“Is that thing on?” Wedge asked.
“Increase the range of the spell by twenty-five miles,” Twilight said.
The group gathered their collective energy and put more power into the spell. Atoms erupted into the container from the bottom of the circle. All the beads were the same color. Black. They had hit a vein. She had to think quick.
“We’ve got something huge,” Hocus announced.
“Make the container larger,” Twilight said.
They backed up to increase the size of the container to accommodate their wayward passenger. Twilight bumped into the side of a crate. She thought she heard a squeak coming from inside of it, but dismissed it as a figment of her imagination. More pertinent issues were demanding her attention. The circle had gotten as large as they could make it, but the rate the atoms were pouring in hadn’t slowed down.
“Does this call for a fractured reassembly?” Hocus asked, looking at Twilight.
“It does. Leave it to me,” Twilight replied.
Her power surged ahead of her teammates. A bright, silver explosion occurred as the atoms reassembled and the teleportation spell was forced to finish early. They had caught a zasoi. Everything beneath its lower jaw was missing, which wouldn’t have been so gruesome if it hadn’t been conscious. Twilight grabbed what was available with her aura and held it in a delayed teleportation spell before it could start screaming.
More black marbles flooded into the container. A sensation of knowing enough had been gathered to bring the rest of the victim through entered Twilight. She materialized the lower half of the creature, which she immediately sent into the limbo where the other portion of the monster was waiting. The pieces snapped together like a jigsaw puzzle. She checked to make sure everything was in place. Satisfied with her work, she sent the zasoi to the swamp. The scream it made as it ran away in terror was barely audible.
“Make the circle smaller,” Twilight said. “Get it down to what we started with.”
Twilight held back, letting the rest of them do all the work. More atoms began gathering in the container at a manageable rate. Her chest was starting to sting. She hadn’t expected to burn through her boost so quickly. It would be fine. It had to be fine.
One member of the night crew collapsed to her knees. Down for the count. She stood up only to fall again.
“Sage, what are you doing?” Hocus asked the struggling unicorn. “You’re going to get yourself hurt.”
“No, I can still help,” Sage said. She managed to get back on her hoofs, but her legs were shaking and her body swayed as dizziness overtook her. “We only just got started.”
“Sage, it’s alright,” Twilight said. “You have given this your best effort. I won’t ask you to continue.”
Her lips curled back as she uttered a pitiful whimper. “I’m sorry, princess.”
Twilight knew exactly how she felt. “I don’t want you to be ashamed. You don’t have to leave us. If you would like, you can help us from the sidelines. Just please don’t hurt yourself.”
Sage sniffled. “Alright. Hocus, I’m leaving.”
Hocus made up for the power they would use by drawing energy from the crystal as Sage exited the circle so none of them would feel her exit the spell. She stumbled over to Biggs and stood with him while he observed the rescue.
“Fifty percent of the crystal is currently in use,” Iris announced. “Let’s try to keep it below seventy-five, okay?”
If they lost a few more participants, they weren’t going to be able to honor her request. The two remaining members of the night crew had their eyes shut the tightest. Even Hocus was starting to sweat. The sooner they got to Izu, the better. Sensing that a new group of passengers were ready to be rescued kept Twilight’s worries at bay for a few precious seconds.
“Get ready,” Hocus said. “Let’s see what we have.”
Another silver explosion ripped through the cargo hold. Points would be deducted for style. They were being sloppy. A dozen unusual insects of the same type appeared packed into each other like a set of toy stallions in a cardboard box. They were a cross between a tarantula and a locust with thick torsos, long antennae’s, matted fur, and impressive fangs that kept them from being interested in peanut butter sandwiches.
“Zobumo!” Aramak said. “Those things are dangerous. Get rid of them!”
While they prepared to teleport the insects recovering from the shock of being kicked into and pulled out of purgatory, a chunk of power dropped from the spell as one of the unicorns cut her connection to the team by backing out of it. Those who lacked the unique disadvantage of having arachnophobia cried out as more effort was unexpectedly forced out of them. Twilight spotted the culprit. It was the intermediate.
A slight delay was all that was needed. The zobumo scattered as fast as roaches that had been hit with light. The talons at the end of their legs produced a clicking noise as they moved across the wood. Twilight began building a spell to send all of them off the ship by herself, but had to stop when she noticed one of the bugs was coming right for her. Aramak maneuvered in front of Twilight and hit the insect with enough force to earn a new mark on his staff.
