Chapter 16: Depths of the Mind
“Art thou certain?!” Luna shouted.
“Yes! Get us out! Get us out!” Vegeta shouted.
Luna flashed her horn.
~~***~~
Everyone woke up, and Celestia scrambled to her feet. She lifted her head, closed her eyes, and lit her horn.
“Princess?!” the doctors said spooked.
“She’s not in the palace…” Celestia said concentrating. Her horn grew brighter.
“No!” Celestia said as the magic made a popping noise as it disappeared. “I can’t find her. I can find all the girls but her! Her magic is gone!”
“Let me try,” Luna got to her feet. She closed her eyes and lit her horn.
The doctors began backing up as the magic grew brighter and brighter, eventually enveloping her whole body.
“There!” Luna shouted. She disappeared in a bright flash.
~~***~~
Luna came into a room full of screaming and panic. Staff was running. Fancy Pants and Fleur dis Lee had their horns glowing. A brown stallion was kissing a gray mare, blowing air as hard as he could into her mouth. Rarity was next to him sobbing uncontrollably as she held a bunched up red table cloth on her barrel.
“What’s going on,” Luna walked around into view.
“Princess Luna!” The staff, Fancy Pants and Fleur dis Lee shouted.
The brown stallion lifted his head briefly before immediately going back to blowing into the mare. Rarity looked up at her whimpering, her mascara running down her face.
Luna’s eyes widen and jaw drops seeing Rarity’s front legs and stomach are the same shade of red as the cloth.
Meaning it wasn’t red to begin with.
Luna lit her horn.
~~***~~
Suddenly a dozen ponies flash into the room and drop down.
Several maids and footmen fell to the ground in the hallways and surrounding rooms.
Fancy Pants dropped sideways across Discord’s bed with Fleur dis Lee landing on Celestia.
Rarity and the stallion landed next to Vegeta.
The gray mare landed on top of Vegeta.
Vegeta screamed at the sudden impact to his ribs. Then he craned his neck.
He came nose to nose with the mare, looking dead into her eyes.
“Pinkie Pie!” Vegeta tried to move against his full body cast. “No. By the gods no!”
Celestia snapped out of the shock of being landed on and pulled the red cloth off revealing the balloons on her flank.
And removing the pressure on the wound.
Celestia immediately forced the cloth back in the hole to stem the red tide.
“Doctors! Puncture wounds! Looks like a lance!” she shouted.
~~***~~
Twenty minutes passed…
Rarity was washed and bawling being comforted by military counselors. Fancy Pants, Fleur dis Lee and the identified Bocce were functioning enough to give their statements to the guards.
“Luna, that teleportation was reckless. You could have killed somepony by landing them inside a wall.”
“I’m sorry, Tia. I panicked.”
“Celestia, I know you're stressed but you’re not helping,” Discord scolded. He looked at Vegeta, “How is she?”
“Soul hasn’t passed over,” Vegeta said. “But her energy hasn’t risen above what it was when she landed. She’s still on a knife edge.”
“Still?” Celestia turned around. Then she glanced at the clock on the wall before returning to Vegeta, “She should be stable by now.”
“Check yourself.”
Celestia lit her horn. Then she hung her head. “You’re right. I still can’t locate her…” she said as her horn stopped glowing.
“What are you doing when you do that?” he asked.
“The scanning phase of a teleportation spell,” Celestia said.
“Ah.”
“Princess Celestia,” a junior doctor came into the room wearing dirty scrubs. “Captain Hawkeye is requesting your assistance.”
“What’s wrong?”
“There is a substance in the wound preventing its closure. We can see it, feel it, even taste it, but it doesn’t respond to magic at all. It’s like it doesn’t exist, but it’s right in front of our faces. He was hoping an overcharged healing spell of an Alicorn could brute force it close. It’s… It’s all we have left to try. I’m sorry.”
