Chapter 13 - Rescue
Back at Twilight’s crystal castle
“That’s all you remember?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah …,” Scootaloo sighed, “and we didn’t even get our Cutie Marks.” Apple Bloom kicked her lightly in the barrel. “Hey!”
“Come on Scoots!” Apple Bloom glared, “Sweetie Belle could be in trouble and all you can think of are our Cutie Marks?!”
“Girls please,” Twilight sighed. The two Crusaders stopped and looked at her. “So all this because she was hearing a voice in her head …” The fillies nodded. “At least it doesn’t appear to have been controlling her like I feared …”
“I still don’t get why Sweetie Belle isn’t here, though, darling,” Rarity continued. “You met with that horrific brute, he acts nice, but then forces poor Sweetie Belle to start his evil crystal.” Rarity shivered. After Sombra, anything related to crystals just didn’t have the same appeal. “Then you were trapped in the chamber with the crystal which was making you sick, Sweetie Belle used that tablet-thing to ... teleport you back … but why didn’t she come back too?”
“She said something about ‘finishing something’” Apple Bloom replied. “I didn’t know what she meant at the time but it sounded pretty important.”
“But-” Rarity started.
“No more questions … for now.” Twilight grabbed the fillies in her magic. “These fillies need to be treated for what I’d guess is severe thaumic radiation sickness. The amount of energy that crystal must have been giving off to cause illness … Take a letter, Spike. The Princesses need to be informed-” She realized that Spike wasn’t in the room. She was about to wonder where he went when she was interrupted.
“That won’t be necessary Twilight.”
Princess Celestia stepped into the room. The mane 6 reflexively knelt down while the two fillies just stood there, stunned. “Pri- Celestia!” Twilight cried. “I don’t know how much you heard but-”
“I think I heard enough, Twilight. In fact, my sister and I felt the disturbance for about half-an-hour before it suddenly stopped, which was about an hour ago. I was actually meaning to ask you what you might have thought it was … although it appears that won’t be necessary, after hearing about this ‘crystal’.” She turned her gaze to the two stunned fillies. “This crystal wouldn’t have happened to be purple, would it?”
“Y-yes … uh … your highness,” Scootaloo stuttered.
“That seems to collaborate with the gem you described in your archaeological report, Twilight.” Celestia lifted the fillies in her aura. They seemed to be too tired to struggle at this point. “We can walk and talk, we do need to get these foals medical attention.”
“Ah’m …. Ah’m not a foal …” Apple Bloom whispered as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
“I agree,” Twilight replied to Celestia, moving beside her former mentor. “Let’s go.”
The other girls all followed the two to the hospital. Twilight noticed that Celestia’s chariot was absent. ‘She must have come over here in a hurry if she didn’t bring that.’’ Twilight thought.
“Why would the magic disturbance stop, though?” Celestia asked, having been caught up with everypony’s knowledge of the situation. “If it is supposed to be a generator like this ‘Charlie’ character said, wouldn’t it need to be running constantly?”
Twilight put two-and-two together. “You don’t think that Sweetie Belle stopped it somehow?”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, after hearing about the fillies say that she ‘had something important to do’ I’m all but certain; although I’m not sure how. I’m unfamiliar with these crystals. Regardless, I owe that filly my eternal gratitude. She quite possibly saved Equestria. The sheer force of magic I felt wasn’t something that I, nor even the combined might of Equestria, would have been able to stop.”
Twilight pulled out the gem she found in the cave and focused on it. ‘How do you work? What would I have to do to stop you … actually, what does it take to even turn you on.’ She pushed her magic into it and the crystal glowed. Surprisingly when she stopped her magic, it maintained that glow. ‘So it does work like the crystal the Crusaders talked about. Then what do I-’ Twilight pulled the energy out and the crystal turned off. ‘So … I have to send the energy back to the Aether to turn it off? Then how would Sweetie Belle do it? If the fillies’ description was right, it must be over ten thousand times the size of this!’
“We’re here!” Pinkie Pie said, hopping into the hospital.