It was then that she learned one of his deepest secrets. He was ticklish. Aramak had to stifle a giggle, but not before Twilight heard it.
“Keep the circle together,” Twilight said. “If we stop now, we’ll be back at square one!”
The sound of bells filled the air as Biggs and Wedge scored hits on the skittering zobumos. A terrified scream cut through the cargo hold. The mare who had let her fear get the best of her had been pounced on while trying to flee the area. Biggs struck the zobumo on top of her with his disc. The intermediate made no effort to shove the inert spider hopper off her back. Given how horrified of arachnids she had proven to be, Twilight could only conclude that something was wrong.
Twilight went back to tagging all the zobumos in the room. Her exhaustion was the only thing hindering her speed. She could swear that she was trying to force a ball bearing through her right ear and out the other with a spork. Many of her targets had been stunned while others were trying to get away. Shelly blocked the last one Twilight had to grab from leaving the room. Having gathered her targets, Twilight forced the zobumos off the ship. Her aim was a little off and she wound up making them reappear ten feet in the air, causing them to fall to the ground. The lack of a gentle touch could be forgiven. In the end, they would live.
Aramak ran over to the unicorn who had tried to escape and examined her. “She’s been bitten. The venom isn’t fatal, but I doubt she’s going to be of much use to us until she has recovered.”
Hocus took off his cape and tossed it aside, inspiring the other unicorns to follow his example since there was no longer any need to be so formal. “Sage, get her to the medical ward.”
Sage nodded and teleported herself and the intermediate to the doctors who had yet to deal with anything more serious than motion sickness, insomnia, and princesses in need of more magical energy than they possessed. The tension lessened as Hocus made up for their recent loss with more help from the crystal. Iris had to be chewing her mane.
The rate atoms were flowing in had decreased. An increase in distance would soon be needed. The moment Twilight’s backups became necessary had arrived.
Twilight looked at Applejack. “I’m going to begin drawing power from both of you. I’m sorry that I could not avoid doing this.”
Applejack clicked her tongue. “I would not have volunteered if I didn’t want to help. Draw away.”
“Please be gentle,” Fluttershy said.
She took energy from them slowly. They reacted as she expected they would. A stranger to physical labor and indifferent to exercise due to her overactive metabolism, Fluttershy bunched up and grunted at the sudden exertion. Applejack knelt and lowered her head as if to charge the discomfort head on.
“That all you got, Twi?” Applejack asked.
Twilight accepted Applejack’s challenge and pulled a bit more from her, which also allowed her to ease up on Fluttershy.
Applejack snorted. “So? Was I right?”
“Yes. Right now, it’s as if an extra novice unicorn was with us. If I were to draw a little more, you would both probably amount to a novice ready to take the test required to become an intermediate.”
“Don’t get carried away,” Fluttershy said.
“Feel free to keep this in mind in case there’s a need to do it again in the future,” Applejack said.
Enough atoms had been gathered to assemble another lost soul. Increasing the range would hopefully not be necessary.
“At this rate, let’s just assume whatever comes out that isn’t a Salamander or a Shelly is going to attack us,” Twilight said.
Hocus gave Twilight a nod and the unicorns pulled in what they had captured. The customary silver explosion washed over Twilight, sending all the hair in her coat on edge. Ten creatures of the same type appeared, arranged like stuffed exhibits at a gallery. They weren’t Salamanders. Instead, they had the general appearance of geese, but their wings looked like they belonged on a dragon.
Fluttershy recognized them for what they were immediately. “Cockatrice!”
There were many ways the animals could have chosen to react to what they had just experienced, but none satisfied their instinctual need to survive quite like engaging in self-defense. One bellowed in anger and focused its gaze on Hocus. The absurd noise it made caught his curiosity. Wedge hit it with his disc, sending feathers flying everywhere. He was too late. Hocus had become a statue honoring his own memory that would look perfect as a lawn ornament on Nightmare Night.
Twilight stepped in, filling the hole Hocus had left to keep the spell from failing. The wind was knocked out of her. Hocus had chosen to carry a little more of the burden than he should have. Twilight was tempted to spread it out equally, but resisted the urge and kept the spell running as Hocus had intended. Her horn felt like it was trying to pull her skull out through her face.
She kept her eyes focused on the floor beneath her to ignore the gaze of the dragon geese. It pulled at her, but her prior petrification kept her from being drawn to its look as that was an experience she never wanted to repeat. Twilight heard the crack of Aramak’s staff as it knocked the geese off their feet. Bells ran out again as Biggs and Wedge worked together to protect the circle. The geese needed to be bucked off the ship. Twilight did not think she could manage to maintain the spell and teleport the geese at the same time. A risk needed to be taken.