“Was the injury not just a stab wound, but the surrounding tissue shredded to the point of becoming a paste?” Vegeta asked suddenly.
“How did you know that?!” The doctor exclaimed.
“You know that thing I couldn’t pick up? It’s called a fucking gun! That crap coating the wound is probably gun powder residue. Have you found pieces of lead in her? Chunks of metal?”
“There’s a small void in our scanning spell behind a cracked rib at the end of the tube that won’t heal properly. About the size of a bit.”
Vegeta paused for a second.
“Luna… was the reason you found her but Celestia couldn’t… because your magic can sense the unconscious?”
“Thou…” she stuttered… “Want to try and dream walk with a dying mind?”
“Yes, if nothing else is working, we have to try.”
“Let me try what the doctor wanted first before we risk everything on random mixing of your magics to trigger that healing accident again.” Celestia walked up to the doctor. “Take me to the room.”
~~***~~
Ten minutes later, Celestia returned. She hung her head. “Luna… prepare for the sleep spell.”
“Grab every doctor we can,” Vegeta said. “Including at least one of the docs from the dungeon and the guy I made piss himself. I don't know your anatomy.”
“Of course,” Celestia nodded and galloped out.
“Luna, knock me out so I can prep Dende,” Vegeta demanded.
“Knock me out too,” Discord asked.
“Nay, Discord. Our mixing magics is chaotic as it is without true chaos magic present.”
“Oh… alright…” He looked at Vegeta. “Don’t let her die. Just because I’m a reformed villain does not mean I’m rusty.
Vegeta smirked at him. “Right back at you, dumbass.” He put his head on the pillow. “Luna, go!”
Luna nodded and lit her horn.
~~***~~
Luna walked into the operation room.
She held her breath looking at Pinkie Pie on the table covered in tubes surrounded by several doctors and nurses.
“Luna, in here,” Celestia waved from a door.
Luna walked into a storage closet and saw a collection of doctors, including Captain Spearchucker.
“The doctors felt it best to break off into two teams,” Celestia said, “In case something goes wrong in the dream world.”
“Do I really have to be here?” Captain Spearchucker asked, visibly shaken.
“Yes,” Luna said. “Prince Vegeta asked for you specifically. And it is also an order from my sister and I.”
Captain Spearchuckler saluted. “No disrespect meant, your Majesty.”
“Everyone on the ground, make haste.” Luna lay down.
Everyone followed.
Luna lit her horn.
~~***~~
They came to a white expanse. A naked void in all directions.
“Where are we, Luna?” Celestia asked.
Then they heard a sound like a knock on a door. Everyone looked around confused.
Then they heard the sound again.
And again, but more aggressive.
Then the sound of very loud, angry pounding.
Celestia and Luna glance at each other, realizing it is Vegeta.
“Come in?” Luna said, uncertain.
A fancy door materialized. It opened, and Vegeta stood in the door. This time he was in a pink shirt with writing in an unknown script on the back and bright yellow pants.
“Took you long enough.”
“Is the temple on the other side?” Luna asked, recognizing the design.
“Let’s get Pinkie in here before we merge the dream rooms together.”
A doctor lifted his foot to point at him. “You are Prince Vegeta?” he asked, confused.
Vegeta nodded. “Good to see you two, too. Statin and Gauze, right?”
“Yes… your Majesty,” Dr. Statin said, still uncomfortable.
“That scan spell you did on me, do you have a recent scan of Pinkie we can use?”
“Yes, we figured that was the spell you were after, so all four of us took a scan not knowing how Captain Hawkeye would split us up. We can guide the healing.”
“Can you project the image?”
The look on their faces told Vegeta the answer was no. He turned and looked at Captain Spearchucker. “Then that falls to you then.”
“Wait… What?! You want to overlap multiple mind spells?!” he shouted as he backpedaled. “You know the dangers of that?!”
Vegeta turned to Luna, but before he could ask—
“We can protect your mind, captain,” Luna said. “Or do you not trust your Princess?”
