Act 2 Chapter 21
Act II: Collision Course
Chapter 21: Clear Skies…
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It had been a long day since the battle. After Lyon’s unexpected death, his body had been transported to medical examiners to confirm what killed him. The doctors worked tirelessly to find the cause of death. They had initially written it off as little more than the internal trauma from having fire breathed down his throat, but when one of the doctors noted the hue of the blood was bright red, they had stayed on the case.
“Honestly, I don’t know why we’re bothering,” said one of the doctors, “Even if one of them managed to kill him…”
“It’s more for closure than anything,” another said, “If we can show it was something else that had killed him, they won’t have to live with the blood on their hands. Even the blood of the absolute lowest can leave a permanent stain…”
“True,” the first doctor admitted, “So, if his blood was that bright, it had to have been oxygenated…”
A third doctor came in. The two doctors turned to acknowledge him, and immediately bowed their heads as a sign of respect.
“This is the deceased prisoner?” the third doctor asked, looking to the first two.
“That’s right, Doctor Esk,” said the first doctor, turning to him. Esk looked over Lyon’s body.
“I apologize for not coming in sooner,” Esk said, “I had other patients to tend to…”
Esk rested one hand on the patient, closing his eyes. Within the doctor’s closed lids, he could now see a near-perfect X-ray of the patient’s insides, where his hand made contact. Or, at least, it would have been if the patient’s hide wasn’t so thick. A bead of sweat formed on his brow as he steadily increased the magic he put into the spell.
The two doctors looked on as the doctor continued to examine the corpse. Eventually, the doctor stopped over where his heart would be, and his face pinched in concern as he realized what was happening.
“Doctor?”
“His heart burst,” said Esk, “Do either of you have a report on the battle?”
“According to Captain Armor,” said the second doctor, scrambling for the papers. Once he found them, he began to read from them, “According to Captain Armor, he lived two minutes after being beaten.”
Esk closed his eyes for a while longer, “Well, at the very least we know those involved in the battle do not have blood on their hands. From the looks of it, it looks like his heart was blown up from the inside.”
“Then…” the second doctor said. The first doctor was already writing it down.
“Cause of death: heart was detonated…”
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His head swam with uncertainty. He wasn’t even sure why he cared that things turned out the way he did. He also noticed that unlike before, his body hadn’t healed overnight. Corey sat on one of the couches in the library, his left arm bandaged up and put into a sling. It still hurt to try to move it, but he could actually move it somewhat now. Yet, Twilight ordered him to keep it still however possible, and so he resigned himself to resting up.
Corey sat on his bed, trying to gather himself before Twilight came in to check on him this morning. The image of Lyon dying right in front of him was burned into his memory. In addition, the feeling of extreme cold he got right before still hung over him, like something was telling him it was about to get ugly. He tried to forget the feelings by reading. In front of him on the bed was a book.
Eventually, there was a knock at the door. Corey’s ears twitched to recognize the sound.
“Come in,” Corey said, looking up towards the door. It opened, revealing Twilight. She walked into the room, going straight over to the side of his bed.
“Good afternoon, Corey,” Twilight said, smiling lightly, “Just came in to check on you.”
“I’m…fine,” Corey said, looking slightly down, “Arm’s not feeling much better.”
“Liking the book?” Twilight asked of him.
“Yeah,” Corey said, glancing upon the book’s pages for a moment. He looked back up to Twilight, and asked her a question, “Uh, do you want to sit down, here? Or…”
“Oh, uh…” Twilight looked back, “Yes, I wanted to talk to you about something anyway.”
Corey nodded. His eyebrow twitched a little as butterflies began to flutter in his stomach unrelentingly. He forced himself to not look awkward as he mumbled the page number to himself and placed the book off to the side, closing it. He could see Twilight flinch, but she kept faintly smiling. She sat down on the edge of the bed, slowly turning to face him.
“I’ll…I’ll just get straight to the point,” Corey noted with more dismay than he cared to admit was there that her smile had faded, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot…what you did yesterday. It was…it was completely reckless!”
Corey’s gaze fell to the bed. He knew that. From the first second of the confrontation down to the last. And he had to admit, he wasn’t really sure if he was going to make it after that spell combo backfired and Lyon stood up.
“Yeah, it was…” Corey said, just loud enough for her to hear. He knew she’d been worried, too, “I…I’m sorry that I worried you…”
“Corey, I…” Twilight started, “I was prepared to chew you out for what you did there…but—but that changed as I watched the fight. I…I’ve never felt so worried for somepony before…every time I saw him rush you…every time I saw you get hit…Every time I wasn’t sure if you’d get back up…!”
Her voice broke. It was hard to tell, but it tipped Corey off she’d been dwelling on it. The realization washed over him, and a pit in his stomach dropped. Now he felt awful.
Twilight paused, taking in a deep breath to calm herself. When she finished, she looked him in the eyes. Corey couldn’t help but return her gaze.