A sharp burst of fresh pain delayed her action as another unicorn mage was turned into stone. Twilight responded by placing the weight of Hocus and the other unicorn on the crystal, exceeding the limit she had been asked to avoid. The ship physically dropped, jostling everything inside of it. Crates shifted, grinding against the floor. Screams were let loose. An audible crunch was heard as the bottom collided with the trees directly beneath it. The crystal quickly adjusted to being asked to work overtime and remained in the air.
“Princess Twilight,” Iris said, her voice heavy with worry, “I don’t know what’s going on back there, but you absolutely cannot take any more power from the crystal or you will overload it.”
Aramak knocked out the only cockatrice that was still conscious, which made sending all of them back to the swamp a lot easier. Natural selection would take care of the rest.
Twilight reclaimed her spot in the spell. “Alright, that could have been a lot worse. Who here can turn Hocus and that stallion back to normal?” She hadn’t expected all of them to volunteer at once. Twilight didn’t bother checking to see who had the most energy. She pointed at the first pony she saw. “Get to it. Make it quick.”
Exhaustion had crept into her voice. Breathing had become difficult as a knot of pain formed inside of her heart. She only needed to hold out until Hocus and the other unicorn were ready to rejoin the effort. The unicorn mage found the weak part in the curse and reversed the hex on Hocus and the other stallion. Upon being freed from their stone shells, they immediately put their hoofs against their chins and pushed them to the right. Their necks popped three times. The rest of their joints would do the same thing when they got to them.
The mages rejoined the group without taking any additional time to recover.
“That was sufficiently embarrassing,” Hocus said.
Relief overtook Twilight as some pressure was taken off her chest, allowing her to breathe easier. “That’s nothing, Hocus. Anyway, we’ve stopped gathering atoms. I think we need to increase the range again.”
“Twilight, I hate to say it, but I think we are quickly approaching our limit,” Hocus said. “We’re going to need to think of a way to get more support from the crystal or I fear we won’t be able to pull this off.”
“I’m all ears. Does anyone have any suggestions?” Twilight asked.
“Can you land the ship?” Biggs asked. “You won’t have to keep it levitated if you do that.”
Celestia had been correct. Simple solutions were usually hidden behind complex problems.
“That’s just crazy enough to work,” Applejack said.
Twilight took out her mic. “Iris, I need you to dock the airship in the swamp.”
“Could you repeat that?”
“Dock the airship in the swamp. You should be able to settle it into the mud. Make sure the area is clear of animals so we don’t squash anyone while we’re doing this. We might have to use a spell to keep the ship balanced, but it shouldn’t draw as much from the crystal as the one we are using to keep it in the air. If we do this, we will have the power we need to finish the Void Rescue.”
Silence. Onyx and Iris had to be chatting.
Onyx was the first to speak. “Twilight, we’re going to be a lot more vulnerable when we are on the ground. Whatever you intend to do, you must do it fast.”
“Hold on to your tails,” Iris said.
A tremendous noise rocketed through the ship as it crashed through the trees. Twilight thought something might come through the wood floor, but the hull remained intact. Some of the crates that had been stacked on top of each other fell. One dropped a bit too close to one of the unicorns and spilled medical supplies all over the floor. A wet splash followed. The wood creaked and groaned as it was forced into the earth.
“We’ve landed,” Iris announced, her voice heavy with fatigue. “I’ve been able to cut down the draw from the crystal to ten percent.”
The power now available to Twilight and her companions was immense. Their rescue attempt had gone on for long enough. If they were going to pull it off, they would need to do so before anything dangerous became interested in their ship.
“Alright,” Twilight said. “All of you have done remarkably well. It’s time for us to wrap this up. I say we go all in and leave enough power left in the crystal for Iris to defend the ship if she has to. The rest goes to us. Maintain your current level of concentration and let the crystal do the rest of the work. If anyone has a better idea, I’m open to suggestions.”
“It’s risky, but I still like it,” Hocus said.
There were no objections. The right decision had hopefully been made. If not, the aerial forces of Equestria would be out one airship and possibly a few guards by the time help arrived.
“Then do it,” Twilight said.
Hocus increased the range of the spell. Only four percent of the power the crystal could provide remained available for them to manipulate.
“What are you doing?” Red Iris demanded.
Atoms began collecting inside the capsule again.
