//------------------------------// // All Dreams Must End (Part 4 of 3: Trapped) // Story: Undisclosed Desire // by Dark Enigma //------------------------------// Acidic tears scratch Trixie's eyes. She looks at her leg then at the dark sky. With a deep inhale of warm air, Trixie reaches for her magic and directs it toward her leg. Merely healing the area won't be enough. The bone has to be pushed back into place or else the wound won't heal right, and Trixie knows this. It's that very prospect that is holding her in place with her magic only coursing around the wound, standing idle. Shakily, Trixie breaths out and closes her eyes. She commands her magic to take hold of her bone and push. Biting her lip, she pushes harder and harder until a snap goes off in her ear. She lets go and arcs her back as if she's possessed by a ghost chewing on her leg. The bone barely moved, but the pain shooting through her leg and into her torso grips her in a vice of jagged teeth and it won't stop squeezing. I can't do this. "You have to," Ure says from his haven, wherever it may be. "Why? What's the point? The world is gone, I have no pony left, I have no reason to live anymore." A second voice, vaguely familiar, responds this time. "What makes you happy?" This voice feels young, lively, and compassionate unlike Ure's cold tone. It's the same one that yelled, "cotton candy," when Trixie was falling. "Who are you?" Trixie asks over the bite of her broken leg. "That's not important right now. What IS important is you finding your fire, your reason to live, your happiness." "That was taken away..." "AND you can take it back!" the voice shrills on. "Don't give up, because the minute you do, you stop living. The entire world can be against you, but you deserve to be happy and no pony can tell you otherwise. You said you have no pony left; well, you have me, and I'm not giving up on you!" A loud pop then crunch hits Trixie in the temple, and she looks at her leg. The bone moved into place and the skin has healed over it. Trixie didn't even feel a thing. "Now move! You have a life to save." Back where the hill once stood, Silver continues to dodge the duo's attacks. But being an earth pony, he doesn't have many options of self-defense. He can't fly or use magic. All he relies on is his quick wit and reflexes as the monster hacks and slashes at him, pushing him back. He tries to trap it in his hypnotic glare, but the monster is flailing so erratically that it's impossible to meet its gaze for more than half a second, not enough if Silver hopes to walk away from this alive. The monster growls, sounding like metal grinding on metal, and splits the blade in half, carrying each on a thin wire. Like a mower, the blades spin around it, picking up dirt and rocks in a vortex its creating. A dark gray haze forms around the battle field as more and more dirt fills the air. With a roar, the monster slams both blades on the ground and disappears as a cloud of earth blankets everything visible. Dust fills Silver's lungs while he listens carefully for anything out of the ordinary. The haze eats up his vision, so he has to rely on his other senses. A rumble resonates to his left, shaking the ground underneath his hooves. A groan to his right. Silence consumes him when a faint shadow appears before him. He notices just in time to back step out of a horizontal slash that would have carved a nice gorge in his chest. But something was wrong. The movement of the blade was bulky and slow, not as graceful as the previous ones. Just as Silver lands, he feels a goo splash up. He looks down, but it's too late. Wires sprout up like thin trees and snare him in a networks of blue web. It raises him up above the haze, wrapping around his legs and neck and head. Silver kicks and grunts trying to get free, but the more he struggles, the more the wires wrap around him. A maw and face form out of the web and laughs at him with a metallic gargle. Below, the red monster swings around and dispels the haze with two powerful swipes of its body. Then it jumps to join its counterpart. The blue monster catches it and jabs many wires into its body, pulling off shard after pointy shard. At least a hundred shards held by a thin, blue strands circles Silver, all crying for his blood with a metallic peal. The blue monster grins and the thread snaring Silver tightens. Suspended ten feet above the ground, Silver trembles on gaunt strings, unable to move. He grunts; his eyes fleet left and right as its the only part of his body he can control. Everything else trapped by puppet strings. The monster maneuvers him so his belly faces the sky and his legs are spread to the furthest extent they can go without ripping apart. At this, Silver groans in pain as he struggles against it but to no avail. Satisfied, the edge of the monster's mouth twitches upward and, faster than Silver can scream, thrusts ten shards at his body. All the while Silver doesn't close his eyes. He wants to see what's coming for him. The monster begins to chuckle but stops when it sees that the shards missed him. Confused it tries again, sending more at him this time; but again, they seem to avoid him as if tasting his blood will melt them. A flash stuns the monster and Silver is gone. Looking around for him, the monster spots two ponies staring at him from below, one of them carrying Silver in a magical field. It grins at the new meat and shrinks down in size to meet them, combining the shards to create its sword again. Then it sprints at them, and just as it nears, it slices parallel to the ground so it can take them both out at once; but the blade avoids them just as it did with Silver. The monster growls in frustration and stands tall to deliver a devastating downward blow. But the pony on the left won't have any of it. Her horn alights and a stone spire stabs the monster and carries it upward well out of sight. Then, kneeling at before the thin tower, she shoots a bolt of lightning into its base. A few seconds later, iridescent red cracks spider web up. Once it reaches the top, an earth shattering explosion goes off, filling the sky with a bright red flash. Molten rock rains down in large chunks and quickly harden into a dark mess. The two ponies watch as the spire melts away back into the ground, both perfectly safe in a field that curves away any incoming projectiles. The pony carrying Silver drops him, and he gets up, dusting himself off with a snort. "You're late to the party, Princess," he says in a mocking manner. "Where are the others?" Glimmer asks. "Beats me. Why don't you have your lap dog search for them with