//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Friendship is Epic // by Bramble Rose //------------------------------// The Crusaders had brought them as close to The Compound as they could without being seen, then turned to hurry back to Sweet Apple Acres as swiftly as Scootaloo's wings could propel them. Twilight was a bit disappointed - she had thought for certain that the girls would help them, but they'd left with barely a word. So instead, Doctor Whooves, Derpy, and Twilight had made their way by hoof to the edge of the compound on their own, hurrying from the shelter of a boulder to the cover of a gully, then from the gully to the lee of a hill, always managing to stay out of sight. For some reason, Doctor Whooves seemed sure the TARDIS would be here. Or at least - this 'Master Spur' would be there, and the Doctor was certain he was the one to have stolen the TARDIS. "Forty seven seconds," Doctor Whooves stated confidently, and darted out from behind the hill to gallop towards the wall of logs and rusted metal. Twilight followed after, at a loss for how he could be so certain - but his statements for the entire approach had been absolutely accurate. "Timing is everything," is all he would say in explanation. She was feeling decidedly out of her depth. Here there'd been an epic pony war, and all because she hadn't been there. She wanted to protect everypony, but without the Elements of Harmony, without her friends, she felt incomplete. But she had to try! The heroes in her books - Daring Do, or Lake Skytrotter, or The Batmare - they would never give up! And neither would she! She hadn't needed her friends to start the fight against Nightmare Moon, and she hadn't given up then. Besides, Doctor Whooves treated this whole thing as if it was completely normal for him, and that was somewhat reassuring - despite all the insanity, she felt as if she could trust him. They raced to the wall, and between Twilight's magic and Derpy's wings, they managed to get over and out of sight before the next patrol came by, hiding in the shadow of a building till they passed. Twilight held her breath, pressed up against the wall, wishing she had her black stealth-suit handy - but that was back in her tree. As they hid, she saw for the first time what Ponyville had become. The once beautiful town was recognizable, but only just barely. That dark, burnt building over there, you could see just a single pink board sticking out, a hint that it once had been Sugarcube Corner. And over there, the half-a-building where paint had been sloshed in sharp, angry designs - that had been the town hall. And her home - she could see it, up ahead - black, twisted, its empty branches reaching for the sky, its broken windows, boarded up, like weeping eyes. It seemed clear of the clutter of the rest of the Compound. "We should go to my tree," she said. "Some of my things might still be there." She turned to look at the Doctor, and he was just standing with his eyes closed. "All right, Twilight," he said encouragingly. "we have ... 32 seconds." Twilight blinked in surprise, but then grinned, nodded her head, and galloped across the open space, the dead grass crunching under her hooves, and under the hooves of Derpy and Whooves following behind. The door was partway open and she slipped in, hurried the other two through, and shut it swiftly and silently behind them. The unicorn pony who turned towards them was a dull purple, her mane a faded gray. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and she was letting out a resigned sigh before her eyes opened wide, her breath caught in her throat. She scrambled backwards from the three of them, her eyes darting around, then seized up a broken pipe and wielded it in her teeth, standing between them and the ridiculous contraption set up in the middle of the room. Pale, discolored liquids bubbled through tubes, and steam hissed out at various places. Little valves and levers were set up all over the device, and a massive vat hung heavy in the center of the maze of pipes, vials, tubes, spirals, and bottles. "I won't let you!" growled the faded unicorn mare in desperation. "This is the only food they all have! I won't let you destroy it!" "Food?" asked Twilight, perplexed. She stared up at the machine. "How is *that* food? Why would we want to destroy it?!" She would have been horrified that they'd been found - except that this unicorn mare was obviously even more terrified of them. Doctor Whooves had the oddest look on his face, his eyes swapping back and forth between Twilight and the old, faded purple unicorn. Twilight frowned at the Doctor, then turned to look at the faded purple unicorn again, her eyes widening. She understood