Applejack turned to face the microphone floating in front of Twilight’s mouth. “Desperate times call for desperate measures!”
“I know you can’t see this rock from here,” Onyx said, “but I think you trust me enough to believe me when I tell you it’s shaking.”
“If we do not go beyond its maximum capacity, we will be fine,” Twilight said. “Celestia builds everything to last. Stay calm.”
The next passenger had to be Izu or one of his traveling companions. Some sort of victory was needed to keep all of them going, especially the night owls, who had proven to be highly adapt at overcoming mental fatigue on less than four hours of sleep.
The moment had arrived. Twilight felt her jaw pop as she gritted her teeth, trying to will the universe to bend to her whims and give them what they needed. “Please let this be a Salamander!”
The silver explosion had lost all its luster. A single, muscular reptile was in the middle of the container. More atoms continued gathering above him. Twilight felt her mouth drop open and hang suspended in disbelief. For once, something had gone right.
Aramak reacted first. “Kenrama! Is that you?”
“Chief?” Kenrama asked. “What’s going on? Where am I? Are those horses?” Kenrama noticed the floating marbles above him, gasped, and started rubbing at his body frantically. “Is this horse voodoo? Get it off me! Nobody will ever want to marry me now!”
“They just saved your life,” Aramak said. “Show some respect. Get out of their magic, you’re holding up their spell.”
Kenrama whimpered and ambled over to Aramak, doing his best to give the ponies a wide berth.
Twilight couldn’t care less. She took her microphone out, unable to contain her excitement. “We got one!”
Cheers and hollering erupted from the circle of unicorns. Their work was beginning to pay off. Spirits were high once again. Twilight knew they could do this. They were going to win. She looked over at Aramak, who was busy slapping Kenrama to get him to stop rubbing himself. He caught her looking at him and gave her a smile. One final slap upside Kenrama’s head got him to keep his hands at his sides.
“Great work,” Onyx said. “Now get the others. By the way, three of those ugly weeds with mouths have gotten a bit too close to the ship and we have also managed to attract what I can only describe as giant spiders with wings. I’m going to have Iris repel them before they get in here.”
They were either out for revenge or attracted to the magic. Either way, they were not going to get very far.
“Can you give me just a little more room to work with?” Iris asked.
“I’ll do what I can,” Twilight replied.
Her right foreleg started to go numb as she put more of the burden on herself, but she didn’t let it bother her. They had gotten to the Salamanders. She was only going to quit if she fainted.
Iris tapped into the crystal. The curiosity of the crowd hoping to have a look inside the giant tree that had descended from the heavens was replaced with a profound desire to get away from it as quickly as possible.
Twilight felt her brain slam against her skull like a migraine rebelling against the thought of aspirin. The unicorns around her cried out in surprise, having shared the same unpleasant sensation. Her connection with the crystal faltered and began dropping. Something had gone horribly wrong. The crystal had lost a significant amount of power. What remained was slowly draining away. Twilight rerouted the draw from the spell to herself to keep it from failing. For a moment, she was quite sure she was going to explode. There were worse ways she could cut her immortality short. Her epitaph came to her without much thought. How many alicorns does is take to save a single Salamander?
“Princess Twilight,” Iris cried out, “I’m so sorry!”
Hearing Iris made Twilight realize two facts. For one thing, she hadn’t exploded, which was a good start to addressing the second item on her list. Iris had done something so bad that an apology had been offered as a means of making up for it. She could hazard a guess, but for now she put all her effort into stopping her body from collapsing in on itself. There was an old notion that pain began to hurt less the longer it was endured. Whoever had thought that one up could not have been a unicorn.
“Twilight, a piece of the crystal just fell to the floor.” Onyx sounded calm enough to be chatting with her about the weather. “A colorful scab has formed over the damaged area.”
Onyx could be forgiven for not knowing what he was looking at. His blunt description was enough for Twilight to understand what he was seeing. The crystal had been designed with a failsafe that kept it from losing its enchantment the moment it was harmed. It wouldn’t last very long. One more condition had to be present to make their current predicament perfect.
“Twilight, I don’t know if I can fix this by myself! I’m too afraid to touch it! I might do more harm than good!” Iris said.
Now it was perfect. Clairvoyance didn’t seem too farfetched.
“Stop this spell before we wind up havin’ to swim back to Equestria!” Applejack demanded.
“We can’t,” Hocus said. “The damage to the crystal has rendered the spell unstable. If we don’t hold it together, it will surely result in a miscast. It is impossible to predict what will happen then, but whatever it is, it won’t be good.”
