Twilight walked carefully, balancing the thrashing pegasus on her back was no easy feat. Trixie was occupied with keeping the various bindings on Rainbow Dash while Lucid kept his gaze on the hall in front of them, the blue candle illuminating the halls as the sun began to set on the outside world. As they walked the blue light kept the various plague-ridden at bay, though Twilight suspected there was more to it than that.
“Thanks for coming to save us Lucid,” Trixie paused as she tightened the bindings again. Twilight resisted the urge to attack as the word of appreciation burned through her mind and ears. “I’m not sure we would have gotten out of there without you.” The white mask glanced back toward them for a moment before quickly turning towards their surroundings again.
I wonder if he tastes like a bird. “Yea, we were probably done for.” As she said this Lucid dropped to one knee, his body shaking wildly. Though she hadn’t looked much into it, the librarian could easily see the symptoms of drug addiction that he was now displaying. After placing the candle on the ground as quickly as he could, he reached into his coat and pulled out a syringe full of a green liquid. Without a pause he shoved the needle into the flesh of his neck, underneath his scarf.
The liquid was pushed from the tube and into his bloodstream and mere moments later the creature had picked up the candle again and placed his back to the wall. As he leaned against the cool stone the sound of a deep inhale came from behind the mask.
“Ditch, Lucid? I thought you told me that was poison.” Trixie was glaring at the biped with eyes that burned with disappointment. The biped didn’t answer as he pushed himself up and off the wall that he was leaning against.
Without a word he began to walk once again, leaving little choice but for the mares to follow him. As their hoof steps echoed across the floor the librarian turned to look at the show more. “Ditch?”
“Yes, Ditch. It’s a chemical that Lucid found while he was searching for a cure. It heightens your perception and adrenaline production. I thought he had gotten rid of it, but now that I know he didn’t it’s easy to figure out how he beat Rainbow Dash.”
“Ah, yes. If he could move fast enough, even if it was just barely faster than her, he could have easily pinned her to that wall.”
“Yes, but it has one of the worst chemical crashes I’ve ever seen. He used it on one of the infected when he tried it as a cure. He was beaten up pretty badly by the time that the pony ran out of energy. And then the pony began to flail on the ground because it’s body couldn’t handle the adrenaline without the drug to catalyze it into controlled movement.”
“So when he runs out of the drug...”
“He probably won’t die, he seems too tough for that, but it still won’t be pretty.” Trixie said with a nod as she watched the doctor. Now that she knew what to look for she could see the effects of the drug even now. His head would suddenly snap to the side at sounds that only he could hear and his free hand was twitching as it tried to deal with the excess energy that was being fed it.
“Of course he continues to use the drug he won’t be able to get off it at all. His body will stop producing energy on it’s own without Ditch in his system as it won’t feel the need to. He’s killing himself.” Trixie looked toward Twilight and smiled sadly. “For us. For our home. So that he can help us all.”
“Perhaps,” Twilight responded, her voice low, “We should do something about that?” She saw the man’s head turn toward them for a moment, having caught the words, but it quickly returned to scanning the surroundings. After she was sure he was no longer watching, Trixie nodded in return.
Just before they left the building their opportunity arose as Lucid pulled another syringe of Ditch from his coat while the two unicorns stood behind him. With only a shared nod both unicorns reached for the medical syringe, only to meet empty air as the doctor moved out of the way with blinding speed. The candle lay on the ground between them now as he looked toward the two ponies from behind his expressionless mask.
Once again he attempted to inject the drug into his system but the speedy unicorn magic grasped the needle yet again and he was forced to move to avoid it being taken from him completely. This time he had moved to the side of Trixie and hit her lightly on the side of the face, knocking her over as her absent fourth leg failed to support her.
Twilight spun to face him but he was already gone, it was in the corner of her eye that she saw him next, he was approaching quickly and was set on knocking her down as well. The unicorn tried desperately to turn and face him but she just couldn’t move fast enough. Before he managed to reach her though his leg suddenly gave out. He just barely managed to stay somewhat upright as he placed one of his hands on the ground to steady himself.
He was shaking horribly as the removal of the drug from his system began to take his toll. He tried once more to inject himself but was foiled as Twilight took the drug from him and shattered it on the ground. He pulled another from his coat and that was taken as well. In short order Twilight had shattered all the syringes, watching as the green liquid dissipated across the floor.
He dove forward for one of the pools and stared down at it, obviously formulating a way to somehow get it into his system. “LOOK AT YOURSELF!” Twilight shouted, disgusted by what the doctor that had saved her had fallen to. “You’re just going to let this control you?” I should kill him, then he won’t be addicted. “I know you’re thinking Lucid, ‘what does she know?’” Twilight glared at the man, “I know the feeling of having a voice at the back of your head that you don’t think you can ignore, I know that we have to be stronger than that, because if we aren’t then this world will only end in flames.” A sniffle emanated from the librarian as tears began to come unbidden from her eyes. “I just... I just don’t want to lose anyone.”
Lucid glanced toward her, and then towards Rainbow Dash, and finally towards Trixie who was trying to get off the floor. Slowly, his body shaking so much that he could barely stand, he got to his feet. With a nod towards Twilight he helped Trixie to her feet and picked up the candle.
With his back turned towards the mares, they didn’t see as he pulled a small green liquid vial from his coat and drank it, barely lifting his mask. Placing his mask securely over his face once again he continued to fake the shivers that had wracked his body only moments before and walked on, neither of the mare’s any the wiser. He was going to save this world and succeed where he had failed before, even if it killed him.