Celestia and Twilight explained the situation to the doctors and they were brought to another room. Rainbow Dash and Applejack decided to look after the sick fillies while the others got together in the hallway.
“I know you might think that I haven’t been talking or doing anything this whole time, but I’ve actually been trying to cheer the fillies up until now!” Pinkie piped up randomly. “They looked so sad … but that’s when ponies need Pinkie Pie the most! Not to mention Applejack and Rainbow Dash have been trying to take care of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo in their own ways.”
“Yes Pinkie Pie,” Rarity replied, rolling her eyes. “We know; it’s not like we’re blind ”
“Oh silly, I wasn’t talking to you, I was talking to the ones watching us right now!!”
“Pinkie Pie, that doesn’t make sense,” Rarity deadpanned.
“Don’t forget about me …” Fluttershy whispered.
Twilight gasped. “What are you doing here Fluttershy—and sorry I didn’t notice you or Spike before—but shouldn’t you be making sure that Discord doesn’t pop up and ruin something!”
“Actually, Discord wanted to go on vacation all of a sudden. I couldn’t exactly stop him and since I had nothing better to do, I just decided to-”
“Discord is gone!” Twilight gasped even more; her lavender coat becoming even more purple. “When did he leave!”
“Eeep! Umm… maybe an hour or so before you came back into town. He seemed pretty tired so-”
“That’s when the crystal became active! You don’t think-”
“Twilight, we can’t let Discord gain control of that power,” Celestia said gravely. “We may need to use the Elements of Harmony, but even they might be no match for this new power.”
“No!” Fluttershy yelled—although it was more like a squeak. “You can’t- there must be some kind of mistake! Discord might not be perfect, but he wouldn’t just take power like that! I know, I bet he went to save Sweetie Belle, why, I bet he’s already on the way back with her as we speak!”
Rarity turned to her, unconvinced. “As much as I would love that darling, you made sure he didn’t know about any of this, right? How would he have found out?”
“How indeed?”
The ponies in the hall turned to see the draconequus himself appear magically in the doorway of the hospital.
“Really,” Discord mused, “You ponies should have more faith in me. We can’t exactly be friends without trust. At least Fluttershy understands.”
“Discord!” Celestia yelled, her voice almost going full Canterlot. “We are running short on time; where have you been!”
“Yeow!” Discord said, jumping into Fluttershy’s forehooves who, surprisingly, was able to hold him despite the glaring size difference. “No need to yell, geez, you nearly knocked the stuffing out of me.” He got up, scratched his ear and a wad of cotton candy came out. “Actually you have knocked the stuffing out of me!” Pinkie was the only one to appreciate the joke.
“We don’t have time for your games, a filly’s life is in danger!” Celestia emphasized with a stomp of her hoof.
Discord got off of Fluttershy and scratched his chin in thought. “Well, it all started when I got up for breakfast this morning-”
“Get to the point! Now!”
“B-but Fluttershy was there, she could attest to how great my pancakes are in the morning. Truly it is worth retelling.”
Fluttershy shook her head, and glared at him. Not in a “stare” kind of way, but it was still intimidating.
“Oh fine, I’ll just skip right to the point then. First, I teleported into the underground facility and to the base of the funicular-”
Pinkie snorted, “Hehe … funicular. That’s such a great word. It’s got fun and then that ‘icular’ part ...” she snorted again.
Discord smiled. “Yes, it is a fun and part-icular word isn’t it.” That set Pinkie into a fit of giggles.
That others weren’t as appreciative.
“Discord…” Celestia warned.
