//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: To Soften Stone // by Jmaster //------------------------------// “Come on you guys, hurry up!” Rainbow Dash struggled to keep a slow pace; it wasn’t even that far of a run. Yet seeing her friend covered in sweat told Rainbow all she needed to know about Twilight’s endurance. Seriously, that pony needed to get out and just run more. Rarity was even farther behind, barely breaking a canter and fussing with her mane. Seriously, what did this crazy pony want unicorns to help with? Dash and Applejack could handle pretty much anything together, and the two of them would be out there already! “I’m coming! Anyway, why are we running out here anyway? I know that pony told you to get some unicorns, but he just disappeared you said! So why are we running out to meet nopony at all?” Twilight huffed. “I agree with Twilight. Natural disaster or not, I see no good reason to ruin my hooficure running willy-nilly after some stallion that you dropped on the way to town!” “Hey, I didn’t drop him! He jumped off! How was I supposed to deal with some crazy pony like that? Come on, even if he doesn’t have a plan, I still don’t want to leave him out there. What if he did get hurt jumping and I just didn’t find him? I can’t just leave a hurt pony out there especially with a volcano erupting!” Rainbow shouted back, looking at her two far-less athletic friends. Flying backwards works well for talking to your friends, but not so well at avoiding obstacles. With a loud thwack, she smacked tail first into something hard, and slid down it with a moan. “Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?” worriedly asked Twilight. Seeing her friend stand up she sighed in relief. “You should really look out! Flying backwards like that is a great way to run into a huge wall! Although for that matter, when did this wall get here?” A large wall was now blocking the road out, about six feet high. It extended fifty feet out to the left of where they were, but only a short ways to the right of Rainbows accidental discovery. “Look at that! There’s grass on top of this thing! It almost looks like someone grew this thing right out of the ground! But how? This is massive!” Finally nearing the pair, Rarity glanced over to see a crumpled heap of a silver coated unicorn. “Well I would say to ask him over there, but he seems to be out cold at the moment. Oh I do hope he is all right!” She trotted over to the unconscious pony and enveloped him in a soft blue glow, yet he didn’t budge an inch. “Twilight, be a dear and come help me please? Ugh, somepony give this stallion some soap! He’s covered in ash, and is just lying on some drawing in the dirt! If you’re going to collapse unconscious, at least magic yourself a blanket or something!” The blue glow was quickly replaced with a pink one, and the pony finally lifted off the ground and laid nearby on the softer grass. With a satisfied nod, Twilight cantered over to where he used to lay. “This is a magic circle! I wonder if he was trying to use it when he fell unconscious! That would mean…oh no! It must have been magical burnout that knocked him out!” “Burnout you say? Good heavens, that’s positively dreadful! He should be out cold for the rest of the day, and then…” her eyes went wide with the realization, “completely without magic after that! Oh how horrid! Oh you poor thing, what was so important that you completely burnt all your magic on?” With a small washcloth Rarity began wiping the soot and ash from the fallen pony. Dash rubbed at her rump where the wall decided to smash into her. “Magic circles, magic burnout, magic magic magic! All I know is we should get this guy back into town. Somepony wanna tell me what else is going on out here, like why there's a giant wall around Ponyville?” Twilight seemed far too intent on studying the ground, so Dash went over to help Rarity move the lump further to safety. “I think I’ve got it! This circle has to be a drawn spell designed to make this wall! These lines here represent growth, and this symbol here implies it’s an earth magic spell. Then, if you look at this section, it has to-” Rainbow stomped at the ground and bit at the tail of the still sleeping unicorn, ready to drag him all the way to safety by herself. “Enough about that, let’s just get this guy inside the town! We gotta get him over to the nurse!” “Now careful Rainbow! I agree he definitely needs medical attention soon. Twilight, are you coming with? You really should get back in here as well.” With a bit of magic, Rarity lifted the stallion’s head so at least that would stay off the dirt as he was dragged, wiping off a bit more ash as she went along. “You go ahead girls. I think if I do this right I should be able to finish the spell he started. I think this wall is supposed to keep the lava out!” Closing her eyes, a soft