//------------------------------// // 22 The Web // Story: Errant Finale // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// Twilight reforms in the middle of her library to considerably less fanfare than she expected. In fact, her Friends are nowhere to be seen. The place is deserted, the books are all out of place, the floor is somehow both swamped and scorched, and when she puts those two together she has waterlogged books getting ruined! “Aah!” Twilight screams, quickly levitating every book out of the quarter inch of standing water. The action is far easier than she remembers, though a lot of the books end up flying up too high, smacking into the ceiling. They leave wet stains, some flecks of paper or binding or cover end up sticking, but she can deal with that once she has saved her library! Judging by the shouts coming from outside, apparently a lot of ponies share her completely understandable and reasonable dread of anything bad happening to the written word. Twilight quickly makes stacks of undamaged books wherever she can, sorting through the worst off books and hanging them to dry. At least it’s not like the entire library is destroyed or anything, just a few books and- What is either a large sapling or a small tree impales the Golden Oaks Library, nearly spearing the alicorn through one of the windows. She shrieks in fright, dancing backwards as green leaves join the leaves of parchment already in the air. Rain pours in through the opening, and now that she stops and thinks about it, the sounds coming from upstairs means this isn’t the first window that has been destroyed. “No!” comes a shout from outside the ruined window, Applejack’s harsh rebuke met by a loud growl. Three loud growls, actually. “Bad Dog!” Twilight sticks her head out past the limbs of what she is deciding to call a tree. The plaid storm above stolidly thunders on; hopefully Rainbow Dash (or Rarity, or some combination of them) can bring it to a stop. Except that Applejack and Rainbow Dash are busy ripping apart one of the nearby trees, tearing it literal limb from limb. Numerous Ponyvillians are shouting angry things at each other, or running around wildly, or just cowering behind shuttered windows. But from what? Twilight spots the giant pawprints moments later, then finds the creature whose paws made the marks in the soft ground. A giant, black, three headed dog with massive jaws capable of swallowing a pony whole. And who looks to be trying to do just that as he lunges at Pinkie Pie, fangs snapping as the giggling mare tumbles away. Above, Fluttershy tries to shout something at the dog, but her voice is drowned out by the rain and thunder. Cerberus snarls, dropping low to charge the cartwheeling pink pony. Only for his traitorous head to spot the branch Rainbow Dash is barely able to lift and wave about. Rainbow Dash flies up thirty feet, chucking the branch as far away as she can, before zipping back to Applejack and grabbing yet another distraction. The three headed dog returns far quicker than they would like, one mouth holding the branch it snagged from midair, again intent on making a meal of whatever he can get his jaws on. He growls at Pinkie Pie again as Rarity returns, a ponnequin dressed in a bright red makeshift cape levitating behind her. Cerberus instantly changes course, charging at the fluttering fabric. Rarity barely pulls it out of the way in time, her own body diving the opposite way. One head watches her as she tries to lay still, but the blue aura around her horn keeps the beast interested. The other two heads chase the ponnequin down, but it evades with a few loops and speedy turns Twilight recognizes from Rainbow’s Wonderbolt practices. She needs to be out there helping them! Twilight teleports outside, her aura picking up one of the heftier limbs lying around. “Not so fast, Cerberus!” she says, her voice a low growl. She swings the limb around a few times; it’s sturdy, but unlikely to last long in a prolonged tussle. "There's something you should know!" “NO!!” Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy shout simultaneously, each waving their forelegs back and forth. They each draw closer to Twilight, trying to ward her away. “Don’t-” Cerberus leaps up, one of his heads inches away from closing his jaws around Fluttershy as she drops low. Twilight gasps, her horn flaring brighter than ever before. “-Hurt him!” shouts Rainbow Dash and Rarity - and, from next to her, a thankfully uninjured Fluttershy. Twilight pants from the exertion as Cerberus grinds up the large branch in his mouth. His six eyes narrow as he paws at the ground, identifying the new purple alicorn as the source of his lost meal. “Please don’t hurt him!” Twilight’s three Friends plead, their faces already stricken with the grief they would feel if she actually did. Their voices mirror each other, like listening to Our Harmony, though not as bad as Celestia’s demi-plane. Fluttershy actually clutches at her with weak hooves. “He’s just lost, and confused, and hungry! But we can’t get him to listen!” “Okay!” Twilight agrees with a shout, eyes watching as Cerberus stalks closer. “I won’t! I just… I need to figure this out!” She beams a smile at each of her Friends, each of them returning a grin befitting of Pinkie Pie. Rarity resumes her game of chase, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack gather fallen branches to keep playing fetch. Twilight grimaces as Cerberus nearly catches the ponnequin again, it barely staying aloft and out of reach. Each of her Friends is doing their best, especially with combining their instincts, but they lack the practice and familiarity of their own bodies. Rainbow Dash must have gotten some animal tips from Fluttershy, and Rarity some evasion from Rainbow Dash. But the rest? At least Fluttershy found the courage to try to talk the beast down. But Applejack is missing her strength, and Rarity her fine control, and Pinkie Pie seems a bit more sluggish than usual. If she could only swap their marks, and restore them to the way they were before! “That’s it!” Twilight exclaims, teleporting to her room. The Elements of Harmony are there, still in their chest. And it’s worse than she feared; while they are primarily the correct color, except for the lightning bolt and diamond, there are dots of every other color spreading among the gems. She begins channeling Starlight’s spell to swap two pony’s cutie marks. But she holds it, expanding it, modifying it to work on all five of her Friends. A quick infusion builds in a better interface than the barebones text format. Her tongue sticks out of her mouth as she focuses. Almost ready. A triumphant howl outside nearly breaks her concentration. But, as only Applejack and Rarity cry out about their lost ponnequin, and how much Cerberus is going to pay, Twilight quickly goes back to her spell. She needs to hurry! She levels her horn at the Elements of Harmony, blasting them with yet another untested spell. Pony, she needs to get Starlight out of her mind. But this is an emergency! As the lights from her eyes clear, Twilight finds herself in a small room. Five beams of multicolored light, each about as tall as a pony and as wide as her horn, stand before her. Well, three stand, and the other two are coiled around each other. Underneath each beam is an Element of Harmony, which roughly corresponds to the primary color of the beam above. Well, most common color, as they all seem to be seeping into each other. Visibly so, as she watches, little dots of color just swapping places. It’s fascinating, getting such a tangible interpretation of a pony’s magic. Hopefully this is the first time, and the last time, that she needs to meet her Friends like this. She can feel a sixth beam, radiating inside herself. Solid purple, compared to the mix of white, yellow, orange, pink, and blue in front of her. And, if she’s being conservative, at least eight times as large, and getting larger. She smirks. “Well, Rainbow,” she says, inspecting the longest of the beams. “It seems your magic used to be as big as mine.” She waggles her hips a little as she walks up to them, her wings flaring out just slightly, though her muzzle curls to a slight frown. Twilight focuses first on Rarity’s and Rainbow’s beam. “Ugh,” she remarks to herself as she inspects them closer, “I’d hate it for my magic to get twisted! Remind me to blast Starlight or something after I get you better.” She ponders for a few seconds, though a tiny voice in her mind keeps chanting, ‘Clock is ticking!’ She says aloud, “Maybe if I just…” Twilight places one hoof on Rainbow’s beam, grabbing the other one with her aura. She pulls as hard as she can, grunting as she strains against herself, then finally rips the two beams away from each other. “Whew!” Twilight exclaims, wiping her brow with a hoof and watching the two beams unkink themselves as they hover over their respective cutie marks. “Hope that did something!” Outside, Rainbow Dash rubs her white cloud and red, yellow, and blue lightning bolt flank while Rarity rubs her three teal diamonds. “Oww…” they both moan, though fortunately Cerberus is focusing on chasing Pinkie Pie. “Let’s see,” Twilight says to herself, tapping a hoof against her chin. “Fluttershy looks the easiest to repair, since she swapped the fewest times. And she probably