“Of fine.” He continued the story. “Anyway, sirens were blaring this **[Self-Destruct Warning, Self-Destruct Warning, all personnel evacuate the facility immediately.]**-message thing, honestly, it was giving me a headache. Still, I thought:
“ ‘Oh pooh … looks like all the chaos already happened and I missed it. You would think somepony would have the courtesy to tell the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony when some fun and exciting discord was going on but noooo: ‘Shouldn’t you already know that?’ they say, ‘Why do you revel in our misery?’ they cry. They don’t know what misery is. The real misery is not having-’
“I would have gone on about how cruel this world is to this innocent chimera when I sensed a tremendous energy beneath me. I teleported to the source, only to find that the crystal’s energy was dissipating rather than being released. ‘Now that’s interesting.’ I thought. ‘Only one way a crystal like that would be losing energy with nopony around…’ I could sense the somepony pulling it from the Aether, but should I care? I then thought about Fluttershy and my ... other friends.”
The draconequus then magicked a: doublet, hose, cloak and feathered beret hat onto himself. He tilted back, waving his clawed arm over his face in a flourish. “I thought, ‘There are certain things even a draconequus such as I cannot get away with, and letting somepony lose themselves in the Aether is one of them. Truly I would be a genuinely despicable individual if I did not inform somepony of this significant event immediately.’ And so, I raced back, ignoring even my own safety, to tell you of the fate of that pony through the crystal. And that, my little ponies, is yet another heroic escapade of one Discord: medici est chaos, esquire. No doubt to enter into the annals of history as-”
Celestia was going to speak out against this “heroic” nonsense, but Rarity spoke first. “So my sister wasn’t there, but rather you just sensed a pony in the ‘Aether’? Darling, how do you know it was her?”
Discord didn’t seem annoyed with the interruption. He snapped his fingers and his outfit turned into a fruit cake which he began to eat. “I don’t,” he said with his mouth full, “although I couldn’t have been there more than a few minutes after those fillies teleported away. I didn’t know the details of the perilous,” that particular word spilling crumbs everywhere, ”situation at the time. Surely, though, you can understand that Sweetie Belle wasn’t in the sealed room while an incredible amount of magic was flowing into the Aether. Then I arrive—not a moment after that magic disappears—and find her gone.”
Rarity nodded her head slowly in agreement. “Y-yes, that makes sense … I just … hoped you were wrong.”
“Nope; but don’t worry, Sweetie Belle is fine.” Rarity let out a relieved sigh, but Discord quickly added, “Although unless you do something soon, she will likely disappear into the Aether for all eternity.”
Rarity gasped. “What do you mean! Answer, or I- !”
“Now now, ma petite guimauve,” he said, donning a striped sailor uniform, mustache, baguette and handing a small marshmallow to Rarity. “No need to be upset. I imagine Twilight has at least an hour to get her back … Oh, and don’t blame me, Sweetie Belle had already ‘left’ when I arrived. I don’t know why she would voluntarily leave this exciting chaotic world behind for that boring plane of uniformity, nothingness, and boredom.”
“You said boring twice,” Pinkie Pie giggled.
“Yes, so now you know what I mean,” he said. His sailor outfit disappeared, returning him back to his original self, although completely grey in hue. He slouched. “Just thinking about it makes me grey.”
“Well, maybe she couldn’t overcome the limits of the magical absorption effect on the gem?” Twilight asked to nopony in particular. “It is more energy efficient to pull energy then to push it. Regardless of the reason, though, how can we get her back? Is there no way to bring her back that you can think of?” Twilight asked Discord, then turned to her mentor. “You’ve been to the Aetherial Plane too Celestia, is there any way to do it?”
Before Celestia could respond, Discord cut in. “Well she certainly can’t. Apart from her little ‘watch-every-move-you-make’ dimension that is. Similarly, the order in that place is just … unintelligible to me. I wouldn’t last a second in that accursed place” He shivered.
“How do you know about that Discord,” Celestia spat. “Neither me, nor Luna seem to have any control of that space, yet we can enter and leave certain spaces at will.”
He shrugged. “I learned from your protégé here about your ‘stalker room’—which is very creepy if I do say so myself—and we both know that if you had control of the Aether and its infinite power, you wouldn’t need the Element of Harmony to have defeated me."
