//------------------------------// // Return // Story: Entropy // by Rose Quill //------------------------------// I blinked, every last inch of my body aching. The light from the fire pits flickered brightly enough to hurt my eyes. Twilight was sitting nearby and she turned at my groan. “Hey,” she said as she came over. “How you doing?” I squeezed my eyes shut against the light and the sound of her voice. “Lower,” I rasped. “Can you sit up?” She asked a little more softly. I winced again. “Not softer,” I clarified. “Drop your voice a little pitch wise. I feel like I have a hangover.” She smiled softly and whispered with a slightly lower tone. “Do you want something to drink?” “Fifty year old cider would be lovely,” I mumbled, moving to sit up slightly. I saw Celestia and Luna across the way, horns lit as a small sphere of gently flickering silver fire hung before them, their magic slowly surrounding it. “What happens now?” “Celestia and Luna are sealing him back into the weave,” the princess informed me as I sat up, rubbing my temple. “He didn’t seem to have any fight in him after your crazy stunt.” “It worked, didn’t it?” I smacked my mouth a few times. For some reason I had a major case of cottonmouth. Thea came over and landed on my head. She sat there for a moment before leaning over and pecking me once on the head. “Ow!” I gasped. That was a needless risk, she harped at me. Another two minutes and the Sunmother could have ended it all without you taking that chance! “Could you not be so loud?” I asked, rubbing the spot she had pecked me. “She has a point,” Cadence said as she came over, the broken tip of my horn hovering in her aura. “What possessed you to do such a thing?” I opened my mouth to explain the vision I had, but then closed it, knowing that it could have been passed off as a pain-induced hallucination. I shook my head, Thea spreading her wings as she wobbled. “I’m not sure,” I said. Cadence tilted her head as she narrowed her eyes a little before sighing. She brought the tip of my horn over and set it against the shattered base. “Hold still,” she advised. “This might sting a little bit.” I felt magic surge through me as her horn took on a darker hue, runes on her armor slowly coming to life with a rose light. A heat spread in my horn, an almost searing sensation that I assumed as bone being forcefully knitted. A few moments later, her horn dimmed and the runes faded. “There," she said. “That should do it. I would advise against using it anytime soon, though.” “What do you mean?” I asked, reaching up to gingerly feel my horn. It had a little roughness to it, but it was more or less intact. “Well,” Twilight spoke up. “I was researching horn morphology for a friend and found that healing horns can be sabotaged by magic use. With it healing, it’s not up to correctly channelling mana and will actually cause damage which will force it to take longer to heal.” I frowned. “How often does this happen that there are books on it?” I asked. The bookworm shrugged. “Not as often as you’d think,” she admitted. “But it did happen somewhat frequently in ages past. We do know that horns grow slightly throughout life, and that a little filing from time to time is good for structural symmetry.” I stood slowly, looking at the blue and gold sheathed flame. I had seen inside Entropy’s mind, felt his confusion as to why we wouldn’t let him do his job. I slowly walked over, and I felt his attention fall on me. “Come to gloat?” he asked, the voice seeming to echo in on itself and smaller than before. I knew the forlorn sound in his voice, having heard it once in my voice in the days following the Fall Formal and the Anon-y-mous incident. I shook my head. “No,” I said simply. I waited for a response of some sort, but I heard no more words from him before the flame slowly turned into a crystal sphere in the shape of fire, a dim silver glow within as it went to rest on a small pedestal near the back of the cavern. I felt a hoof settle on my shoulder and looked up to see Celestia look down at me, the armor gleaming in the firelight. “I think I know what you would have said,” she whispered. “He was right in a way,” I said. “Nothing lasts forever.” “No,” she agreed. “But it won’t end before its time, either. That is what he had forgotten.” I just stared at the crystal as Celestia and Luna moved away from me quietly, leaving me to my contemplation. Three days later, I walked into the palace, wings sore from the long flight home, my magic still weak from the fight. I saw some fresh damage in the process of being repaired, and the hall leading to the quarters Sunshine and I had used missing much of the furniture that once sat quietly by. I reached up to push the door to our room open, looking forward to seeing my wife and getting some sleep in a real bed for once. A crackle of electricity caused me to freeze in my steps, wings flaring slightly in surprise at the sight of a tall Unicorn with a broken horn standing between my wife and the door. “A fifth princess?” she asked curiously, the sparking magic in her horn dying. “Sixth, if you count Cadence’s daughter,” I heard my wife say. “It’s a somewhat recent development.” The Unicorn shook her head with an exasperated sigh. “Such bad intel,” she muttered. She turned towards Sunshine. “Your wife, I assume?” Sunshine giggled. “Yes,” she said, walking over slowly. “Sunset, meet Tempest. She’s a friend of Twilight’s and just happened to get back in time to help out in an attack. Tempest, this is my wife Sunset Shimmer, Princess of Compassion and frequent pain in the neck.” “Hey,” I squawked. “That’s the welcome I get after being gone?” Sunshine walked over, a mischievous smile on her face before she saw my horn. “What happened?” she asked, face transforming into a mask of concern. “Oh,” I whispered, a little blush of embarrassment flooding my face. “I just had a little incident with my horn. It should heal up ok in a few weeks.” Tempest snorted. My wife narrowed her eyes at me, and I felt her suspicion in the bond though it was fuzzy. “You did something stupid, didn’t you?” It wasn’t really a question. “Not really,” I hedged, glancing away momentarily as I remembered the shield buckling and the tip of my horn slowly falling to the rocky ground. Sunshine sighed and I realized that I hadn’t kept the memory from drifting through to her. She leaned forward and kissed me. “That’s for coming back,” she breathed as she leaned back, then smacked me gently on the shoulder, a look of reproach on her face. “And that’s for doing something crazy! You should know better!” “I already got this lecture from Twilight, Cadence, Luna, and Celestia,” I groaned. “And we have to stay for a few weeks. Celestia and Luna have to redo the ritual and my horn needs high ambient mana to heal properly.” I smiled at her. “You ok with a bit of a vacation?” She smiled, then cocked her head. “What about Spike and Ray?” she asked. “Who’ll take care of them?” I leaned forward and gently touched the tip of my horn to hers. “I don’t see why you couldn’t nip over and make arrangements. You’re not technically trapped here for any length of time.” She closed her eyes. “Tomorrow,” she said, turning and heading for the bed. “I think that’s my cue,” Tempest said, walking out. “You want a wake-up call?” I shook my head as I joined my wife. “No,” I said as I settled in and spread a wing over her. “I have every confidence that Starlight can handle one more day.” “I don’t know,” Tempest as she stepped out. “If she knew how, I’m sure she would have sent one of those nobles to the moon.” I blinked and turned to Sunshine. “Blueblood?” I asked. My wife nodded, her eyes drifting shut. I made a show of thinking it over. “I can live with that,” I said, laying my head down and pulling the azure mare next to me a little closer with my wing. “I’ll deal with it in the morning.”