//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: Rebirth // Story: The Redemption of Jericho Swain // by Ghosted Note //------------------------------// The Redemption of Jericho Swain Chapter 25: Rebirth During her time on Runeterra, Twilight had experienced a great many things that were foreign to her, from the increasing amount of violence in her life, to the wonders of Runeterran magic and technology. One thing that she'd grown increasingly skeptical of finding, though, as she sank deep within her own brooding and unhappiness, was hope. As the man who had increasingly blurred the lines between person and monster stalked back below the deck to inform the others that the crisis was averted, she simply smiled and leaned against the railing, watching their would-be assailants flee. As much as Jericho Swain swaggered and scorned, there was something beneath, something that she was sure was there, despite the very real possibility that he was simply trying to accommodate her by showing mercy. Swain built façade upon deception upon lie, but what she had witnessed was genuine emotion, a crack in his armor. Her faith renewed and a glimmer of laughter in her heart, she watched the clouds go by as the crew members set about cleaning up the mess from the battle. She did stop to use her magic to help mend the boards that Swain's spells had damaged, but shortly after, she returned to her pleasant musing, relishing a feeling that she hadn't felt since before Singed had tortured her. When she heard the footsteps behind her, she didn't need to turn around to know who it was. "Hey, Pinkie." "Hiya, Twi," her effervescent friend replied. "You seem a little different, and my Pinkie Sense is telling me that something good just happened." "I got Swain to show some mercy," said Twilight, glancing over to her friend with a grin. "I think it might have been physically painful for him." Pinkie burst into giggles. "Is it growing pains, or is he just allergic?" "Probably a bit of both," responded Twilight with a shrug. "But it's progress." "Yepperooni! I think this calls for a PARTY!" Twilight merely giggled at her friend's antics. After a few seconds of comfortable silence, she looked back over to Pinkie, who was leaning against the railing next to her. "It felt good, you know. Everything we've been doing since we got here, it's been to get home. Taking some time to help someone in need, even if they're our enemies... it was like being home again for a little while." "That's because it's who we are, Twilight. All of our adventures before this, every baddie we fought and every quest we completed, none of it was ever just for us. Sure, we were in danger a lot of the time, but what we were fighting for was our friends and our family. Our country, even." Twilight nodded in response, her gaze falling to the landscapes passing by below. "Swain doesn't understand that. He can only comprehend things from a viewpoint of self-interest. Even his patriotism and concern for Noxus stem from how it empowers him, how their philosophy gives him strength. If Noxus falls, it invalidates his belief in strength above all. Even going along with Riven is just a way of making sure that his philosophies aren't proven wrong." "Maybe you're onto something there,” Pinkie said. “I think that we should get below deck, though. The others are probably gonna wanna see that you're alright, in all the important ways." This earned an askance look from Twilight, but she followed her friend down the stairs. ---- Riven sighed as she watched the pathetic display in front of her. Ever since they'd returned to the Institute, the two softest of the aliens had been training as hard as they could manage, which seemed to be not very hard. Rarity could barely perform a single push-up, and while Fluttershy had her own brand of deceptive strength from a lifetime of animal wrangling, it seemed that outside of that familiar space, she lacked any sort of coordination. Training for the Noxian army had taken years and years of Riven's life, and now she had to find a way to leverage the strengths of these two into something worthy of the Institute of War in a much shorter timeframe. Between Fluttershy's cowardice and Rarity's barely-contained revulsion at being covered in dirt and sweat, the seasoned officer was at her wit's end. She barely had to stomp in Fluttershy's  direction to elicit a whimper, and if she did, Rarity immediately lost all focus to come comfort her. It was honestly a little pathetic, and extremely headache-inducing. The pair was not entirely without potential, but with time such a precious commodity, Riven didn't know how to whip them into shape in time. Dismissing the two for a break, she retreated to a nearby bench where Ezreal was watching, and sat down beside him before pouring some water into a mug from a carafe sitting nearby. She lifted the mug to her lips, taking a long draught from it before letting out a sigh, wishing for something a bit stronger. Ezreal, despite having his own mug, lifted only his eyebrow. "You look a little frustrated." "They aren't soldiers, Ezreal. They have some basic knowledge of surviving dangerous situations, but this isn't Equestria. I've trained plenty of conscripts, but that at minimum takes months to get them into a state where they can be thrown onto the front and not die quite immediately. There's not very long until the next General Assembly, and I don't think that Malzahar will give us time to wait for the one after that." Ezreal nodded, his normally relaxed expression turning serious. "True. I don't think that our final battle with him is going to include respawning. Riven, if it comes down to it, I don't think it can be like you and Swain in Equestria. If one of us doesn't make the kill, one of them will have to. I'm not exactly hardened like you, but I don't think my conscience could handle putting that on them." "I agree," said Riven firmly. "I'll do the deed myself if needed. Rainbow kept me from killing Swain, thinking to preserve my honor and goodness. I don't think she knows that I’ll keep her from having to kill in order to preserve her innocence, even if that means that I must reject that gift she gave me..." Ezreal had no response, instead staring at the well-maintained grass below him for several seconds before looking back up. "What on..." he muttered as his eyes spotted Fluttershy surrounded by the wolves from the jungle, the alpha of which was belly-up in a submissive pose. Rising from his seat, Riven not far behind him, he strode over to the meek woman. The wolves were up in an instant, hackles raised and growling at the pair as they put themselves in front of Fluttershy. "How did you even accomplish this? These are supposed to be constructs, not real wolves..." Fluttershy simply shrugged and smiled, petting the alpha to calm it down. "They behave like real wolves, except for the part where they just stay at their home waiting for us. I guess the juniors who made them try to make them act realistically. I like them. They remind me of