Celestia sighed. “Unfortunately, Twilight, Discord is right. I wish I could describe how I use my power, but I am unable to; not because I want to leave it a secret, but because I don’t know myself. You are more of an expert on the subject than I am. Surely the progress you have made in understanding the Tree of Harmony and the new magic you made when you fixed Starswirl’s spell will help you find a solution?”
Twilight shifted uncomfortably now that she was in the gaze of both her mentor, the spirit of disharmony, and all her friends. “R-right … so I have to find some way to save Sweetie Belle … piece of cake …”
Celestia smiled warmly. “I have every confidence in your abilities. When I said that you made new magic—and that you had become worthy of Princess-hood—I was not lying. I don’t have the power to move ponies into my Aether, nor did I think it was possible until you had done so. I wouldn’t considered it in hindsight when it put your friends in such danger. You have gone into the Aether and returned; now you need to do the same for Sweetie Belle.”
Twilight gulped. “Then we need to head back into the library, and I will need everypony’s help.”
They nodded, dashing out of the hospital towards the Crystal Castle. Discord conjured a hammock and was about to lay in it, when Fluttershy grabbed him by the tuft and dragged him off.
They were running out of time.
Spike had just finished organizing the new library. It had taken him the better part of a week but it was finally done. He had heard a commotion going on throughout Ponyville, something about the Cutie Mark Crusaders ... no surprise. He remembered writing a letter about it, but he would always forget about those by the time he put down the quill; after all, it wasn’t intended for him and he wrote so many of them. Besides, as the faithful assistant to the Princess of Friendship, it was his duty to protect Twilight’s privacy.
Now that the books were shelved, holding steadfast in his duty had finally paid off. No doubt Twilight would reward his with a week off and a castle full of his favorite gem ice cream as a reward. Really, there was only the one type of gem ice cream, but being a dragon in a pony world meant you had to make concessions.
Just as he left the library, a group of ponies barged through the door. Included was Discord being dragged by Fluttershy and even Princess Celestia.
“W-wha-” Spike barely got out.
“No time to explain Spike,” Twilight said, rushing past her number one assistant. When she got into the library, he could hear her say, “Oh good! The library is organized. Alright I’m going to need every book you can get me on the Aether and Teleportation.”
Spike could only look in horror as Celestia, Discord, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Twilight went to work, taking off books and completely ruining his work.
He didn’t cry, he didn’t even shed liquid pride. No, Spike took one final look at the mess in the library, took fifty bits from a box near the door and left, heading to the train station.
“I’m going to need at least a dozen extra sprinkled doughnuts for this …” Legends say he was at Pony Joe’s all night.
“It all comes back to detecting where Sweetie Belle is in the Aether…” Twilight said, talking to herself. In front of her were thirteen large tomes. “Discord could do it but he has no way of telling us exactly where Sweetie Belle is. The two dimensions don’t overlap in a one-to-one sort of way.”
“Yes, and I can’t detect anything in there at all, except in the space I have allocated to me,” Celestia sighed. “Me and my sister know next to nothing about it, yet we use it all the time. I honestly wish I could be more help, Twilight.”
The Rarity were sat in front of them, eyeing Celestia and Twilight nervously while Pinkie Pie absent-mindedly looked around. Discord, in the meantime, was getting a backrub from Fluttershy. After all, his hard work deserved a reward.
“Can you modify the principles of Starswirl’s spell that you completed into some type of detector?” Celestia asked. “Perhaps combine the 4th and 5th fractals of the pony locator spell with the harmonics?”
“Possibly …” Twilight said then shook her head. “No, we can’t. The power requirements would be too high. Teleporting mass of any kind into the Aether would just end up taking far too long. We need to teleport energy, but of course, getting energy back is im- … impossible…” Twilight eyes went wide.
“What are you thinking Twilight?” Celestia asked.
“We must go to the Tree of Harmony immediately! If I can use its empathic abilities, I just might be able to find her!”
Celestia raised an eyebrow, she had not heard about Twilight’s discoveries on energy teleportation she had made that morning. “I’m not sure what you’re thinking, but don’t forget that you’ll need harmony if you want to do anything with the tree. You can’t use it alone.”