“Who here can glue that chunk back on?” Applejack asked.
“I fear it might be a little more complicated than that,” Hocus replied.
Since there were no volunteers, Twilight had to step forward. “I read up on how to fix enchanted crystals on the way here. If none of you know what you would be doing, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Fine. Twilight will go fix the crystal. We’ll stay put and keep this spell active. Sound good?” Applejack asked.
The mages agreed with Applejack’s plan. They would regret their consensus once they had to make up for Twilight’s absence, but it would be better than being responsible for why they weren’t going to be able to fly home.
“I’m not going to lie,” Twilight said. “This is going to hurt. Remember, none of you can leave this circle until I get back.”
“Do hurry, princess,” Hocus said.
The team of unicorns braced to receive the full brunt of losing an alicorn’s support. Twilight removed herself from the spell. None of the participants could keep themselves from crying out. The capsule shrunk in size and became more transparent. Some of the atoms that had been gathered began leaking outside of it, becoming invisible the moment they left the circle. If she spent too long watching the failing spell, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from jumping back in.
Twilight galloped out of the cargo hold. She slammed into the doorway and stumbled, almost falling to the ground. The spell had left her dazed. Her body needed to rest. It wasn’t going to be able to support her desire to save Izu much longer. The boost she had received from saving a single Salamander had eroded. She had no time to mourn it.
Leaving Iris without a fellow unicorn had been a mistake. Twilight had wanted every bit of power she could get for the spell. Part of the blame was on her. Iris was only a novice.
Iris was on her haunches with her hooves covering her eyes when Twilight entered the bridge. Onyx was right beside her, keeping her from having a total meltdown by helping her focus on her breathing. He and Cadance had to meet. Finding the broken piece was easy. It had separated from the crystal with so much force that it had lodged itself into the floor. Iris turned at the sound of Twilight’s entrance, scattering some of her tears to the side.
“I-i-it’s a clean break,” Iris said. “Is that a good thing?”
Twilight didn’t answer her. Wood splintered and cracked as Twilight yanked the chunk of rock from its resting place. The fragment was around the size of a watermelon. Twilight turned her attention to the crystal. As Onyx had mentioned, it was shaking. An odd humming noise was also coming out of it. A quick inspection of the damaged area at the top of the crystal revealed that the break was indeed clean, which would make fixing it less complicated. Three familiar auras had formed over the damaged portion of the crystal.
The task before Twilight was deceptively simple. All she had to do was snap the jigsaw piece into the rest of the puzzle in the exact right place and use her aura to weld it back on. The precision required couldn’t be overstated. A minor difference could limit the power of the crystal.
She levitated the chunk above the damaged area. Before she could prepare her approach, the three auras reached out to the missing piece and took it from her. Twilight gasped and backed away. A white light that Twilight had to look away from formed around the edges of the missing piece once it was in place. The crystal was then whole again. Her fellow alicorns had managed to give the crystal the ability to heal itself. They had to have figured the crystal would eventually be pushed beyond its limits. Celestia must not have mentioned it to keep anyone from experimenting with how much power they could get away with using, which was fair.
A sharp thud coming from the windshield signaled even more trouble. Up against the glass was the lovable zobumo, otherwise known as the cricket tarantula. A pegasus soldier had thrown it into barrier. The insect remained on the glass like an ornament for a moment before peeling off and falling to the ground.
“Iris, I thought you sent those things away,” Onyx said.
“There must be a lot more of them out there,” Iris said. She sighed and looked away. “Or maybe I didn’t cast the spell right.”
Two more were thrown up against the glass. Spittle and venom erupted against the surface from their fangs. One of the soldiers in the air waved enthusiastically at his audience on the bridge before going back to work.
“You don’t think they’ll get in here, do you?” Iris asked.
On some wicked, highly specific cue, one of the locust spiders burst onto the bridge. The zobuma was locked in a scuffle with an earth stallion. Two hairy legs were wrapped around the flank of the stallion. It was trying to shove him further into its mouth. Its mandibles were struggling to tear off the helmet the stallion wore since its fangs weren’t sharp enough to get through his armor. The spider locust managed to get the helmet of the stallion off and began chewing on it, which provided its prey with an opportunity to escape the grapple.
Onyx entered the fray and bucked the zobumo hard enough to almost knock it out of the room. He grabbed the discarded helmet with his mouth and tossed it back at its owner. “Get back into the fight, colt.”