isn’t doing much. Now, how am I going to do this...” Twilight’s horn flares, concentrating on herself. All the pieces of yellow that have dispersed into the other four beams gets sucked into Twilight, an unhealthy black void replacing them. It’s an admittedly paltry amount compared to the alicorn’s pool. But each of the beams is like that, in comparison to the reserves of even a neophyte alicorn. She’d hate to see how she compares to Luna, much less Celestia! Twilight breathes out as she replaces the stolen magic back into Fluttershy’s pool, grinning as the beam tops out again. The other colors of magic, forced out of Fluttershy, come out as a small ball, absorbed into Twilight’s pool. “One down, four to go!” Outside, Fluttershy’s eyes whirl through hundreds of different scenes, the mare barely able to keep herself aloft as her wings automatically flap. Around the corner, Doug, Trixie, and Starlight gather, each dragging a wagon full of whatever food they could gather fastest. They exchange nervous glances, then gasp as Fluttershy dashes down to the rampaging dog. “Who’s the cute widdle three headed dog?” Fluttershy playfully says as she zips underneath, rubbing Cerberus’ tummy. One head growls, the other grins, while the third flops over, tongue lolling out. The rest of the body follows the third head, letting Fluttershy stroke Cerberus with one hoof while the other motions to Doug and the two mares. “Yes, you! You’re just a big furry guy who got out of his yard and got hungry. Isn’t that right?” Doug reluctantly starts tossing food towards the three heads, the other two unicorns doing the same with their magic. Twilight repeats her spell four more times, getting easier with repetition. Finally, she is left with five solid, full beams of light, each above the correct Element. Satisfied the colors are staying put, she cancels her spell, finding herself back in the library. She teleports outside, grinning madly at her empowered alicorn reserves. She could do this for hours! “Applejack!” Twilight calls, zooming over to her Friends as they help feed the starving Cerberus. “Is everything okay?” “Eeyup!” Applejack calls, tossing another dozen apples into the waiting maw. “Whatever you did worked out better’n an Apple at the county fair!” She pauses to nuzzle Twilight, then looks up at the plaid storm above. She glances to Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “Ah don’t suppose y’all can do somethin’ about that?” Rainbow Dash shakes her head. “Magical storm like that? No way. You don’t want to touch something like that. Gotta let it slow down first, wear itself out a little. Then maybe you can do something.” “I’ll have to bow to Rainbow’s expertise here,” Rarity says, slightly apologetic at her role in the storm. “Perhaps infusing it wasn’t the, ahem, plaidest of plans.” “We’ll just see about that,” Twilight says with a brash smirk. Her wings spread out, posing for a brief second, and then the alicorn takes to the air. Rainbow Dash just gapes, pointing a hoof, speechless. The rest of the herd fares no better. Twilight’s horn charges, a bright raspberry against the rain surrounding her that practically spits sparks. She takes long, measured breaths, focusing on the entirety of the storm around her. She grins as she finds the common thread, a way to ball up every last vestige of white cloud and lightning. Then, she hits the button. Metaphorically, of course, because an actual giant red button that says Do Not Push. Ever. would be pushing things a little too far. Levers work so much better. “You’re about to get jammed,” Twilight quips, sticking her tongue out at the storm. And in a blink, the white clouds disappear. The night sky returns, the moon high above, stars twinkling merrily. Twilight lets out her breath, happily sighing. There! That wasn’t so bad! Then Twilight starts accelerating down. Her wings flap, barely able to keep herself aloft. She zooms to the ground, the force quickly overtaking her feeble wing beats. She briefly, out of the corner of her eye, notices a white and blue alicorn standing next to her Friends, but her mind is much more focused on not coming to an abrupt halt. Or rather, coming to an abrupt halt, but not because of the ground. Twilight teleports, as high as she can, but that just means she has even more height to uncontrollably accelerate through. You know, it would be really nice to have some sort of helmet to crash with. A purple helmet encases the majority of Twilight’s head and body as she plummets into the ground, the reverberation echoing among the town. Celestia and Luna trade awkward glances as the rest of the herd winces. “Do you think she needs any help?”