“Of course! We’ll need the rest of the Elements too. Discord! Can you teleport us. Applejack and Rainbow Dash to the Tree of Harmony immediately? We really don’t have time to waste!”
“Well …,” Discord slyly replied, “I don’t know …” As he turned to Fluttershy, however, she was actually doing the stare this time. He nervously looked away. It hadn’t affected him when he had been released the first time, but now, the sheer amount of guilt he felt whenever she did it left him with little choice. “Alright, alright. Jeez, none of you ponies can take a joke.”
With a snap of his claws they were suddenly in front of the Tree.
“What the hay?” Applejack asked, looking around in confusion. “We were just in the hospital when-”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “What’s the big-” Her eyes wide in shock. “Discord!” she accused, floating upward and pointing a hoof at the draconequus. “Why are you here. What did you do to us?!”
Discord was about to make a witty, snarky comeback, but Twilight had already prepared for this conversation. “Discord teleported you here because I asked him to. I think I have found a way to save Sweetie Belle, but I’m going to need your help to do it,”
“Oh,” Rainbow Dash said, the wind completely taken from her sails—both figuratively and literally—as she found herself dropping to the ground. “Well, alright then. What’s the plan Twilight?”
“Alright, I’m going to need the six of us to gather in a circle around the Tree. Celestia, I’m going to need you and Discord to leave the cave. As much as I would like you here-”
“I understand Twilight,” Celestia interrupted, smiling. She couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed that she couldn’t help improve the harmony of the group—given that it is what her reign stood for—but ultimately, they were the Elements of Harmony. “Don’t hesitate to call for us if you need us.”
Discord was about to make a fuss, but Celestia didn’t play games. She grabbed him in her magic and teleported away.
Eventually, the girls found themselves surrounding the Tree.
“Alright, I’m going to need you all to relax and focus,” Twilight said. Everypony except for her closed their eyes. “Remember all the good times we’ve had and the memories we’ve shared together.” When she saw the faces of her friends begin to smile, she too closed her eyes. The moment she thought of a memory, she was immediately overwhelmed by the power of the Tree. She thought back to the letter Celestia had sent her:
...the Tree becomes malleable when ponies in harmony are near. The tree and the ponies seem to merge. The ponies become calm, their minds focused without thought and their eyes shine with power and clarity. The tree also changes. It understands the thoughts and intentions of the ponies and gives them what they need. Like it would any other part of itself.
‘I need to find Sweetie Belle. I need to search the Aether.’
She repeated those phrases in her head like a mantra. As she did so, she could feel her eyes shine with brilliant clarity as she overlooked the entire Aether. She thought it would be an infinite ocean, teeming with energy, but it seemed more like a galaxy; large but finite. It was filled with pockets higher and lower concentrations of power in a seemingly uniform pattern. She remembered what it looked like when she had visited before; an endless expanse filled with stars and nebulae. It made sense that it would form a galaxy at its limits.
Putting these observations aside, she checked the high-density concentrations of energy. After all, if the 40 meter gem that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo described was made from the same material as the one she had found, then it was probably the most powerful thing in Equestrian history.
Nanoseconds turned to milliseconds, and milliseconds turned to seconds, but Twilight never stopped looking. To Twilight, the time felt like an eternity, the focus and clarity the Tree gave allowed her brain to work at a faster pace than what should have been possible.
After over ten minutes of searching like this, however, she eventually found Sweetie Belle. Twilight was exhausted; although her focus had caused her to think of nothing else, as she looked back on her search, it had felt like she had been in the Aether for an eternity.
An anomaly of matter in a nearly endless expanse of energy, Sweetie Belle was suspended in free space surrounded by a oblate sphere of her own energy. Strangely, the energy near Sweetie Belle seemed to form extraordinarily more complex forms than the rest of the space. Looking closer, the energy reminded Twilight more of spell matrices than the clouds she had seen in Celestia’s domain. The designs seemed to expand far in all directions. Still, Twilight all but ignored this, instead focusing on the filly wrapped in a thin layer of failing magic. She was still trying to absorb the energy from the crystal; a feat she had all but completed by now.