home." Ezreal suppressed a comment about the Everfree Forest, but Riven was quite interested in this development. "This is wonderful! This will be how you fight," said Riven excitedly. "You’ll get these to fight for you." Fluttershy looked quite uncomfortable with the prospect. "But isn't that a betrayal of their trust?" Riven sighed. "They're not real wolves, Fluttershy. They're constructs." "But it feels wrong to just give them no consideration. What's the difference between a construct and an animal except how it's born?" insisted Fluttershy. "Animals follow their instincts like constructs follow their programming, right?" "You realize that these things are made to be destroyed, right? They'd probably live longer helping you than just being in the jungle until someone kills them anyway," chimed in Ezreal. "I know ... and I know there's no getting around them dying, but I'm going to do my best to make sure they stay alive as long as possible," she replied resolutely. "More power to you," said Riven with a shrug. "Now, I want you to try running a jungle route like you've seen other champions do, and I'll time you." "If you say so..." replied Fluttershy timidly, before preparing to begin her first attempt at working her way through the jungle. The first few attempts ended with Fluttershy running, battered and crying, back to the healing fountain at the shop, but after several tries, and a focus on befriending one of the stone golems lurking near the southern edge of the jungle first instead of the alpha wolf, she managed to make it all the way through in one piece, though she was quite battered. Riven was quite ecstatic, though, insisting that with practice, and perhaps with the right Summoner bolstering her abilities, she could do quite decently, relying on her expanding herd of friends to protect and fight for her. Rarity, on the other hand, wasn't making much progress. She'd come upon the idea of enchanting gemstones to serve her purposes, but without a very strong pool of magic to draw from, she had trouble doing much more than putting a few cuts on a training dummy. When Riven came over to inspect her progress, though, she didn't seem displeased. "You have the right idea, but brute force isn't the way to go, Rarity." "Whatever do you mean, darling?" asked Rarity, bringing back the trio of gemstones that she'd acquired with the signature gem-finding spell that had made her business so profitable back in Equestria. "How else are you supposed to, err, kill ... the other champions if not with force?" "You're not Twilight, and you shouldn't try to be her. Perhaps you're less suited to directly attacking and instead should focus on distracting your enemies and helping your teammates? Focus on your strengths. Anyone with even a basic understanding of magic knows that gems make natural storage vectors for spells, so perhaps you should take advantage of the fact that you can store your magic ahead of time instead of having to cast it in the moment?" "That makes sense, I suppose," replied Rarity. "I also thought that using my skills as a seamstress to immobilize others might be a good idea, even if it's only for a short while." "You're probably onto something with that," Riven concurred. "Keep practicing, and I'll return shortly. If everything's in order, I'll gather a few friends for a practice match." ------ Days after a sudden, brutal attack on Canterlot, Celestia choked back a laugh as she paced back and forth in front of her prisoner. "You of all ponies should understand ou—my reasoning. Twilight is a national hero, as are her friends. They have served us all admirably time and time and time again." She took in a rattling breath, her smouldering mane flickering in the dim light of the prison. "They deserve our best efforts.Efforts that THEY HAVE NOT BEEN GETTING.” Her prisoner, of course, couldn't respond to this thing pretending to be Celestia and yet speaking with a multitude of sinister voices—at least not while bound, gagged, and drained of most magical potential. "We have all failed them. I have failed them! While we stood aside impotently, they fought all of our battles, and now ... now they just need this one thing from us. We cannot fail. They deserve better. My Twilight deserves better. I know you cannot understand why such extreme measures must be taken, but rest assured, it is for the best. Discord is imprisoned not many rooms from here, and he, too has come to see the light of my precious pupil shining across dimensions, even piercing the Void itself, and is donating his power to the cause. The Elements of Harmony know that my beloved student is not faring well, as the connection to her has all but faded to nothing. They, too, will serve in her retrieval and salvation. Our misguided guardsponies have served as a catalyst of blood to begin the process. The only one in this world who has yet to play her part in the salvation of Twilight Sparkle is you, my dearest sister. Twilight will be so grateful to everypony who sacrificed so much to bring her home.” ----- Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Nasus waited patiently. After a few borrowed favors from the League’s local time wizard, Fluttershy and Rarity had stretched two weeks of real time into two months of training, and it was time for their big reveal. Riven and Ezreal opened the doors. Neither were particularly physically strong, and so both had opted to eschew heavy armors. Instead, Fluttershy was dressed in a simple tunic with a hooded cloak, all of it covered in mottled greens, grays, and browns to blend into foliage. She carried no weapon, but instead had several pouches on her belt. It seemed a perfect outfit for not drawing undue attention, unlike Rarity’s, who was as flamboyantly ostentatious as possible with a seafoam blue gossamer dress decorated with a gemstone studded belt and identical bracers. A chic little yew wand hung from her side. “Hey girls, you look great!” exclaimed Twilight, stepping forward to embrace them both. Pinkie and Rainbow piled in on the hug. “So when do we get to see you in action? I gotta admit, I’m having a lot of trouble picturing the two of you in the kind of fights we do, no offense,” said Rainbow Dash. “None taken, dear,” replied Rarity. “I could scarcely imagine it myself.” “Have you had to die already?” asked Pinkie. “Who did they get to do it?” “I did it for Rarity,” says Riven. “Ezreal was supposed to do it to Fluttershy, but he couldn’t bring himself to, so I outsourced that portion of her training to that mutated rat guy the League has. Figured it’d be a good way to remind her that not all animals are her friend.” “The worst is behind them though!” declared Ezreal. “All that’s left is the judgment, and after that...well, the next General Assembly is getting pretty close, but it seems that the demand for matches is only going up. If you all work yourselves to the bone, there’s time to make a good impression and buy some favors.” “And after that, we can finally see about getting you all home...” said Riven with a small smile.