“Corey…please,” Even her eyes pleaded to him, and by God, those eyes… “Promise me you’ll never do something like that again.”
Even looking to her eyes did little. Corey’s stomach dropped again, and he swallowed hard. His mind raced, and he wasn’t sure what to say offhand. Then, something came out of his mouth, something that was in no way influenced by his rational mind.
“I—I… don’t know if I can…” Corey said, looking back down towards the bed.
“Why?”
Corey bit his lip for just a second.
“B—because, if it means keeping you safe,” Corey wanted to abandon that train of thought now, his face heating up as he realized there were no brakes that could stop it now, “I’d gladly do it all over again.”
Twilight looked down, her face rapidly flushing pink. She wanted to say something to him, tell him he was being irrational, but every time the thought occurred to her, something within her chest told her not to do it. She stared at the bedspread.
Corey finally fought against the intense gravity that pulled on his chin and looked up to her. She was looking to the blankets. A thought worked its way forward to the forefront of his mind, and echoed within his skull.
So…cute…
Twilight slowly stood up, her face still burning a certain color. She managed to say something to him.
“I…I can take care of myself…” she finally said, looking away, “I-it’s you I’m…worried about.”
“I know, but…” Corey hesitated, old fears of days long behind him resurfacing.
Tell her, you idiot! His subconscious screamed at him, Tell her how you feel!
“You…” Corey’s voice died out in a squeak. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the words. Instead, he changed the subject, “I…I understand, but…I…I can’t promise…”
“It’s okay…” Twilight said, briefly turning to him, a sheepish half-smile going to her face, “I’m…I’m just going to go take care of some things.”
“O…okay…” Corey nodded twice. Only when Twilight left the room did Corey finally settle down, his face finally fading back to its green hue. He weakly reached for the book to try to pick up where he left off. Even so, a familiar pain began to work its way into his chest. He’d failed to say anything, like usual.
Twilight…
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Twilight shut the door behind her. Her face slowly began to cool off as she realized she wasn’t in the same room with Corey anymore. Even now that she was out of the room, Twilight couldn’t help but notice her stomach was still full of butterflies. At least, that’s what it felt like. Walking as quickly as she could through the house, trying to take her mind off of it, the events swam through her mind.
She raised a hand to her chest. Her heart was still beating faster than normal. As her mind brought her back to what had just happened against her will, she suddenly felt an urge to lean against a wall and melt.
“Get a grip, Twilight,” she said, “H-he’s just being…ir-irrational. Right?”
He is, and he knows it, she thought to herself, her voice now retreating inside, But the look in his eyes when he says it…He means it. I…I should be worried. He almost gets himself killed and says he’d do it all over again for my sake! But he knows I can take care of myself—I mean, I’m the one who taught him!
But as much as she tried to convince herself that her concern was natural—the kind of concern any friend would have for another, she knew deep down it wasn’t the case. She really did worry about him more than the others, especially when he gave her cause. In fact, even now that Corey proved he could handle himself, for the most part, she still felt herself worrying. Stopping alone on one of the libraries’ many balconies, she gazed up towards the skies. They were still just as clear as ever.
“Why…” Twilight said, “Why do I feel this way around you now, Corey? And what is this feeling?”
Raising one hand to her chest, Twilight closed her eyes. Their recent conversations slowly began to replay in her head. And as each subsequent memory began to wash over her, she slowly felt herself begin to overflow with a feeling she’d only really seen others express. It both concerned her, as well as filled her with a certain kind of happiness she found she couldn’t describe.
And… her mind thought, replaying some of the things she saw while Corey was practicing, I mean, he wasn’t…bad-looking or anything before, but now he’s…really cute now, and—Ugh! C’mon, Twilight, focus!
Then, she remembered how he’d shyly tapered off just before she’d left the room. He looked like he had something on his mind, something about her. As soon as she realized she was worrying too much about what he might have said to her had he continued, it finally occurred to Twilight what was going on inside of her. More specifically, her heart…
Slowly, her eyes opened, stopping halfway. Twilight leaned forward. She offered the faintest of smiles.
“I know what the feeling is…” Twilight sighed, “Corey...I’m…”
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John hadn’t escaped the fight with Lyon unscathed. But, he was a lot better off than Corey was. He could still move about, only sporting a few bandages. Unable to bring himself to stay indoors, he decided to see how things were in town.
The town was quick to begin repairing the damage that was caused. It was as though they’d already put what happened behind them. However, given what John knew Ponyville had to deal with on a daily basis, he assumed they were somewhat used to things like this happening—from time to time, of course.
That’s good, John thought as he went through the town, noting how nopony seemed to be tense like they knew something was wrong, It means we can still try to hide what’s going on.
