//------------------------------// // Chapter 40: Restraint // Story: Level Up! // by RisuUmbra //------------------------------// Chapter 40: Restraint Glass and stone alike shattered upon my landing, the only thing keeping Aaron away from my flames was the rapidly heating up handle of his warhammer. A mental flick of the wrist sent all of the heat radiating off of me towards the dead man under my hooves, a burst of pure heat sending him flying back into his own spears of glass. I took the moment to turn and check on Falling Star, he was crying. The red film over my eyes grew stronger as I took in his emaciated state, I could almost count every single rib he had and I could easily see that a few were broken. His body was littered with scars and cuts. All his legs were broken but I could see them slowly mending themselves… Aaron did this, he hurt this child… his life is forfeit.  Aaron’s scream of rage fell on uncaring ears, he was in the middle of charging at me. He raised his warhammer and spun on his hooves before digging the end into the ground and swinging it backup launching shards of stone turned to cloudy glass. I didn’t even blink as I conjured up a single pane of Solar imbued Shield magic. The flying spears impacted the glittering white wall with not a crash but a splash as the glass was melted on impact. The flying globules of molten glass quickly froze midair as my influence quickly overcame Aaron’s control over his magic, with the speed and ferocity of a striking viper the melted glass gathered and turned on Aaron. Before he could even stop his charge the molten stream latched onto his legs, my iron clad control didn’t let him fall to the ground as the glass melted his flesh as it cooled on his legs. The satisfaction of his pained grunts overrode the horrible smell of his burning flesh and hair, Aaron’s eyes met mine with an anger that was almost apocalyptic in nature yet still paled in comparison to rage. From ten feet away I watched Aaron start to open his mouth to start yelling whatever useless threat that was in the back of his throat. With a quick blink I went from ten feet away to almost eye to eye with the dead man, my horn sparked as every element I had control over began to manifest by my rage. Moisture was sucked out of the already dying grass and froze into floating spears of black ice, red lightning began to arc and fizzle off of my horn, balls of pure plasma so hot that they felt cold began to float around us, and my eyes… darker than deepest pits of hell. I am going to make sure not even a single atom remains of this piece of filth, I’ll make sure not even his soul escapes, I’m going to make sure that this spot becomes a monument to this moment, so everyone knows what happens if you hurt the ones under my protection!  Space began to bend and waver around the mass amount of power I was giving off and right when I was about to unleash everything… the world stuttered. It happened so suddenly that it shocked me out of my bloodlust, it was like the world skipped a beat. My mind cleared from my sudden confusion, my black eyes clearing for a moment as I looked around. There… in my elongated shadow… were a pair of eyes. They didn’t look sinister or gave off an evil air, they looked almost… sad. Some familiar words suddenly bubbled up from my memory- So, choose your enemies wisely, either the evils unknown or the demons you know Is this what she meant? She wanted me to spare this piece of living garbage?! I felt my rage growing again and I considered killing him anyway, just to spite her… then I really thought about it. None of this made sense, I knew Aaron was a plotting piece of garbage but he hadn’t been overtly evil like this so… what changed? I already know that my goddess can influence time… is there something she wants me to know about now rather than later? Something I can find out about by not killing Aaron? I outwardly snarled as I let the balls of plasma fade and let my shadows return to normal, the floating spears of ice quickly melted back into water but I didn’t let them dissipate. With a flick of my wings I had the water envelop his burned body and freeze him from the neck down. Now that death wasn’t staring him in the eye Aaron had begun screaming again, I didn’t listen to a word he was saying and used some of the water to freeze his jaw shut… and begrudgingly made small holes for him to breath through. Turning away from the worlds most killable ice cube I focused on someone much more important… Falling Star. He was still smiling and crying, he was trying to say something but it all came out garbled as his tears overcame him. He was in horrible condition, my fear for him only rose as I realized he couldn’t feel his injuries… that does not bode well. I stumbled slightly trying to approach him as I forgot I was merged with Calcifer, falling to wing and knee I leaned over the bawling child and tried to carefully wrap my wings around him… I was shaking. I… don’t know what to do, I’m not prepared I-I don’t want to watch a child slip away, I-I… please don’t die. I held Falling in my wings as we both cried, my eyes were glued to his injuries, to the blood that was beginning to coat both Falling and I. I felt Falling’s heart start to slow which only heightened my crying, my tears falling down on the poor child’s face.  