Captain Spearchucker fell on his haunches and swallowed hard. Then he nodded vigorously.
“Good,” Vegeta said. “Luna, can you come with me through the door?”
“Yes.” Luna trotted in.
Vegeta followed.
Then he stuck his head back out. “Oh. Don’t close the door. We’ll be back,” Vegeta said before disappearing for good.
~~***~~
Luna walked into a familiar bedroom and was greeted by a friendly specter.
“Princess Luna,” Dende nodded respectfully.
Luna returned the greeting, “Lord Dende.”
Vegeta sighed. “Ok… the next part is going to be a little invasive. When I find Pinkie, I’ll use telepathy to guide you in. It’s what Pinkie and I were doing in the tree house.”
“Our minds are already linked, Vegeta.” Luna points out.
“Not in the way we need.”
“Layering yourself like that is dangerous,” she said.
“That’s what lucid dreaming is in the first place,” Vegeta pointed out. “I got this, don’t worry.”
Vegeta then sat on the bed. “I’m going to hold out my right hand to find her. When I do, I will hold out my left. I’ll need to touch your head for precision.”
Luna stretched her wing out and touched Vegeta’s shoulder. “If we did not trust thee, we would not be here.” She withdrew her wing. “Find Pinkie Pie.”
Vegeta scooted back, then crossed his legs. He let a breath out slowly, closed his eyes, and extended his hand in front of him.
~~***~~
In the waking world, Discord noticed Vegeta’s eyes open and one of his front legs twitch despite the cast.
“How’s Pinkie?” Discord asked.
Vegeta did not respond.
“Vegeta? Vegeta? Yoohoo!”
Nothing.
Discord looked at the monitors. Then he risked reinjuring himself and made a tiny light ball. He floated it over.
Vegeta’s pupils did not respond.
Discord dissolved the ball. He leaned back into his bed. “You are a strange one, Prince Vegeta.” He grinned, “Ooooo ho ho, you’re going to be a fun one, my little chaos kōhai.”
Discord heard a small tinkle sound, like a fairy.
“No, he’s mine. This isn’t your script anymore and you know it.”
Discord face jerked like he just got punched.
“Is that the best you can do all by your lonesome?” he chuckled. “And I thought you fucked me up all those years ago.”
He heard another tinkle.
He put his head deep into the pillow. “Can you do anything? I bleed now, so you have an advantage.”
He closed his eyes after another tinkle. “Thank you for holding her in place…” He glanced at Vegeta again.
His eyes were closed.
“He got her?”
…
“Ok, good luck you bloody dictator…”
…
“Cue ball?” he chuckled, “Pet names will get you nowhere with me, darling.”
Discord’s head jerked again.
~~***~~
Luna saw Vegeta raise his left hand after an anxious few minutes. She nuzzled his hand and Vegeta repositioned it over her ear with her horn in between his thumb and fingers.
When Vegeta said it would be invasive, she thought she was prepared for it. But she never felt so naked before in her life. It was terrifying and even more violating than her refigurement.
But she immediately saw why it was needed.
“So, this is death… how terrifying….” she thought.
But she watched Vegeta dance through the cold dissipating mist like it was an old friend. Gathering the fog by brute force of will.
“He has died before…” she reminded herself.
Suddenly the fog began to swirl and condense. A light sparked in the center mass and continued to grow as Vegeta compressed more fog into it.
“It looks like the birth of one of my stars…”
“Luna, I need more,” he said through gritted teeth. “Copy what I did. Something important to her mind is missing.”
Luna saw his arms shaking from the exertion and sweat pouring down his face.
She galloped off. But as she circled around, no more mist greeted her. Luna began to panic as she began to spin around. Right before she was about to scream there was nothing left, a small flash drew her attention upwards.
A white feather drifted down.
“The mage’s quill?”