John had also noticed how the townsponies all looked at him now. When he first touched down, it was a mix of frightened looks and casual glances. Mostly frightened looks, though. Now, however, there were smiles in all directions. There didn’t seem to be any fear in the crowds anymore. John could only imagine the reason for this being that word got out about his heroism.
It was a small silver lining, but at least something positive had come from all of it. With the town busy repairing, and nopony really seeming to ask for his help, John made his way out of town. This time, he chose to travel by air rather than on foot, spreading his wings as soon as he was safely away from most ponies.
Ever since he’d learned to fly, John had never found time to enjoy it. Now was different. As his wings brought him higher into the sky, he couldn’t help but smile.
“It really is amazing up here,” John said to himself.
Soon, John found himself out of Ponyville’s airspace. At that moment, he decided to pick up the speed. He had gotten faster than he was before. But he’d yet to find out his limits in that front. He was just about to test those, when something rushed past him at a great speed.
John blinked for a moment as he tried to figure out what it could have been. The rainbow trail left behind was a dead giveaway. Looking ahead, he saw her: Rainbow Dash floating in the air, staring back at him with a grin.
“Oh, hey Rainbow,” John said.
“Looks like you’ve gotten better at flying since you left,” Rainbow observed, “How about we put it to the test?”
She had asked a question, but had no intention of waiting for him to answer. Instead, she took off. It took John maybe a moment to catch on, and quickly, he took off after her.
John made quick work closing the gap between them, but he could only get so close to Rainbow—not that it was a surprise he couldn’t catch up completely, let alone overtake her. She had spent years. John knew there was no way he’d be able to match her in only weeks. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t try.
Putting as much as he could into it, John increased his speed further, which managed to pull him up next to Rainbow.
“Not bad,” Rainbow said over the rushing winds, “But it takes more than speed!”
Rainbow began to descend towards the trees, John following close behind. Once the two were below the tree line, they were quickly met with a set of obstacles: oncoming trees. The two found little trouble dodging the trunks. John specifically finding himself having fun as he avoided each of them.
It wasn’t until they’d reached the end of the trees did John realize where they were: right back at the base of the cliff where John’s flying lessons had first begun. Once over the pool of water, the two quickly changed direction and flew straight up. They cleared the top of the cliff in no time, but they didn’t stop there. They continued to climb until they reached the clouds. Only then did Rainbow finally stop. Turning her head down, she watched John catch up with her.
“Looks like you’ve improved since you left,” she said.
“After everything I did to prepare, I would hope so,” John chuckled.
“About that,” Rainbow said, “Now that you’re back, maybe you can finally shed some light. Where the heck did you go?”
John chuckled again, wondering how Rainbow would react to his answer. Truth be told, he was astonished by it when he first arrived.
“Tartarus,” Rainbow went silent at John’s answer, her eyes wide. They only got wider as John continued, “Princess Luna asked me to come to her there. Like her letter said, she promised that she could prepare me for the upcoming battles in this game, but I wasn’t prepared for what she had in mind.”
“Let me guess,” Rainbow said, punching at the air, “She had you kicking Tartarus villain butt?”
“No, actually I never saw the inside of it,” John clarified. Rainbow stopped.
“Then where’d you get those scars from?”
“From her,” Again Rainbow looked shocked, “For the last week, Princess Luna trained me herself.’
The two were silent for a long moment as Rainbow processed what she just heard. For the whole week he’d been gone, John had been sparring with one of the two sisters.
“That’s…that sounds awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed, “What was it like, being up against her?”
“It’s hard to put it in words,” John began, “Even before we started, I could already feel I wasn’t in any way a match for her. The first thing she did was remove my need for sleep. So aside from short breaks, all we did was train day and night.”
John glanced down to his hands. They didn’t look any different after the training, but he still felt they were different from when he first became a dragon. Now his fists were seasoned with the spice of battle.
“I didn’t think it was working at first. But as it went on, I could feel it. I was getting faster. I was learning to react to battle. I guess the real proof it worked came from that battle.”
“I’ll say. You really showed him a thing or two.”
The two of them chuckled as they went silent. John stared off into the distance, taking in the sight that he couldn’t experience back home.
“A part of me thought you wouldn’t show,” Rainbow’s voice called him away from the sights of life above the clouds and back to her, “We hadn’t heard from you since you left, so we had n o idea when you’d be back. When Lyon attacked…I was afraid you wouldn’t have been able to keep your promise.”
Rainbow looked away for a moment, rubbing her shoulder.
“But… I’m glad you did,” she said. John noted the smile on her face and couldn’t help but smile back.
“Me too.”
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Ah, ze awkward couple and ze gradual couple. Ze romance is thick in ze air!
....sooo let me get this straight also so other things
Maulodin or what ever the F hes name is probaly is main villian... because
"Cliche were person who helps/meets you early on later gets revealed to be the bad guy
AND
All the "badguys" except one had a "bomb" in their hearts....NEAT