying at her misfortune. Knowing that my body is still bound to its position I move my own spirit over to comfort her.
When she feels me touch her she gasps and backs rapidly away, her eyes widening as she stares at me. “W-w-w-who are you? What’s going on?” I wonder at her first question, until I look down and see that I am back in my original form. “Oh right, you haven’t seen me like this yet, Selene being the only one who knows. I didn’t realize that my form would shift back to normal again after releasing my power.” I turn to look at my body and notice something else as well. Huh, so I actually earned my third one already. If only mother could see me now.
Sighing I turn back to Scootaloo who is now looking at me oddly. “Flarenza, is that really you?” I nod my head and her eyes widen before she rushes over and throws herself at me in a big hug as she starts crying in relief. I can’t make out what she is saying, but I can guess pretty well based on the situation. “Don’t worry Scootaloo; everything is going to be all right. There’s just one thing that needs to be done before we get you back.”
At this I turn to a figure who I had felt approaching in the distance and was now on the edge of the circle waiting. Turning to the figure I address them in as regal and ritualistic of a voice I can muster. “Angel of Death, Cu Sith, the Grim Reaper and the Shadow Lover; I have come to bargain so that the loss of this soul is delayed until such time that it passes again. As for the nature of the bargain, life for a life as is appropriate, will you accept these terms?”
I stare at the figure, trying to pierce the darkness of its hood while Scootaloo shivered against my side. After a long period of waiting the figure finally nods and I turn to the diamond still floating above the filly’s body. I then start channeling energy into the gem to the point where it starts to give off a glow. Once it is filled to its maximum I pass it across to the being who nods as they take it into their robes.
With the bargain completed Scootaloo starts being pulled back towards her body, and I let her go with my final words. “Take care of Selene for me.” At that the last thing I see are her eyes widening as she is sucked back into her body and everything around me fades to black.
<><><><><><><>
Twilight’s POV
Flarenza’s word through me off until I noticed her journal lying outside of the barrier she threw up around the circle. Reading through the spell I realize the reason for her words. “Girls! I don’t believe what I’m reading, but if what she wrote down in here his correct then this spell will kill her.” The others look at me in shock as I nod my head and start beating at the barrier with my hooves.
I see that Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and even Fluttershy have joined me in trying to break through and stop her. She doesn’t seem to see us though so I turn to my number one assistant. “Spike, I need you to take a letter for me, now!” I pace impatiently as he digs out a quill and parchment and I start dictating to him once he is ready.
“Dear Princess Celestia, things have gotten urgent in town to the point that my friend Flarenza has decided to cast a spell at the risk of her own life. She-“ I stop as her form starts to shimmer and it shifts into something different. Standing in her place is now a three-tailed fox with the same colors of her coat, but lacking any sort of mane. “What in the world is going on in there?”
Looking around I see that everypony else that is watching is also staring in shock at this transformation. Turning back to Spike I continue. “She just now turned into some sort of three-tailed fox that I really don’t know how to describe. The magic I sense from her has also jumped dramatically, so much that it is almost on par with my own. Whatever she is, she is casting some spell to try and save the life of a young filly, Scootaloo who was recently injured so bad that nothing I could do would save her, I was even about to declare her dead.” My voice cracks a bit at this before I compose myself enough to continue.
“I just don’t know what is going on or what to do and I need your help as soon as possible.” I finish there and have Spike send the letter as I turn back to the barrier. Inside I can see that little has changed and considering my magic is too low to do anything I can only wait.
Eventually things started to change as the strength of the magic emanating from the place started to fade. I thought that she had failed, until I saw that Scootaloo’s wing started to reattach itself and her wounds and bruises started clearing up. All of a sudden the diamond floating in the center began to glow brightly, along with one of the fox’s tails, before both shattered into a shower of sparkling dust taking with them any remaining magic in the area.
As soon as that happened I saw that the barrier was down as well so I rushed in to the side of the forms within. Rainbow Dash beat me to Scootaloo and cried out in joy at finding her alive and was soon joined by the fillies two friends. Flarenza on the other hand… “She's still alive, but she is going into shock from magical exhaustion. We need to get her to the hospital now, bring Scootaloo with so they can make sure she is fine as well.”
We all arrive at the hospital and explain what had just happened. They look at Flarenza’s new form in shock as they had never seen the like before. Nurse Redheart was the first to break out of it and start assisting us and personally led us to where they could try to help the two. Scootaloo they found was still in bad shape and would need a cast for her wing and ribs as they weren’t fully healed, but in time they would recover.
With Flarenza on the other hoof they had no clue what they were dealing with. They were able to treat the symptoms of magical exhaustion well enough, but they had no clue how effective the treatments would be or if anything else was wrong. They turned to Fluttershy to see if she knew anything since she had worked with foxes before, yet that knowledge didn’t help at all with our friend.
After they did everything they could they set her up in a room for observation, and from then on all we could do was wait. Soon Scootaloo woke up to her friends delight, yet she was still very weak and couldn’t shed much light on the situation, though she did ask about Flarenza but nopony was willing to answer.
I was pacing out in the waiting area when Princess Celestia arrived, reminding me that I had sent a letter to her. “Princess Celestia, I didn’t think you would be able to get here so fast.” I paused when I saw the look of anger on her face, one that I had never seen before. “Twilight, where is that creature you told me about?”
I am taken aback by how she said this, as well as how she labeled Flarenza. “She’s unconscious in a room here right now; the doctors don’t know when she will wake up.” The Princess nods to me as she passes by, followed by her sister. “Gather your friends then, we shall need to speak to her when she does awaken.” I get a bad feeling about this, especially when I notice the Princess carrying the case for the Elements with her.