The feather stopped in front of her face and hung in the air. Then it began to draw a shape in the air with lines of light before the feather flashed out of existence.
As Luna’s eyes recovered from the sudden light, her hoof kicked something that made a clinking sound. She looked down.
“The element of laughter?!” Luna reeled back in shock at the balloon-shaped gem on the ground.
“Luna! Hurry! I’m not Yemma!”
Luna picked up the gem in her magic and raced back. She thrust it into the light ball.
It exploded around them in glitter and twisting light ribbons. Then she felt a spark of consciousness.
“Luna! Grab her! Pull!”
~~***~~
With a loud pop, Luna and Vegeta went cartwheeling into different walls.
“Aur-owe,” Vegeta growled in pain.
Luna shook her head and found herself back in the room.
“Pinkie is on the bed. Pinkie is on the bed! We did it!”
“Vegeta! Are you..?”
“I’m fine, Dende!”
Dende stepped back as Vegeta raised an arm and slapped it down on the bed. He pushed himself to his knees.
“Get the others,” he said as he got to his feet, “bring them in.”
Luna hurried to the door. “Ye can come in now,” she said, sticking her head out.
~~***~~
“Rather tight in here,” Dr. Gauze said after they filed in.
“I got it,” Vegeta said. He raised his hands then spread his arms.
The walls moved back.
“Ah,” Celestia said, fluttering her wings, “Much better.”
“How did you do that?” Dr. Gauze asked, confused. “Isn’t Princess Lu—”
“We’re in his mind!” Captain Spearchucker shouted and ran for the door.
It slammed shut in front of him.
“We said we would protect thee,” Luna said frustrated as she released the handle from her magic.
“Captain Spearchucker, was it?” Dende walked forward. “I understand your fear. He was one of the soldiers who wiped out my home when I was four before we both found ourselves living on Earth.”
“Dende!” Vegeta shouted.
“Let me finish,” he shot back.
Vegeta grumbled looking at a far wall.
Dende returned to the cringing pony. “During those battles, I was in the thick of it.” He held his hands out to the side, “Using my gift to heal the injured and dying with a touch of my hands to save the defenders on the battlefield as ki blasts turned the air into ozone and explosions ripped the ground right from under my feet." He lowered his arms, “You’re an Army surgeon. Get it together, and save a dying patient.”
“And who are you, to tell me that?!”
“I am a dream specter of Lord Dende, Divine Guardian of Planet Earth. He is what is colloquially called a GOD,” Dende stressed. “And before you say anything, he was selected to ascend to godhood at the age of eight. So, he was as mortal as you are during the Battle of Namek. Are you to be outdone by a small child barely out of diapers, soldier?”
“Captain, you embarrass us,” Celestia said. Then she bowed and spread her wings to Dende.
“There is no need for that,” Dende bowed back, “I’m just a specter after all.”
“We don’t have time for this!” Vegeta growled. “Would me standing in the hall still work for you, Dende?”
“I much rather have you here. Your worrying about what is happening in this room may affect my free will.”
“And fuck up the healing…” he sighed.
Vegeta then moved a bookcase and freed up a corner of the room. He snapped his fingers and a large wooden crate appeared. He walked over and lifted the lid.
“What are you doing?” Celestia spoke for everyone watching Vegeta climb inside.
“What? I’m a jerk in the box,” Vegeta said before closing the lid. Two holes in the side popped out and everyone could see him peeking out. “You may proceed.”
Suddenly the box turned into an actual Jack in the Box and the crank turned as a rapid clunking version of Pop Goes the Weasel played.
“What the— AHHHH!”
Vegeta screamed as a spring launched him over the bed and into the far wall. He got to his feet, and discovered he was in a colorful jester’s outfit.
Everyone chuckled.
When Vegeta saw what he was wearing, he angrily tried to rip the hat off.
It was stuck.
“Luna! Unglue this right now!”
