Ch 23
The room had gone silent in expectation, so much so that all that could be heard was the tapping of Ed’s foot and the background noise coming from outside the castle. Luna and Celestia’s faces never changing as they seemed to be contemplating their next words while Ed looked to be getting more and more impatient. I had no idea which side would break the ice first but until one did, the tension in the room would only get thicker.
“You can’t, can you.” While I would be glad that someone finally spoke, I became shocked to see that the apparently all powerful princesses shake their heads.
“We can not send you to your world. After decades of trying and failing to do so, we were only able to create portals between worlds that, while similar to yours, were not. We are sorry.” Ed said nothing after Celestia’s apology. No crying in sadness, no outbursts of anger, only a look of seething rage that was barel being bottled up inside as the shorter man seemed to be literally shaking now.
“You mean to tell me, that after all the bull crap I had to go through to get this guy.” he pointed to me while I was left flabbergasted in the process of what was happening. “And all the assurances that I would get to go home and finally see my family again. It was nothing more than a lie?” Celestia looked to the floor saddened.
“I am sorry. I truly am but there was no other way I could assuredly gain your help. After all this, the only thing I can do for you is remove the collar and let you live the rest of your days in peace.” I was confused now, what collar were they talking about?
“Don’t bother then, i’ll do it myself.” Ed quickly brought his right arm to his to his shirts collar to pull it down, revealing a dog-like collar of some kind around his neck, before he grasped it firmly.
“WAIT YOU CAN”T DO THAT YET!” Celestia’s panicked voice surprised me, but not as much as the bolts of electricity that was now emitting from Eds body or more specifically the right arm and left leg which were slowly burning away their coverings to show the automail limbs that the person Ed was based on to be known for whilst the man himself was screaming in pain. I looked back to Celestia while Ed was now seemingly paralyzed from the pain and saw Celestia’s horn was glowing with magic.
While I had just gotten my apologies and forgiveness from the princesses about all that had happened, that didn’t mean I was just going to let the guy who helped me out of jail simply suffer. So while everyone else was distracted by the light show, I took my chance and tackled the focused princess and breaking said focus while I did so. In an instant the shocking lessened and without hesitation (most likely from fear of more shocks) Ed pulled with all his mechanical might and ripped the dog collar from his neck before crushing the small stone that decorated it.
Feeling happy that it was all over now, I looked once more to Celestia but instead of anger or disappointment it was instead a look of fear. Unsure why she was doing so, I barely noticed her horn seeming to get brighter until the very last second.
(BOOM)
The explosion was loud and powerful with what looked to be a wave of golden energy that burst from it, much like you could probably expect it you had just stepped on a mine filled with explosives, smoke, and maybe golden paint simultaneously. Coughing, I swiped at the smoke to dispel it from my vision both amazed and confused as to how I had survived. I could hear groans of pain, and what I thought sounded like footsteps but I couldn’t fully tell from the light ringing still in my ear.
“CELESTIA!” hearing the princess of the moon’s scream of fear, I quickly made my way to her voice to see what was wrong and became shocked at what I saw. Lying lifelessly on the floor with her horn now snapped in two was Princess Celestia.
(5 minutes later)
Celestia now laid comatose on a hospital bed with her broken horn’s stump bandaged and her body connected to many machines I never expected to exist in this strange worlds technological advancements. She was being treated regularly with constant supervision with the best doctors around keeping an eye on her while I, Luna, and the girls simply sat behind a glass window worried.
It had been shocking at first to see the princess in such a state that no one knew what to do and we had stayed that way until guards from around the castle started to pout into the room to most likely see what had caused the explosion. Like us the became shocked at what they saw but instead of staying as such they immediately went to work checking how she was while getting a doctor team ready for her and getting her to where she was now.
Staring at her, a single thought crossed my mind just like it had many times before in the past couple of minutes but I quickly pushed it away. No matter how much you may be confused, when something is this bad, you don’t just question what happened, you had to let it come naturally. I would know since I had my fair share of “What happened to you”.
“Princess Luna, What happened?” Apparently Twilight had had enough waiting though as she simply got up from her seat to stand next to the taller alicorn. Luna said nothing though and I don’t expect she will but her deep sigh said otherwise.
“Twilight, do you know what magical backlash is?” Twilight nodded.
“It’s when magic fails to cast correctly or something you’ve enchanted breaks causing all the leftover magic to retract back into your horn against the natural flow. Wait are you saying that something in Ed’s hand caused this?” Twilight looked panicked but Luna did not acknowledge it.
“Not just something Twilight. A slave collar. Weakened of course as well as many variations to the original concept but still the same.” There were gasps from everybody, including me. Luna simply nodded at our sentiment.
“Yes that is what she used to keep Ed’s help in the case he decided to go against us but that was before we both had our changes of heart so please understand that.” I wasn’t sure if I could or not. Human slavery is kind of a big deal after all considerings the human’s use of it all over the world thousands of years ago. Twilight looked to have calmed down somewhat.
“But if it was just a backlash, a weakened one at that. Why did her horn snap?”
“That would be due to her use of enhancing the effects of the collar before she was interrupted.” She gave a quick glare towards me for it but I wasn’t sure how to feel. “There was a chance of this happening anyways though whether she tried to stop it or not though considering all the modifications so I guess not all blame can go to Cronus for this.”
“Will she be alright though?” Fluttershy had come to stand on Luna’s otherside to ask. Luna gave a sad smile.
“In time, thanks to our alicorn blood, her horn should grow back but not for many decades. As for her coma though, I have no idea. The best we can do is wait and see.”
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(3rd POV)
(5 minutes ago)
Deep underground, within Celestia’s personal study for all things displaced, the portal to the upper world glowed slightly before a fraction of the wave produced by celestia exited it it and began bouncing around the room creating a mess as it knocked over books and utensils for writing before finally what was left of it found its mark on the terrace doors and exiting the room in the process. No longer confined, the fraction of a wave continued onwards, not stopping and uncaring to where it went. Eventually though, the magic that it was made from began to fade in its intensity. Little by little, it lost its light and slowly lost its speed and height until eventually only riding barely above the heads of the frozen displaced. Finally, the magic gave out just enough for it to bounce off of one of the many displaced before richitcheing onto another and another before finally dissipating on the last. Nothing seemed wrong as the displaced statues simple rocked in place from the sudden force, but if one were to look closer, they would notice small cracks beginning to form and slowly grow in size.