I felt Falling’s heart jump suddenly, beating stronger and stronger. It didn’t take me long to put together what had happened, my tears…   phoenix tears. I watched as both my currently crimson magic and what I assume is Falling’s jade green magic both ran over the worst of his injuries. Ruptured arteries mended, shards of bone realigned but didn’t attach, blood was still everywhere but now… now I had a chance. My magic wrapped around Falling and the frozen Aaron and I took to the skies, keeping the failing body of Falling Star close the entire time. I flew back over Canterlot and blew past four blurs that I assume were David, the two gryphons Nick and Nicolas, and the changeling Webz. I dived back down to the ground and scooped up my bag, the strap had been snapped in my initial takeoff. I had completely fallen into tunnel vision, flying directly to the citadel at the summit. Every part of my mind was focused on Falling, his heart beat (still beating and not slowing), his body temperature (A bit higher due to close proximity to me), General demeanor (Fallen unconscious from trauma). A few other Gryphons flew into the air in an effort to stop me but were quickly swerved sound by Calcifer taking control of steering. Diving down and swinging into the citadel, I blitzed past multiple doors and hallways until I came to a massive main room that was packed with all kinds of things. Massive stacks of books and boxes, crystal statues and metal display places were tastefully scattered around the edges of the massive ballroom but what took up the most room was the massive purple and green dragon in the middle of the room. My focused state didn’t let me be surprised by the fact that a massive fully grown Spike the dragon was staring wide eyed at me, all I could think was ‘Great, a working set of hands’. Splitting away from Calcifer and dropping Aaron’s prison while I gently cradled Falling with my magic. “Spike, I need a book on medical anatomy, Super naturals: a guide to natural remedies that are really super, some towels, a medical sewing kit, some more water, as many medical herbs as you can carry, and some gems, quickly!” My sudden entrance along with my immediate gamut of orders seemed to almost trigger something in the massive dragon as he flinched at my words and almost scrambled to quickly follow them with a rumbling “ Yes, Twilight!” following after before turning and crawling down one of the larger passages I dropped my bag and let everything spill out of it. I skipped my cauldron across the tiled  floor and let it stop in the air before letting a fire appear in the air underneath it. The water in my canteen burst out, shredding the canteen itself in the process and split into two bubbles of water. One bubble went in the cauldron while the other I added a dose of the Tincture of Satiety I had made earlier. The blob of water quickly turned a light brown as the tincture took effect, Falling’s body is almost too weak to support any magical healing right now. While not a long term solution I can use the tincture of satiety to give his body the nutrients it needs to heal enough to be stable. I slowly funneled the potion into Falling’s mouth while I rubbed his neck to make him swallow, I could visibly see a change as the potion took effect. His breathing evening out, the minute shivering he had slowed to a stop , even the imprint of his ribs disappearing as he gained a bit of temporary weight.  I let the air around Falling warm slightly to make him more comfortable while I turned my attention to the now boiling water in my cauldron, I began feeding in my mana while I snatched my book of rituals off of the ground to start searching for a way to make a diagnostic spell of some kind. I don’t believe for a second that this is the last of his issues, a rumbling in the floor signaled me that Spike had returned. I only sent a quick glance at the now confused dragon before focusing on the crate in his hand, he didn’t ask any questions or anything. He just sat the me-sized crate down on the ground next to me, Spike’s size gave new meaning to how I viewed his previous greed growth. His body was much more serpentine along with his wings wrapped around him, though I wouldn’t doubt the large amount of muscle in him.  