Strength

by Toraka

Chapter 3

"Dead..." Twilight Sparkle whispered to herself, recalibrating her microscopeto make sure she hadn't made a silly mistake.

Just as she took a second look, there was a quiet knock on the door. Wordlessly, she magicked it open, allowing two unicorn sisters to enter.

After a few seconds of staying at her workstation in order to silently express her displeasure at being interrupted again, Twilight joined them in a corner of the room. She had, some time ago, had craftsponies install a corner while they were splitting the library's top floor into separate rooms to give both Spike and the two lovers more private room, unable to stand the main chamber's lack of any hooks to use for orientation and shelter from the hassle that was going on in the middle.

"Yes? What can I help you with?"

"We just thought we'd check in on you, you know, see if there's anything you need..." Rarity said. Twilight could easily see through her charage. They wanted to know about the cure.

"I'm doing fine, I've made some great progress with Scootaloo's blood sample, it should be a matter of..." Twilight interrupted her own speaking when she saw that Sweetie Belle had started to quietly weep. "What's the matter?"

"I... I can't..." As heavily as she was sobbing, the filly was just incomprehensible. Twilight reminded her to calm down if the conversation was supposed to progress in any way. "You just... Scootaloo and Apple Bloom... they're my only friends, Twilight! I can't even imagine losing them, I can't go back to that time! You have to help them, you just have to, please..."

"How often do I have to keep telling everypony, it's fine, I got this, it's just a matter of working it out to perfection now. Keep calm, nopony's died so far."

"Well..." Rarity began, her eyes shifting across the room.

Twilight forced herself into the awkward pause, "Of course. I just had to say that. Who is it?" She asked, ignoring Sweetie Belle's evergrowing misery in the current situation.

"Twist, a local schoolfilly, about her age," Rarity explained, pointing at her sister with her left foreleg.

"That's the one I foalsit for to get the moneys needed for a date with you. Not that that would have been necessary, of course. Lively filly. That's kinda sad," Midnight joined in, seemingly appearing out of thin air behind Twilight. Given her special talent, she may actually have done that. To make up for startling her, she began to gently massage Twilight's neck, the owner of which softly moaned with delight at the slightest touch already.

Meanwhile, one of the remaining unicorns was crying into the other's shoulder. Twilight would care, but she found it mildly difficult to worry about anything when being caressed from behind like that.

With the purpose of their visit fulfilled, the sisters left not much later. Twilight resumed her studies, trying to cement her apparent find. No matter how often she tested, she always came to the same result. This was it. Within three days, she had casually solved an impossible problem threatening to wipe out Equestria's population if left unchecked.

Now all she had to do was distribute it. On the other hoof... so far, nopony knew of her final discovery. She was alone.

"I wonder... how much could I sell this for? What is the price of a life, let alone thousands of foals?"

Tens of thousands of bits, if not hundreds, at the very least. She would never again have to work a single day in her life. She would be able to do whatever she pleased together with Midnight until the end of their days.

Spike could feed on all the gems he wanted. Later in his life, when Twilight had already passed on, he could use her heritage to supply himself with the rare stones he needed to grow further.

Not a single worry. No bills cutting off a major share of their income, instead chipping off at the infinite. They would be able to have foals of their own without their future ever being uncertain.

Applejack's struggle to get enough out of the next harvest, Rarity's issues with periods of absolutely no income, Rainbow Dash's blockage to get into the Wonderbolts because she didn't have the money or standing, Fluttershy's enforced unnatural selection... all of those could be resolved easily if only Twilight decided to take the money.

Celestia would have to pay her from state funds, then regain it by making ponies pay for their treatment. Surely, there would be no issues with that. Perhaps a few poor or orphaned foals wouldn't be able to afford it, but they were mere sacrifices for the greater...

Slap, bonk. Something had ambushed her from behind and hit her hard on the back of her head, causing it to bolt forward and hit the table. Slowly, she recuperated and looked around for the source of the pain, spotting a quite displeased Midnight.

"What the hay are you doing?!" She asked.

"You tell me! I'd have expected better of you than to give in to simple greed. There are ponies dying out there who desperately need this stuff and you're going around fantasizing about how much of a scumbag you want to be! Can't you see them?"

Usually, she'd listen to her partner's advice, but the blow she'd received hurt quite badly. "Pft, they'll get it soon enough. All that changes is that they have to pay a little and we become very very rich."

"A little, of course. Think about those in need of more than just this. They deserve treatment just as well as anypony else. Are you really gonna kill innocent foals because you can't get along with what we have?"

"Name two orphans, I give you two seconds."