“Sweetie Belle, it’s time to come back home now.” The voice was Twilight’s, but the thoughts weren’t. Rather it was like Rarity’s love had been given life in her mind and as Twilight opened her mouth, the words just came forward. Twilight’s hooves, too, were moved; cradling the cocoon of magic that held the small unicorn.
Twilight touched her horn to hers and the universe exploded.
The Elements were thrown from their places around the tree and collided with the walls or they skidded along the floor. They all struggled to regain recompose themselves, but Rarity seemed to be having more difficulty, in more ways than one. First because she had another pony on top of her, and second because that pony was her sister.
“Sweetie Belle!” she cried, “You’re alright! Oh thank Celestia!” Sweetie Belle was unconscious but breathing.
“No need to thank me, Rarity,” the Princess giggled, entering the cave again. “After all, it was all of you that did the work here.”
Discord was not far behind her. He had bruises all over his body and a black eye. He jumped into Fluttershy’s forelegs, causing her to collapse. “Oh it’s good that you’re back,” he whimpered, “Celestia was bullying me … and she hit me … and it was awful!” He cried in her hooves and Fluttershy glared at the alicorn in question.
“What? Don’t look at me,” Celestia replied. “He was the one who wanted to jump in here and ruin your delicate harmony with his madness.”
Fluttershy glared back at the draconequus. “Well … yes …,” Discord mumbled. “But it was only because I missed you so much.”
That seemed to satisfy the pegasus, although Celestia was unconvinced and looked at the display with a deadpan stare.
“Oh!” Rarity cried, “Sweetie’s waking up! Oh, there’s no need, dear; you need your rest.”
“I … I had an adventure Rarity,” the white filly mumbled, still drifting in-and-out of consciousness. “There was robot pony, and a pony with a really nice mane …”
“Yes, darling, it’s alright. You can tell me all about it later, just go to sleep.”
“Okay, goodnight Rarity.”
“Goodnight … sis.”
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Think you accidentally the end of that sentence.
Looks like the rest of this paragraph got cut off. Otherwise I'm really enjoying the wrap up.
His
Colons don't work that way. You don't just use them to precede any list. See Rule 2 here.
Er...
In any case, greatly enjoying the story. Expect a more in-depth comment at chapter 16.
That was amazing. But there's still more; hopefully a sequel hook.
These ponies seem remarkably calm in the face of the magical equivalent of acute radiation poisoning...
5111156
There's probably spells for cleansing that now.
5110530
No, that's correct. Celestia turns British sometimes. Didn't you know that?
“I … I had an adventure Rarity,” the white filly mumbled, still drifting in-and-out of consciousness. “There was robot pony, and a pony with a really nice mane …”
And you, and you, and you, and you were there...
Now that I finally watch Rainbow Rocks, I came back to finish reading this story...only to find out that it was no longer necessary to watch it. Oh well, it was still a good short movie. Now, if you don't mind, I'll continue onward with the story...it is getting good, after all. Heh.
Short C&Cs: [A little sick, so I may just do this chapter only.]
If I can use it’s empathic abilities, I just might be able to find her!
> Replace "it's" with "its". "It's" stand for "it is", while "its" is the possessive form of "it".
Strangely, the energy near Sweetie Belle seemed to form extraordinarily more complex forms then the rest of the space.
Looking closer, the energy reminded Twilight more of spell matrices then the clouds she had seen in Celestia’s domain.
...but Rarity seemed to be having more difficulty, in more ways then one.
> For all three, replace ‘then’ with ‘than’.
ah, such crazyness was bound to be fun
Celestia's stalker room, LOL
]
[
Sweetie seems drunk.
6656286
I get like that anytime I'm up and about past my bedtime. And between the tablet accelerating her mind and all that complex magic I bet she's super tired.
Yes, the biggest issue in this whole work is probably the colons. I haven't been bringing up all of them, but 5110746 is right.