pink glow enveloped her horn. As it began to shine brighter, a bright light began to race along the lines of the complex drawing in front of her, until it shone far too bright to look at. With a flash, the light jumped up to the wall, and began racing down the side toward the unfinished end of it. From there, the glow raced along the ground far out of sight. If you could see the town from the sky, it would have been completely encircled by the glow. Gritting her teeth, her horn shone even brighter, and the ground along the town began to rumble. The ground shuddered softly at first, and then suddenly shoot upwards, erecting a sizable defense around the town. Less than a minute after she started working on it, Twilight’s horn suddenly blinked out, and she opened her eyes, panting a bit. Looking up, she saw the wall curving around the town to both sides. With another hint of concentration, she teleported herself atop the new structure, and looked around. Looking inside, she could see the other side of the wall across town. Looking outside, she gasped at the lava making its steady way towards them, a slow but steady wave of destruction with burnt trees sticking out of the fiery path every so often. She was done in plenty of time; it would take ten minutes or more for it to reach the edge of the new defenses. With another glow, she popped herself off the wall and staggered a bit. Shaking it off, she headed back into town to see what else she could do to help. “Gently now, dear!” A quick grunt from Applejack was all the response she got. This was no small filly she was carrying, but a full grown stallion! Undaunted, Rarity continued her directions, “We are trying to take care of him, not make things any worse! I’ll get the door to the bathroom open for you! Good, good…gently now! And…there into the tub! Celestia knows you need a bath more than anything else at this point.” Rarity stopped to look at the colt in her care once again. Nurse Redheart had given him a few bandages for some of his burns, but it was high time this pony was cleaned up in her mind. With the faucet flowing, she began her work of gently washing his mane. Applejack stood back a bit to give her room to work. She was more than happy to help carry this pony over to the bath, but dainty work like this was more Rarity’s style. “While I’m mighty sure he’ll be grateful for gettin washed up an’ all, but is there a reason ya’ll brought him to Twilight’s library? Seems a strange place to keep a busted up pony.” “It’s simple my dear, he’s burnt out all his magic. While he is unconscious now, he’ll probably wake up tomorrow, completely unable to cast spells. While that should come back in a week or so, he’ll need someplace to stay until then. Twilight has a spare room she offered, so he’ll stay here for a bit until he feels better. Anyplace would have worked fine, but I think Twilight wanted a chance to talk with him more before he leaves. She was going on about how he must have learned to draw that spell in a university, and how she wants someone else to talk about magic with.” Rinsing his hair clean, Rarity leaned in closer to whisper, “That is, unless she has a more…intimate reason for wanting to keep a handsome stallion in her home.” “Heh, you think that every time somepony does something nice for some other pony, it’s cause they’re all in love or some hooey. If he did learn all that fancy magic in some big higher-learnin school, maybe him and Twi were classmates? Anyhow, wherever he learned that magic it did come in mighty handy.” “I’ll have you know there’s nothing wrong with being a romantic! Hmph, you’re no fun to gossip with at all. Still, it would have been nice if there was a more elegant way to stop that volcano, now we’re left with that dreadful looking black rock outside the town. With all the rain the weather teams are pouring down it will be safe soon, but it’s still too horrid looking a landscape. Anyway, all finished! He’s much better looking without all that dreadful ash in his mane.” She stepped back to look at her finished work. His blue mane shone much brighter and smelled much nicer than it had before. Lavender would not have been her first choice for a shampoo, but she had to make do with Twilight’s puny hair care collection. A plain bottle of shampoo and only one conditioner! How that librarian managed to survive on such a meager stock was well beyond Rarity’s comprehension. His silver coat was free from the gritty ash as well, revealing his cutie mark. A blue hexagonal gemstone floated over a small black circle, similar to the one that made the wall around town. “Now then, if you don’t mind lending a hoof again, let’s get him up the stairs to that bed, shall we?” Soon the still sleeping colt was tucked away into bed, and the two of them shut the door to let him get some rest. “I tell ya buddy, you’re one lucky