“Tis not us Vege—” Luna put her hoof to her mouth. “Captain, it appears you have a new hat as well.”
Captain Spearchucker took off his dunce cap, but another was underneath it.
“What the heck?!” he shouted as he continued to add more dunce hats to the pile at his hooves.
Vegeta noticed a ripple of pink pass through Pinkie Pie’s fur before turning gray again. He ran to the bed.
“Pinkie Pie?! Pinkie Pie?!”
“I felt her!” Celestia shouted ecstatically. She looked at Luna, “I felt her magic for just a moment then.”
“Seems Pinkie hast given her opinion on the matter,” Luna said. “And We agree. Captain, stop being a dullard and get this healing underway. We cannot waste any more time.”
“Yeah, won’t be the first time a candle burnt brightest before going out,” Vegeta added, standing straight from the bed. “Ok. This is what I need.” He turned to Dr. Gauze and Dr. Statin. He pointed between them. “One of you get a holographic projection of her scan in the air.” He pointed at Captain Spearchucker, “Work with him and Luna to get that done. I need that info in my brain people — I mean ponies… in a format Dende can use.”
“Prince Vegeta, can you demonstrate what this holographic projection is?” Dr. Statin asked, “Just so we know exactly what you want.”
Vegeta slumped his shoulders and sighed annoyed. He raised his arms, “Ok, here.”
Vegeta’s motorcycle appeared in the air.
“This is my motorcycle. Because I’ve repaired it so many times. I know every inch.”
The display went from photo realistic to a light blue, almost transparent look. Vegeta then began making different parts shine brightly as he briefly explained each part and what systems they were a part of. Then he did something the doctors recognized, Vegeta took a horizontal plane and dissected the image from multiple angles. Finally, Vegeta moved his hands and disassembled the bike. Taking pieces and whole systems and moving them to different spots in the air. After he finished, he moved everything back in a different order.
“Now, do you understand what a holographic projection is?”
“Yes! This is quite brilliant,” Dr. Gauze said. “If we can duplicate this spell, it would advance so many things.”
“Yes! Why can’t you teach it to them right now?!” Captain Spearchucker pointed out.
“Because our peoples and civilization have no magic,” Dende said. “Minus myself as a god.”
“Are you saying this can be done by beating rocks over a friction fire like a dirty Griffon?” Captain Spearchucker chuckled. He pointed at Vegeta, “And that memory you used. That was fire magic. No mistake.”
“No, that is not magic in any way,” Dende said. “Ki is a physical ability. No different than walking or breathing.”
Suddenly a set of pink plastic toy keys pop into existence and plops down on Pinkie before rolling onto the bed.
“Yes! Pinkie has ki,” Vegeta points at her, “She has a lot of ki. We share some of the same abilities. The princesses saw us.”
“Tis, true. Many of her unexplained idiosyncrasies have been shown to be this strange power.”
“And Vegeta has promised to teach this power to myself, first,” Celestia said glaring down at him. “So, it can be disseminated properly. Now stop wasting time. Pinkie Pie is an Element Bearer and has done more for this country in two years than your entire service record. So, stop dallying and follow your royal orders!”
He lowered his head, “Yes, your majesty.”
“I’m going to leave the room while you…”
Celestia raised her wing to block his path.
“No, you stay with Pinkie. We will figure this out in the other dream room.”
“It doesn’t exist anymore. I told you not to close the door.”
Luna went and opened the door. Only to be greeted by a wall. “Oh…” she realized, “I’m fully integrated into this dreamplane now because I pulled Pinkie in. I would have to leave to recreate it, but that would risk Pinkie.”
“Like I said, I’m going to leave so the guy I’ve apparently given PTSD to can function properly without freaking over going deeper into my head. Come on Dende let's go. We’ll be outside the door when needed.”
Dende nodded respectfully and followed Vegeta out the door.
“Pardon me one second,” Celestia said to her sister as she passed her and exited as well.
