The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 56: The Rescue

The world was falling apart. Even beneath the shield, the booming resonance of magical explosions could be heard in the distance. Somewhere, crystal ponies returning the front were being fed into factories as a raw resource for the manufacture of new thralls. Those to badly damaged to be sent back through were funneled somewhere else. Holder was not sure where.

Not that it mattered. He had gone to the quietest, safest side of the Capital District. This was only in part due to cowardice, as while he was hidden from danger, it meant that he had disobeyed a direct order from the field marshal. He was meant to be on the front lines, an object meant to hold his true self and sate her endless hunger for the flesh of ponies. Instead, though, he ran through the nearly abandoned prison complex, a heavy load tied to his back.

“Out of my way!” he cried, nearly toppling over as he slid around a corner. Where there would normally be a pair of thralls there were instead a pair of crystal fillies too small for the masks but not too small to hold spears.

“You’re not permitted here!” squeaked one of them.

“We have ordered to give you the POKE!” She brandished her spear. “I’ll do it too!”

“It’s official Dark Thirteen business! And I know, I know, I really AM a member I don’t have ID you can ask Boulder he’ll corroborate my story okay bye!”

“Hey wait, you can’t- -”

It was too late. He had already dashed past both of them.

“He’s fast. I guess it’s from running away from things.”

“I’m more surprised an earth-pony can use ‘corroborate’ in a sentence.”

The pair of fillies just shrugged and went back to standing guard, enjoying their last few hours before they would be tasked with entering the battle proper to protect the Empire.

Piwancha had been dreaming of standing in a field of flowers when she was awoken to the sound of something heavy plummeting down the prison stairs. She sat up, her magic immediately forming a defensive spell- -or, rather, the severed stump of her horn sparking slightly. There was a brief moment before she realized she would never stand again. Then she tried to go back to sleep.

“Pi! Pi!”

Piwancha looked up again, her heart suddenly beating quickly. “Holder?”

Holder ran to the gate of her cell. Something enormous and wrapped in cloth was on his back, and he was out of breath. He had been running.

“Why are you here?”

“Why am I here? Why wouldn’t I be here?”

“Why wouldn’t you be in dank prison?”

“I’ve seen danker. I brought you something.” He unloaded the package on his pack. It fell to the floor with enormous force, shaking the whole cell block. Holder released some of the twine with his teeth, and Piwancha could not help but tingle slightly at the thought that he had very likely tied those delicate knots with his mouth in the first place.

The burlap sack fell away and Piwancha gasped.

“That’s...”

“Zither’s armor. The old one you broke. I tried to fix it. I think I did okay.” He looked up. “Can you use it?”

“I...” She looked at it. “I mean, hypothetically? Most likely, assuming the architecture is the same as ordinary Questlord armor...” She looked up, dumbfounded. “That’s a heavy vanguard style system. It weighs over four tons. How did you move that?”

“It wasn’t that heavy. Quick, put it on.”

“Put it on? Something that foul traitor- -and how am I even to do that? In case you have failed to notice, I am in a cage of solid steel- -”

Holder stuck his hoof between two of the bars and casually pushed to the side. The steel instantly deformed and the bars fell from their sockets in the door.

Piwancha stared wide-eyed. “How did you do that?”

“I’m an earth-pony, we’re strong,” said Holder, dismissively. “Pi, the Empire’s under attack. Celestia’s got us surrounded, and either way it goes, it’s going to bad. Either Sombra wins- -”

“And I rot in this cell...”

“- -or Celestia wins.”

“The sworn enemy of my people. That would be a one-way trip to the glue factories of Canterlot. Or to have a stone tied to my legs and...” Piwancha shivered. “The solar goddess is never forgiving.”

“That’s why we’re leaving.”

Piwancha stared incredulously, thinking that this was some kind of sick joke. Except that Holder, as foolhardy as he was, seemed to be completely serious.

“You’re not joking. You do realize that would mean charging through TWO enemy lines, only to reach an endless, uninhabitable frozen wasteland?”

“This is our only chance.” Holder looked over his shoulder, as if somepony was watching. He winced in pain and put his hoof to his head, as if there was something very painful there. “No. NO. No I won’t,” he whispered. “You can’t make me!” He turned to Piwancha. “This is our only chance.” He was speaking rapidly, as if growing desperate. “It’s the only time we can. They’ll be distracted. Please. Please come with me, Pi.”

“Why would you take me?” She frowned at him. “What is it you want?”

“I want...I want to do something GOOD for once.” Tears were welling in his eyes. “This is the only thing I can do that actually helps somepony.”

“You could stand and fight for your kingdom.”

“No.” Holder shook his head. “No, I can’t. They want me to, but I can’t. She won’t let me.”

“Holder?”

“If- -if I start, I won’t be able to stop. She can feel the war. It’s making her...happy. Hungry. LOUD. To her, there aren’t sides. I would hurt ponies. I’d hurt my friends. I can’t do that. I WON’T do that! But if I can save one life, just one...maybe...and then there’s...well...”

“What?”

Holder looked up at her. His scabbard sat on his back, holding one of the most powerful weapons Equestria had ever known- -and yet he looked so very pitiful. “I’m so afraid,” he said. “I don’t think I can do this on my own. No. I know I can’t. But you’re so strong. With you, I could do anything.”

Piwancha blushed slightly. “I have no horn. I have no magic. I don’t even have a cutie mark.”

“Oh! Yes! I have that too!” Holder produced a small, delicately carved stone. In it was Piwancha’s cutie mark, suspended in a magical field.

“Where did you get that?”

“Boulder told me where it was. He knows all the rocks in the Empire. A real lady’s stone. Hold on.” Holder held the cutie-mark stone close to his mouth and whispered something into it. Piwancha could not even hope to understand the language. Yet the rock seemed to understand, and its magic seals fell. The cutie mark, now released, flitted through the air and drifted toward Piwancha. It seemed to sense her, and arrived at her flank, resuming its original place.

She gasped. “What am I even doing here?” she said, struggling to stand. “Why am I not fighting? How DARE they put me in this prison?!” She pushed herself forward. “Help me into that armor. Did you bring me a blade? Never mind, I hardly need it. Yes I will help you, you’re surely useless without me. And when I finally get back?” She looked up at Holder. “I am finished with the Order. Show me your field of rocks. I would very much like to see it.”

Holder smiled. It was the first real smile he had produced in centuries. “Of- -of course!” He helped her to the armor. “I promise, we’ll get to see it. Together.”

Piwancha smiled. She wished he could have his confidence- -though in her heart, she knew his words rang true. In spirit, at the very least.

Comments

[alamais]

the glue factories of Canterlot

[FloydienSlip]

This is really sweet, actually.