pony. Twilight never lets me sleep in past noon.” Spike set the water glass on the nightstand then leaned on his broom. “I wonder where you’re from. Rainbow Dash says she found you on the volcano itself. What a crazy place to be! Anyway, I hope you wake up soon. But if it was me, I’d probably sleep right until Thursday.” He heard Twilight call up to him, “Spike, don’t bother that pony! Burnout takes a lot of rest to recover, so the more he sleeps the better! That means without dragons nearby!” “Alright, I was just leaving some water for him! He might want it when he wakes up!” “Another voice called up, this one from Rainbow, “Come on Spike, don’t interrupt nap time for him! It’s the most important time of the day! …Hey, what’s with that look Twi? Come on, naps are important!” As Spike turned to leave, the mass on the bed groaned and shifted a bit. “Huh? Hey guys, I think he’s waking up!” He called down to them. Another groan, and the blob in the sheets rolled over, eyes still clamped shut. “…Dad? Is that you?” Eyelids wearily parted, ever so slightly. “Dad, you look a lot more…purple. And…shorter.” “Finally waking up, huh? Sorry I’m not dad, but here’s some water. I’m Spike. Are you feeling okay?” “Water sounds good. Ugh, my horn feels like it’s gonna burst!” He rolled onto his back, a hoof clutching his throbbing forehead. Twilight and Rainbow Dash both slowly walked in, Twilight’s horn glowing as she came nearer. “I’m not surprised after all the magic you tried to do. Here, I know a spell to dull the pain for you.” Tapping her horn to his caused him to jerk away with a grimace, but a second try got the spell to go off, and he relaxed. “Ahh, that’s gotta be the best spell ever. Now what did you say about that glass of water?” Sitting up a bit, he glanced over to the waiting cup and downed a large gulp. “Spike was it? Thanks big guy. Oh hey, you’re the one from the mountain. Let’s see…Rainy Dash? I don’t think I thanked you for that pick up.” “It’s Rainbow Dash, and no problem! Glad to see you’re okay especially after jumping off midair like that. What kinda crazy trick did you pull?” “Heh, sorry about that. I got a spell to dive underground, and I really, REALLY wanted to get down fast. No offense, but flying’s not my thing. It’s too…not on the ground. Anyway, the name’s Terra Firma. So am I in Ponyville? This place looks nice and…not on fire.” “The whole town is saved, no injuries or anything! Other than yours, that is.” Twilight’s perked ears gave away her obvious curiosity, “But that spell you drew out! Why did you try such a massively complex spell all by yourself? I mean, the spell work was fantastic and you must have drawn it out fairly quickly, how did you do it?” “Yeah, I should have waited. I had no idea how much of a drain trying that spell would be! I’ll bet you had what, six ponies trying to cast it together to finish it?” “No, I finished it myself. You had it started; it just needed more magic fed into it, that’s all!” All Terra could manage was to at least aim his spit take onto the bed and not at the two ponies (and dragon) nearby. “Y-You finished it by yourself? That’s a huge amount of magic! I made the spell work and got like what, part of the road kind of covered. You made that the rest of the way? That’s crazy cool!” Twilight turned away to hide her blush, sudden praise wasn’t really her thing. Rainbow, however, was totally about the sudden praise showered on them. Wings flared, she strutted around with swagger, “You know it! First you get saved by the fastest flyer in Equestria, and then you’re wall spell thingy gets finished by the greatest unicorn mage of all! Aww yeah, go Twilight Sparkle! Way to do the…whatever magicy thing you did!” Terra was not so lucky as to aim this mouthful this time, and Spike got a face full of water. “Twilight Sparkle? I wound up in the one town with THE Twilight Sparkle?” “Um, yes, that is who I am. Have you heard of me before?” “Heard of you? HEARD OF YOU?” Terra flared, “The whole damn University’s heard of you! Great, the one town I get to help save just happens to have the…the…HER in it!” With a huff, he tore of his sheets and started to climb out of bed. “H-Hey, careful! You still have burnout symptoms, and you’ve got burns on your legs! You can’t get up yet, you’ll hurt yourself!” “What, did Celestia herself teach you that?!? Outta my way, I’m…ouch!...I’m outta here.” He wobbly made it to his feet, and headed for the staircase muttering, “Twilight Sparkle. Unbelievable.” Pausing at the head of the stairs, he turned slightly, “I suppose I should still probably thank you for….whoa, whaaaaaa!” His footing slipped, and he bounced his way down the staircase, landing with a thud and slipping back into unconsciousness. The trio at the top stared dumbfounded for a moment. “Hey Twilight?” “Yeah Rainbow?” “Who IS that pony?” “I have NO idea.”