She found herself in a hallway. “Prince Vegeta. For the sake of Pinkie Pie, what is this PTSD and what does it have to do with the captain?”
Vegeta leaned against the wall. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Simple terms, you go through something so fucked up it permanently breaks your brain. If you’re around your trigger or something similar to it, you basically go nuts until you can remove yourself and calm down. I have it from my years as a slave to be honest… Earth is… as far away as any trigger I can get…”
Vegeta began tapping the back of his head on the marble wall. “Stupid. He was a soldier and I thought he could take it… forgot where I fucking am…”
“Please don’t hit your head on the wall,” Celestia asked. “We are all currently in it. I don’t want a repeat of the two hours you were trapped with Luna.”
“Tsk,” he chuckled/scoffed. “Yeah, really.”
“How is it cured?”
“It can’t be. Just a shit ton of meds and therapy to treat it and if that doesn’t work… suicide or murder/suicide is common.”
“Self-destruction, I’ve seen it many times in my youth. My generation worked hard to make sure we would be the last to ever suffer such a fate, and we succeeded. Thank you for pointing out my blindness. I will be much gentler with him from now on.”
“Good. It may take time, but we’ve used the dragon balls to erase memories before if it came down to it. But one soldier isn’t going to be high on the priority list because of the long charge times. But if we have a use left over once this mess is cleared up, I’ll do my best to convince the others.”
“Hopefully it won’t come down to it. I will return now.”
Celestia went back through the door.
~~***~~
A long time passed in the dreamscape, and Vegeta was sitting on the ground, sweating and hyperventilating.
“Vegeta, if you need to let me go, you can do that and remake me later,” Dende said worriedly.
Vegeta shook his head wordlessly.
The door opened and Dr. Statin came out excitedly. “Prince Vegeta! We belie— By Celestia! Are you alright?”
His exclamation caused Luna and Celestia to stick their heads out of the door.
Luna gasped. “Vegeta, thou art mentally stressed.”
“I’m fine!” he shouted.
Vegeta stood, but lost balance and leaned into the wall. He glared at them. “I don’t need your pity. Forget me, someone is about to die if we don’t get this done. So shut up and get the fuck out of the door!”
Celestia and Luna stepped back and Vegeta and Dende returned to the room.
“Get your jaw off the fucking floor, captain,” Vegeta growled through his heavy breaths. “Show me what you got.”
Dr. Gauze and Captain Spearchucker lit their horns. An image of an earth pony hung in the air. Then the image went through the same sequence Vegeta had with his motorcycle.
“Looks good,” Vegeta said. Now can you size it and position the limbs to match Pinkie’s position on the bed.”
Dr. Gauze nodded and resized the image.
“Highlight the injury that won’t heal.”
The injury lit up red.
“Put it over her. Line it up.”
This time the captain’s horn lit up and the image lined up over her.
“All the way down. Skin contact low.”
The image lowered.
“Ok,” Vegeta said mostly to himself. He raised both his arms.
Suddenly the image lowered unprompted and settled into Pinkie’s body.
“Now I need one more image,” Vegeta said. “What is it supposed to look like uninjured?”
Dr. Statin’s horn lit up, and another image appeared. It quickly changed to match her position and drifted over.
Vegeta grabbed it and began lowering it as well.
“Vegeta, you’re mental layering,” Luna warned.
“I’m fine!” He shouted as he finished.
“Ok. Dende,” Vegeta stepped back. “Make that,” the injured Pinkie lit up with a red glow. “Look like that,” the uninjured Pinkie lit up blue.
Dende nodded and walked over. He placed his hands on her and they began to glow white.
~~***~~
On the outside, everyone in the operating room is nervous.
Dr. Cast looked up at the clock.
“It’s been 47 minutes,” Captain Hawkeye said. “With the mental speed of dream walking, it must have been hours for them. Something has gone wrong.”
He began walking towards the storage room.