that the ponies were mutated, but ... was this ... could she be a mutated form of ... "Why wouldn't you?" growled the other unicorn. "You're all ... um ... " she seemed to lose some of her frantic fear and anger at their perplexed expressions, and their relaxed stances. "Isn't ... that why you're here?" Twilight shook her head. "Doctor Whooves here thinks that someone here stole his ... um ... shed. A big blue box. We just need to get it back. We don't want to hurt anypony." She looked up at the bizarre machine, and couldn't keep her curiosity reined in any longer. "How is *that* food? How does it work? It looks so neat!" Broken Spoon was uncertain. She'd always been sequestered with the machine, babysitting its temperamental spurts of activity, making sure the Compound always had enough food, though some times they'd had to go on half-rations to make it - but she'd always heard the stories that came back with the ponies who'd gone outside. She knew that these weird Everfree ponies had strange powers, and were violent and dangerous. Not that this was any news - everypony was violent and dangerous. But ... here they were, standing in her room, and they ... weren't. They didn't seem defensive, they didn't seem anything like anypony she'd ever known. They were just ... she didn't even have words. Every other pony she'd ever met in the Compound always tried to either set themselves up as being in charge, or they'd cower to another pony for protection. These ponies, they were just ... confident. Open, that was the word. They were *open*. They weren't protecting themselves! "It's ... It's the Machine," she said, uncertainly, then felt herself opening up as well at Twilight's open approval and curiosity. It felt right. "It draws magic power from the core and uses it to make food. I send it through a ... a " She didn't have words for it. She just knew how to make it work, is all - but as soon as she stopped trying, she found the words slipping from her mouth, words she'd never heard before. "I hooked up the power source through a mystic ley-matrix and filter the output through a series of crystaline condensers to solidify a .. um ..." she trailed off, stammering, as Twilight's eager expression fixated on her. No one had ever been interested in the Machine before! And no one had ever treated her like ... like she'd done a good job! She felt a swell of ... some strange emotion, rising in her chest. Then the purple unicorn turned towards the machine and floated over the burnt-out book that The Colossal had destroyed a few minutes ago. Broken Spoon paled. Magic! This strange unicorn was doing magic! "How did you do that?!" Broken Spoon gasped in amazement. Such mystic prowess! The Everfree pony had defied gravity as if it was an everyday occurrence, without even thinking! Indeed, she looked back with a confused look on her face. "Can't you?" she asked in surprise. "I mean, every unicorn ..." She stopped, then, and looked awkward. Every unicorn? "Yes, I should!" Broken Spoon said determinedly. "Can you teach me? How do you do it?" Twilight was confused. "But it should have happened by now - even if you hadn't learned, you should have random magical spikes as your energies built up too far." Broken Spoon snarled. "I'm just a normal unicorn, I don't have your dark Everfree secrets of mystical mysteries! Just tell me! Tell me how!" "Oooo, guests! Is it a party?" Derpy chirped up happily. Twilight had forgotten that Derpy was even there. The grey pegasus so rarely said anything, just blending into the background, but Twilight was certainly glad that Derpy had chosen then to speak up. Pony silhouettes were approaching from outside. She looked around desperately, her eyes wide. "We have to hide!" she gasped. "Quick!" Broken Spoon said, sliding a panel aside and gesturing to a small space behind it. "In here!" Twilight, Derpy, and Doctor Whooves pressed into the hiding place, squeezing into the sparse room with barely a few centimeters to spare. As the panel closed, Twilight found her face pressed up against the cool metal, her eye against a crack so she could just barely see out. Several ponies had entered the library, and as Broken Spoon moved aside, Twilight could see one of them - Hoofcutter, the first pegasus they'd seen in this blasted future Equestria, the one that had threatened them before the Crusaders had rescued them. "What did he do to you? Did he hurt you again?" Hoofcutter sounded half apalled, half eager for details. Broken Spoon shook her head, glancing away. "I'm all right," she said firmly. "There's nothing he can do to me - or else he'd have to take care of the Machine himself." Hoofcutter snorted. "That jerk. He thinks he's so tough!" "You