"Scootaloo, half of me. You're the sixth Element, Celestia darn it! You're supposed to be the spark that ignites and unites all of the other five! But right now, you're nothing but greedy, careless about others, abandoning them in favor of personal benefit, denying innocents from ever laughing, or doing anything, for that matter, and a liar! How do you feel about that? We don't need that! All we need..."

Midnight had struck figurative gold, causing Twilight to end up in tears and around her neck. There was no need to be angry with her any more. Midnight soothingly stroked Twilight's beautiful mane with her hooves, allowing her to let out all of the piled up emotions that had converted into pure guilt from being confronted so directly.

"... is each other. Calm down, it's all fine now, I've got you. You haven't done anything wrong. There is darkness within all of us and when confronted with rough times such as those, we can forget to turn to others' help in quelling it. So, what have you found?"

"I... I've got the formula already written down on the table... and some of the stuff mixed ready."

"Get it to Princess Celestia right now. I'll go out with it and cure the emergency patients."

Twilight's tears had dried out, but she had no ambitions to let go. She needed that hug, it was all that kept her together while her life was trying to reassemble itself. "Make sure you dose it right. I'd say, with cases like Apple Bloom, oh, I'm so sorry for risking her life so pointlessly..." False alarm. Twilight started to get wet again.

"Mhm?"

"Uhm, cases like her, put in a quarter intravenously for fast effect because they're gonna need it. The rest will probably be best in a muscle."

"You know I know that, right? Hey, I once too read the books you've memorised years ago."

"Oh yeah. Silly me... I'll just... work on informing the Princess."

"I won't be long. Let's have some quality time afterwards, yes?"

"Okay, Appy. I need to... hang on. I'm sorry, I just gotta... I mean, this isn't tested on ponies, but there's no time to do that either. So I'm just telling you... you might not survive anyway. Anything you want me to do before the injection? I mean, sure, you're probably going to be fine, but in case..."

"Ah know... Ah'll be fine," Apple Bloom coughed. She really needed the cure without any further ado. "But if Ah ain't... tell mah sister Applejack I thought of her until the end."

"So you want me to..."

"Yeah, do it now, ain't gonna get better. In the worst case, Celestia guide me. And tell Applejack not to cry over me. Please."

"Of course. Alright, here goes..." Midnight concentrated and levitated the needle over to where she could penetrate the filly's bloodstream with it. After with the first penetration, she pushed some of the syringe's contents out, then removed it and mended the entry point before moving to a suitable location and dropping off the rest to take effect later. By the time she was done with that, Apple Bloom had twitched a few times and fallen unconscious, making it unpleasantly hard not to cause unnecessary injury.

As if on cue, Applejack stormed into the dimly lit bedroom as Midnight removed the now empty syringe.

"Ah came as soon as Ah heard, is she... oh Celestia, she ain't..."

Midnight turned to face the earth pony. "Her immune system just had a reactive shock, but in a few hours, she'll be back on her hooves. Don't worry, she's a strong filly. She's an Apple, right?"

Comments

[Toraka]

This story was fun. Not only because my imagination is a seriously screwed up place. I could take the characters like Applejack out of their original world of happiness and rainbows and whatnot and place them in Midnight's reality, where she prospers well, but all the others have trouble coping with reality. Did you like that certain aspect of Twilight this reality revealed? If you've read chapter 29 of Splitting aMid the Night, and you should have, because go screw yourself otherwise, why are you reading stories from the Midnight universe... erm, anyway, if you did, most of those ponies are obviously Luna's images, but what if you take them and instead give them the gift to know evil, as the Bible means it?

If you don't understand what I mean by that, go ask somebody who believes in that stuff about what is so bad about Adam and Eve being able to see evil that God had to put such a high punishment on eating the Fruit. While you're at it, ask them where Eden is supposed to have been located and if it's not a little strange that apples would grow there. I promise you fun times.

[zel]

Why is it always AB getting zombified/terminal diseases in these stories? Is this some industry standard?dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Sweetie_Belle_lolface.png

[Toraka]

1248294 Are you implying you didn't read this up until now? Bad drone!

Well, only her and Sweetie Belle actually have a family and it HAD to be a foal because fuck the rules.
(It's an established rule in animation that you don't hurt children.)
And I couldn't use Sweetie Belle because Rarity wouldn't be a fitting character. Also, writing with Rarity as a main character? Lol, u srs?dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Rarity_lolface.png

That's the reason for me. Of course, if Midnight and Twilight would get a move on and get one of their own...
I have no idea why others also all pick AB. She's not even that much of a likeable character, if you think about it.
(Now watch as the AB lovers will destroy me.)

[zel]

1248362

Also, writing with Rarity as a main character? Lol, u srs?

[Toraka]

1248372 But seriously, who can tell me he likes her with a straight face?

[zel]

1248398 Actually this is exactly why I like her, and dislike Fluttershy