The stallion nodded, put his helmet back on, and left the bridge.
“We need to get this ship back in the air as soon as possible, Twilight,” Onyx said.
“Give me ten more minutes,” Twilight said.
“That’s quite a bit of time to spend fighting,” Onyx said. “Can you repel these things with the crystal?”
“I would, but I am running low on energy and I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.”
“Fine. We should be able to hold them back. In ten minutes, I’ll have Iris raise the ship into the air. I’ll warn you before I have her do it.”
“Wait,” Iris interjected.
Twilight noticed she was shaking. Her confidence had taken a massive hit.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” Iris said.
Twilight grabbed Iris by her chin and made her look into her eyes so she would stop examining the floor. “Then you’re just going to have to find out. Send me back to the cargo hold. I’m not taking the stairs again.”
Iris nodded. Getting her to do something simple would restore some of her ego. Twilight half expected to be teleported outside the ship. The magic circle was a comforting sight. No other Salamanders had been saved, but the locust spiders hadn’t scuttled into the cargo hold yet. Small blessings had to be cherished, especially in difficult times. Twilight stepped back into the circle.
“Princess, I know you just got back, but I can’t keep this up any longer,” Hocus said. “None of us can. It will have to be all you.”
“Speak for yourself,” Applejack said. “I can still take this.”
“Me too,” Fluttershy said. “I’ve had high fevers that have felt just like this. I can keep going.”
Many atoms had been collected, but there was no signal to put them back together. They were missing the last bits. Quitting now when they were so close was unacceptable.
“Stay with me until we rescue whoever or whatever we have now. I’ll provide what support I can. Biggs, Wedge, Aramak, we’ve been boarded by the creatures we have saved. They will be down here momentarily. Be ready.”
Twilight threw every bit of energy she still had left at the spell. The blister forming around her horn ruptured. Drainage leaked into her eyes. She could give Izu another minute. Seconds took hours to pass. Blackness creeped into her vision. She had been hoping to carry on after the other unicorns had left for the ten minutes she had asked for, but she wouldn’t be able to. Twilight was dangerously close to reaching her absolute limit. Her body would shut down without notice even if there was more work to be done.
Her jaw collided with the floor. She couldn’t remember falling. Her heart felt like it was trying to force a gear out of her aorta. She could barely breath. Getting back on her hoofs wasn’t going to be possible so long as the spell was active. The demand created by the range they were covering was too much. Someone needed to modify the spell to work better under extreme circumstances. Twilight would be sure to see to it.
The signal to pull the atoms through clicked in the back of her mind. Assembling them would be her final act. Twilight shut her eyes when the silver flash went off to delay finding out what the result of all her work had been. Some of them were cheering, but they could have just been happy the spell was over with. Shelly squealed at something. Twilight kept her hope in check and prepared for the worst.
“Twilight, you did it!” Fluttershy exclaimed.
“Get up off the floor and have a look,” Applejack added.
Fluttershy and Applejack helped Twilight get back on her hoofs and supported her so she could remain upright. She opened her eyes and was met with the sight of a group of confused Salamanders.
Kenrama leapt in front of Twilight, laughing. “You saved all of my buddies, pony!” He danced into the group of Salamanders, slapping backs merrily to let his friends know they were safe.
Fluttershy gasped. “You even saved Mr. Shelly, Twilight.”
The Salamanders had made plenty of room for Shelly and Mr. Shelly to reunite with each other. Mr. Shelly wanted to continue the fight he had been in, but Shelly used her body to block him from starting trouble. She made gentle clicking noises to calm him down. The fate of the swamp was secured. It would continue to thrive.
A few of the Salamanders moved out of the way, opening the middle of the circle for inspection. It was then that Twilight finally saw what she had been looking for. Aramak had locked a smaller Salamander into an inescapable hug, weeping openly despite the crowd around him, completely overtaken by his emotions.
Tears began streaming down Twilight’s face. Everything it had cost to witness Aramak’s love for his son had been worth it. The insomnia. All the struggling with her self-doubt. Even the pain.
Then she remembered there were pests on board rooting around, determined to find a meal. Twilight gently broke free of the support her friends were giving her and reached into her saddlebag with a hoof to retrieve the microphone. “We have successfully rescued Izu, Shelly’s boyfriend, and all the other Salamanders who were trapped in the void. Get us back into the air immediately.”
The scratching noise of hairy cricket legs on wood brought their attention to the group of bugs that had made their way to the cargo hold.
Applejack whistled sharply. “Our break is over!”