said it, Hoofcutter! He's not so tough! Gonna take over? I bet you could take him" piped up the eager pegasus next to her. "Shut up, Dull Edge!" Hoofcutter snarled in frustration, as she took a swing at the other pegasus. He ducked without losing his sycophantic grin, expecting the blow from long experience and avoiding it before it had half begun. "You just let me know if you need my protection," Hoofcutter said to Broken Spoon. "I'm sure there's something you can do for me in return." Broken Spoon snorted. "Feeding you every day isn't enough? Bandaging you up when the Crusaders kick your tail again?" Hoofcutter snarled lightly, but kept further response to a mere, dismissive shrug. "Fine, whatever," she said, "then you don't need my protection." She stormed out with Dull Edge following close behind. Broken Spoon waited for several long moments, then let out a sigh of relief, her head sinking down to rest on the workbench as she recovered. Why had she gone out of her way to help the strangers? They were EVERFREE ponies! They were wierd, and strange, and dangerous, and enemies! What could they possibly give her? Magic, her mind responded. You want their magic. Then you can make the machine work better, and everypony can have REAL food. She moved over to the hidden compartment and unlatched it, letting the three Everfree ponies tumble out onto the floor in a heap. "You're gonna get me in trouble," Broken Spoon hissed angrily. "You tell me how to use magic or I'll call the guards and turn you in!" Twilight blinked in confusion. That again - how could any unicorn not know how to use magic? It just ... happened. If you didn't have control, it happened randomly. Especially if this unicorn was ... but then, Doctor Whooves said that the pegasus barely had the magic to fly - not enough to maintain the weather. That the earth ponies didn't have the magic to make the plants grow. And obviously nopony had the magic to make the sun move in the sky ... She reached back in her memory, for when she was a little foal, just learning. "It's ... it's a natural ability. You need to practice, just little things at first, like turning a page. Don't any of these books you saved have magical info in them?" Broken Spoon hung her head. "I can't... I can't read them. I should be able to, I can't... practice, right. How do I practice? How do I get past the headaches? I'm already pushing as hard as I can!" Headaches? Twilight furrowed her brow. Right, when she'd pushed herself too hard, as a foal, she used to get horrible headaches. What had Shining Armor said while she was suffering in bed with the ice pack? "You need to find yourself. Pushing yourself just burns yourself out to get a little more oomph, but control itself is easy ... easy as breathing. Easy as being yourself. Just know who you are, and the magic comes from there." "Know who I am? I'm Broken Spoon! I - " She stopped. No, no she wasn't. She was... who was she? It'd slipped away. "I ... I can't remember, there was a name... but it keeps slipping away." Twilight leaned closer, and whispered, "Does the name Twilight Sparkle mean anything to you?" A flash of pain burned across Broken Spoon's mind, and she stumbled, clutching at her head with one hoof. Twilight was there immediately to catch her, support her. Broken Spoon shook her off angrily. "I'm not weak!" she snapped. "I can do this!" What was that name, now? Twili- The entire wall of the library tore open, and all of the ponies were seized in an invisible grasp, yanked out to fly through the air and land heavily on the dead brown grass outside, tumbling over and over in the grip of a powerful telekinetic pummelling. Broken Spoon immediately covered her head with her hooves, trying to hide from the invisible blows, rolling this way and that in the dry grass as she was struck over and over. "I'm sorry!" she wailed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ohplease I'm sorry I'm worthless master please I am worthless you are Master Colossal and I cannot fight you!" The others weren't quite as used to this demonstration. They flailed about, unsure where the next strike was coming from, flopping about as impact after impact knocked them off balance until Twilight's horn glowed, and a brilliant violet sphere grew out from the tip, enveloping her and her friends. The surface shimmered and rippled as the invisible blows rained upon it, but they were safe ... for the moment. There, standing before them, standing tall with his dripping-blood mane, was the Colossal ... and the small bundle of the Master on his back leaned over his shoulder to croon, eagerly, "Why, if it isn't Doctor Whooves! What a wonderful coincidence! Just when I was in need of your key."