I dug the towels, the sewing kit, and the book on anatomy out of the crate and sat Falling down on one of the towels. The tincture must have jump started his magic as I could see the same jade magic trying to pull his leg wounds closed, that can’t happen with those bone shards still in there. I turned back to the crate and pulled out a basket of medical herbs Spike had brought along with the SuperNaturals book. Using the book I identified a stringy herb called Yellow Yarrow that worked as both an analgesic and an anesthetic. Ripping it up and turning it into a yellow-green goo I began to rub it on the edges of Falling’s wounds, I waited a moment to let it take effect before slowly pulling open the self closing injuries. I watched for any discomfort on Falling’s face and was both relieved and worried to find none. I really hope he doesn’t have any nerve damage or anything, I started to pick out any bone shards that weren’t realigned. After straightening the first leg out I reached over to the sewing kit and paused… I don’t know how to sew! Spik-! Oh, thank you… “ Before I even finished asking, two of Spike’s large claws were there with a guide to sewing gently pinned between them. I  opened the guide and quickly followed along to the diagrams for a nice clean stitch. It was much easier using magic than actual hands, I would have been shaking the whole time. I switched back to the SuperNaturals book and grabbed a few complimenting herbs that were primarily used for healing, heart’s desire, Cornell’s Ear, Miner’s Delight, Mother’s worry. I ground them up and threw them into the magically imbued boiling water and let it stir on its own using my Hydrokinesis. I spent the rest of the time numbing the rest of Falling's legs, cleaning them up, straightening them, then sewing them up. I did turn to Spike to ask for some bandages but he was already there again with some in claw, I loosely wrapped all of Falling’s legs, his ear that looked really irritated and made a cold compress for his ribs using some ice. I fed him another dose of the tincture of Satiety just in case so he has enough nutrients in his body to begin healing.  Crafting Complete! Tincture of Healing:  A magical potion made with the intention of saving lives, filled with healing medicine and magical energy, this concentrated syrup is just what you need to get you back on your hooves when you’re in a bad way! Can be consumed orally or applied directly to affected area Must be diluted in water before consumption Rarity: 7/10 stars (+1 for complementing Ingredients) Has heightened effect on bones due to ingredients used 4/4 Doses remaining Right on time, Turning away from Falling for a moment I pulled a small basin of water out of the crate and sat it down next to my floating cauldron. Letting the fire under it dissipate and  scooping a dose of the healing tincture into the basin, I slowly stirred the basin and watched it change to a cherry red color. Dipping my other towel into the potion basin and wringing it out slightly I started to gently rub the towel on the surface of the bandages. The bandages quickly absorbed the potion and I watched the irritated skin under his fur dissipate, a few scabs had started to grow as well. I let a relieved smile finally grow on my face as I slowly used my hydrokinesis to drip feed the healing potion into Falling’s mouth. The few bruises that I could see through his fur disappeared first, his breathing relaxed into true sleep. I did it… He’s stable now. I continued to wash the blood out of his fur while I thought about Falling’s condition. While he’s stable now, he won’t be for long. I need to get some food into him and get him off the tinctures of satiety. There’s still the fact that his body might not be able to handle much more magic right now… I don’t know how exactly but I can feel just how damaged his magical pathways are. His body might reject any magic more intense than my potions, I don’t know how it’ll reject them but it won’t be pretty. About half of the healing potion had been fed into him at this point, this should be enough until I get some real food into him. Maybe I could put a few doses of healing and satiety into his means to encourage his recovery. He’s going to be really weak during recovery I can already tell, his legs won’t be able to carry him and his natural earth pony strength won’t be working… it’ll be a difficult time for him- “Ehem?” Oh… it seems I've gathered a bit of an audience during my sudden surgery. I turned around to see a crowd of feathery Gryphons, multiple types of Diamond dogs, A bunch of colorful Changelings, and an oddly nostalgic looking Spike the Dragon.  “Uh… Hello everybody… “ I awkwardly went to wave and just remembered… I am covered in blood.