I placed a hoof on Mane-iac’s chest. I could feel it. All of her suffering bottled up from holding so much magical excess that she was not meant to wield. She was a fictional character whose existence held weight against idolized versions of heroes. There was no place for her in the real world where no such beings existed.
But there was something else.
What was this feeling? I could almost sense that someone...malicious was headed this way. But with the extra mental taxing that was placed upon me by merging with that crystal, I couldn’t reasonably react in time.
I let out the quietest of gasps. “...Ah!”
Quick Draw could feel it as well. I could feel her stance shift towards the steps that led up to the tower. “NO!”
BANG!
I heard a loud snap that echoed around the room. And in the next moment, I saw Quick collapse to the floor of the tower in front of me.
Corkscrew was the first to react. “What the--?!” He ran over to check her body, but there didn’t seem to be any sign of an entry or exit wound. “What the hell?! She was hit before we heard the attack!
I stopped, and looked down at Quick’s body. Then I looked ahead and found a note on the ground, so I picked it up. It read: “How far will you go to save a life? Can you end another? If so, accept my declaration of war.”
I balled up the note, tossed it down on the ground, and stomped on it.
From behind me, I heard Cork give an analysis. “Okay, boss. She’s breathing. But we need to finish up here before we head back. Don’t lose your head, alright?”
He was absolutely right. I couldn’t lose my head. Not now. But to say that I wasn’t fazed by this was a complete lie. For someone to attack us here, now of all times. It wasn’t by coincidence. And the note? Classic method of misdirection.
“I’m with you,” I replied swiftly, “Our time limit for Tartarus is almost up, my whole body aches, and we need to extract the rest of the magic out of Mane-iac so we can put her back where she belongs. After that, we need to make sure Quick Draw gets proper medical treatment for...whatever the heck she just endured. Are you with me?”
Corkscrew had already put the mare on his back, ready to carry her out of this hellish pit. “I’m already on it, boss.”
And so, we traveled back to the surface. We returned to Canterlot castle to report the situation to Twilight. She used her magic to both assess the damage that Quick Draw had sustained, as well as both retrieve the excess magic from Mane-iac’s body, and use another spell to return her to her comic with no knowledge of what happened.
Oh, and I was alright too. My body was still in a lot of pain after destroying my weapon and fusing with its power source, but I would get better so long as I didn’t exert myself too much for a while. The wound had closed up as well.
After that was all taken care of, she came to Corkscrew and I to discuss what happened in her throne room.
“Your friend is currently resting in one of the Castle’s internal hospital beds. You were lucky that you brought her here when you did.”
Corkscrew stepped forward with a nervous flap of his wings. “I-Is she gonna be alright? She’s not dead is she?!”
Twilight shook her head. “Not quite. She’s...alive. But she’s sustained quite the curse.”
I tilted my head. Could a mere curse cause someone to collapse in such a way? I had to know more. “A curse?” I asked, “Just what are we dealing with here, exactly?”
Twilight used her horn, and a book appeared in front of her in a flash of purple light. “Let’s see…” The pages flipped until she found the exact one she was looking for. “Ah, got it. A Zebra curse known as Ewedoo (yoo-doo). It’s a delayed poisonous attack that consumes the pony afflicted with it from the inside out. There is a timeframe that can be taken advantage of to save someone who suffers from it, but they’ll have to act fast.” She shut the book. “Luckily, I’ve studied up on various Zebra potions and hexes when I trained under her in my youth--” “Wow saying that out loud makes me feel old.” “so I have her in a stasis of sorts that delays the effects of the poison. She’ll be fine for about two weeks or so.”
Two weeks?! That wasn’t nearly enough time given the act of war declared by the individual that cursed Quick had given off via the note--which I also brought in for evidence. “There’s more. The individual behind this act left a written document that indicates that they wish to incite violence.”
“I know,” she replied with a sigh, “That’s going to take a lot of preparation on our behalf. I’ll fill you in on the details when we have them. If Grogar really has returned, then we’re going to need all of the strength that we can get.”
Cork jumped back in with another good point. “Wait a minute. What about the magic that Mane-iac was infused with? What didja do with it?”
With another flash of her horn, Twilight showed us a screen that contained several deadly artifacts which included the Alicorn Amulet, the Want It-Need It spell, and various others. “I have it stored in a remote location in the castle that I can’t exactly disclose.” At last, she panned over to a jar that contained a gray and black mass of energy. “Here it is.”
I stared at it for a moment, and thought hard about Quick’s condition. My mind was made up. I knew what I had to do. Even if it would cost me my life, I had to at least take the risk for her sake.
“Twilight. Let me use that power against Grogar.”
The princess teleported directly in front of me, her eyes nearly bulged out of her head with panicky, small pupils. “You want to do WHAT?!”