“Wait,” Dr. Cast stopped him, “Let’s give them more time before we interrupt them. We might undo all their work if they are close to success. This is completely experimental.”
“Captain, look at that!” The nurse pointed at the table.
There was a slight glow coming from the wound opening.
“That’s the same glow reported in the files from Ponyville,” Dr. Cast said. “They finally got it to work.”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Captain Hawkeye said. “Give it till the top of the hour before we scan.”
~~***~~
“How is it going, Lord Dende?” Celestia asked.
“Slowly,” he said. “This is a lot more complicated than what I’ve done before.”
Vegeta at this point was sitting on the floor leaning his back on the bed.
Luna had noticed long ago the room was simplifying. Chairs had become immovable objects, nothing but surface pictures on a frame. The bookcases were in a similar state, empty husks painted on a box. The walls had also lost their luster. The only thing still functional was the bed itself.
Suddenly she felt the bed become hollow, the only thing now still there was the mattress and blanket. The hallway had also vanished. The door was just an image now.
Vegeta took a deep breath and focused on the ceiling.
The glow on Dende’s hands intensified.
“One of us needs to leave and see if this mess is actually working,” Captain Spearchucker said. “Don’t you think I haven’t noticed the deterioration of this mindscape. We just lost the door.”
Celestia looked at the door and tried to grab the handle. Her magic passed right through.
“These books aren’t real either,” Dr. Statin said, putting his hoof on the bookcase.
“What does this mean?” Dr. Gauze said, glancing around.
“Vegeta is refocusing his efforts due to mental fatigue. No one is in any danger. We art in between all of ye and him. But removing someone may decrease his load.”
“I will go,” Celestia said. “Luna, are you partially aware of the outside?”
“Only if someone physically shakes us in this state. You wish to set up a signal?”
“Yes, remember when Master Starswirl was teaching you dreamwalking, Mistress Clover would zap your horn?”
“Aye, but it was only the signal to return, not to deliver messages.”
“Can you make out patterns?” Vegeta spoke up. His voice was strained. “Humans have something called morse code. In emergencies, they would use unmistakable patterns, ignoring any individual meaning of the beeps.”
“What is the pattern for an emergency? I can use that for failure.”
“Short short short, long long long, short short short.”
Celestia looked back at Luna, “I’ll use that and just a steady pattern for success.”
“Ok.” Luna flashed her horn.
~~***~~
Celestia shook her head awake and looked around. She stood and tip-toed over the sleeping ponies.
She stuck her head out the door, “Hello, my little ponies.”
“Princess Celestia?” everyone said surprised.
“Luna wants an update on the healing spell.”
“Working… but, crude” Dr. Cast said. “She’ll live if this continues, but the scarring will be horrendous and painful. But she will live.”
“Can the scarring be reduced at a later date?”
“Maybe slightly, but not in any meaningful way.”
“How much of the wound is left?”
“Just the last few inches, all muscle and flesh. Internals are all done, but again, crudely.”
“Thank you, I’ll tell my sister.”
Celestia disappeared from the door.
~~***~~
“Ouch!” Luna rubbed her horn.
“That Celestia?” Vegeta asked.
“Yes, wait a moment…”
…
…
…
“Just a constant beat! Vegeta we are doing it!” Luna said excitedly.
“Don’t get complacent!” Vegeta said weakly. “People die after tragedies the second they think they are safe. Don’t let the adrenalin run out!” He pants several breaths, “Dende?”
“Just the muscle and skin left, just a few more minutes.”
“Finally,” Captain Spearchucker said, “We can get out of this Tartarus.”
“Have some sympathy, captain,” Dr. Statin said frustrated. “Clearly we need to rush to his room after this.”
“Stop… making me think… about my… sel— AHHHHHHH!”
Vegeta grabbed his head and started screaming.
Everyone rushed to that side of the bed and saw him rolling around on the ground gripping his skull.
Suddenly a tail ripped through his pants.