her 'talent'?" "Um, something is blocking my radar. I can't track anything. And the only reason we found you is because we saw all the dust that thing was kicking up," Serbie replies, avoiding any eye contact with Silverstreak; though Princess Glimmer has no problem looking him dead in the eye. "Careful, Princess, unless you want to see what scares you the most." Silver returns her glare. "I'm living my biggest fear. You're stare has no effect on me. Now where is your djinn? You're using a wish to get us back." "Like hell I am. I came to finish a job, and I need her to do it." Princess Evening sighs. "Why? What can you possibly be after that Trixie cannot give you?" "Answers." "From who, Silver?" "Why should I tell you? You don't care. Or maybe you do care now that you're life depends on it, hmm? You do not rule me, you are not my princess. I only listen to one pony and that's me. So take your scared, little slave mare and go home. I only need me." Without warning, Eve hits Silver with a right hook. The suddenness of the hit topples Silver, and Eve pins him down with her forelegs. "Listen here, this arrogance of yours is going to get you killed, and if it wasn't for Serbie, that monster would have skewered you. Stop trying to face the world alone, you're not. You have me. And you should know I care about you more than you believe." "Um, is Trixie interrupting?" Trixie arrives and sees the Princess on top of her master. Her wounds are gone and she seems to be cheerier than before, especially at seeing her master at the mercy of another mare. "Excellent timing," replies Eve. "You are going to gather all of us at the entrance of the city and we are all going home. I should have never let any of you go on this endeavor." Trixie looks at her master and waits for a response. Seeing that nothing is forthcoming, she shakes her head and says, "Trixie regrets to inform you that due to the lack of response from my proxy, I cannot fulfill your request. Please try again later." Silver stifles a chuckle. "What?" Eve turns to Silver. "Tell her you want to go home. Make the wish. Now." "Sorry, Princess. 'Due to the lack of response from my proxy' yada yada yada. Guess we're all stuck out here til I get my answers." The Princesses looks down with shadows in her eyes. "Fine." With that, she gets off Silver. But then, with her magic, buries him so only his head is showing, and sits on her haunches in front of him. "I'll help you find your 'answers, but you are going to have to tell me everything so I can do so. Until then, we are not moving from this spot." "I'm not telling you anything." Silver spits in her direction, causing her to scoot back in disgust. Recomposing herself, she clears her throat. "Then I suppose we are staying here for quite some time. Serbie, set a spatial filed around us so we are not disturbed." "Yes, Princess." Serbie waves her horn and a blue line follows wherever her horn points to. And so she draws a circle. Once the circle completes, a dome flashes into existence then vanishes, but the blue circle on the ground is evidence that it's still in effect. "It's done." "Excellent." Eve replies, then turns to Silver. "Anything to say yet?" "Bite me." "Don't tempt me. This is quite fun." "Trixie!" Silver tries to turn his head in her direction. "Aren't you going to do something?" Trixie smirks. "Make a wish." "No, I need my last two wishes. Aren't you suppose to protect your master?!" Trixie struts next to Eve and sits. "You're not in any danger. And Trixie is curious as well. She has to know where my magic is being spent, doesn't she?" "No, you don't." Silver grunts and tries to dig himself out. "Hmm, perhaps not. But being in servitude, Trixie is entitled to some fun." "You witch. Get me outta here!" Trixie drops on her belly and leans in so her muzzle is next to Silver's ear. "What's the magic word?" At that, she tips her head so Silver's muzzle is next to her ear. "Screw you..." Silver shuts up and begins crying: a response that surprises Trixie and Eve. Trixie stands and looks over at Eve who responds with a stoic gaze. Serbie merely pays attention from the back ground as she always has. "You don't know what it's like..." Silver says after choking down a sob. Then with renewed vigor, he screams, "I had to fight and struggle to survive for most of my life! No pony ever cared about me. They were only worried about themselves. Well, you know what? Screw them. They're dead now. I've survived through my own will. So, Princess, I am alone in this world, in my world. And I refuse to let anypony else into my world. They only slow me down. The only way to live is to sever any ties with any pony else, because if they die, I won't care; and if I die... no pony else will care. It's a win-win for everypony involved. So if you're gonna help me, then help me. If not, go back to wherever the Doctor dug you up, because you're not important to me. You don't rule me." "Dug you up?" Trixie questions. "I thought you were a direct line from Twilight? That's what you and the Doctor said." "That's what the official story is," says Silver. "The council doesn't want the public to know the Doctor has--or had--a time machine. Everypony will be begging for them to fix... this. It'll cause chaos. So he went back in time, got her from who knows where and brought her here, because 'apparently' she's the strongest unicorn to have ever lived. 'Her magic rivals that of the alicorns, dare I say. And she'll be able to solve all our problems.' Humph, some help. All you've done is--" "Protect you," interrupts Evening. "You think those generators are perfect? They are still a work in progress and you know what happens if they fail? I have to sub in for them. I've been keeping the city in the sky for weeks while the Doctor runs his maintenance which is why I have to go back. Only two generators were fully functional when we left. The others were running at half capacity. They won't last much longer with all that strain." "Not my problem," replies Silver. "Yes it is because--" Eve sighs. "Listen, I need your help to go back. By the Doctor's calculation, the shield will only last two days while the propulsion spell one. I can't go back on my own because the shield acts as a magic jammer. Your djinn can do the impossible, so she can definitely by-pass the jamming system. So I'll make a deal with you: tell me what I want to know, and I'll tell you something I've hidden from you for years. I'll even go first." "I have no interest in what you have to say." Princess Evening smiles. "You will. I'm your daughter after all, so you're entitled to care about me."