Vegeta stopped rolling and lay on his stomach gripping the floor. His fingers turned to claws and shattered the marble floors.
Luna gasped, “His mind is delaminating!”
Vegeta’s hair exploded like a lion’s mane. When he lifted his face from the floor it twisted into an animal’s muzzle.
“Keep… going!” came out as a bestial roar.
Suddenly the room turned into a white space. Pinkie fell to the ground when the bed disappeared.
Luna lit her horn, but nothing happened.
“Vegeta, end this!”
“No. I don’t matter…” the rest of his words came out as animalistic growls.
Out of sight, a void opened up in the floor. Black mist began rolling out.
Back at the group, Dende was on his knees with his hands on the entrance wound.
Suddenly black tendrils erupted from the hole and charged at them. Luna only spotted them out of the corner of her eye a moment before it came.
Her globe shield shattered effortlessly, but she quickly countered with a solid wall of magic she flung like a frying pan at every strike of the black snakes.
“What… What’s going on?!” Captain Spearchucker backpedaled.
Dr. Statin saw Vegeta had stopped moving. He ran over to check on him.
“Oh, Celestia! Is he dying?!”
“What?!” Luna looked behind her and the tendrils darted past.
They grabbed Vegeta and pulled him away.
Luna immediately grabbed on and began to pull, but Vegeta’s form split into several images in the color of the rainbow. When Luna saw a tendril begin to wrap around another image, she blasted it away and wrapped her magic around the remaining five. Even so, Luna was slowly losing the tug of war and was being dragged off.
“Will you forget about him and save the rest of us!” the captain called out.
“Never! WE shall never forsake our duty to protect again!” Luna screamed as she continued to be dragged off.
Suddenly Vegeta’s reflections of his limp body moved identically, first his fingers, then he lifted his head. Although the face of a beast, his smile was unmistakable for anything else.
“Well fuck you too and fuck this!” Vegeta’s voice came from Dende startling the three medics.
The light at his hands expanded, swallowing the civilian doctors almost immediately. Then it swallowed the galloping captain. Luna never noticed the light as it washed over her, focused solely on her task.
~~***~~
“Alright,” Celestia said coming out of the storage room, “I’ve communicated with my sister that it’s work—"
Three screams interrupted everyone’s thoughts and they turned to the door. Captain Spearchucker, Dr. Statin and Dr. Gauze stampeded out of the room and ended up in a pileup at the door. One of their magics finally turned the knob and they exploded into the hall.
Celestia looked into the room to see her sister vanish in a teleport.
Celestia gasped. “Prince Vegeta.”
She teleported as well.
~~***~~
Celestia flashed into Vegeta’s room. She saw Luna weeping with Vegeta’s head wrapped in her magic.
“Discord, what happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “There hasn’t been a single wiggle or beep on any of his machines.”
Dr. Statin and Dr. Gauze gallop into the room. “How’s the prince?” they both say at once.
“Fractured, like a stack of playing cards to the wind.” Luna let go of her magic and bit her lower lip.
“Sister?!” Celestia gasped. “What happened?”
“Vegeta overtasked himself…” she cried, “He wouldn’t let go… Refused to leave Pinkie unfinished…”
“Forgive me for interrupting,” Discord said, “But what’s that on your horn?”
Luna crossed her eyes to look up as Celestia picked the object off with her magic.
“A ring?” Celestia said, bringing it to her face. “There’s script on the inside. Definitely Vegeta’s language. There’s a heart in between two words.” Celestia glanced at Luna, “It looks like a unicorn’s wedding band.”
“The ring on Vegeta’s paw!” Luna pointed at it. “His projection was never without it. But… how did it become real.”
“Vegeta did make a pair of sunglasses by accident before Celestia incinerated them,” Discord said.
“I don’t remember that,” she said.
“We do,” Luna said. “They were quite small like a foals. But they would frame his kind’s face quite nicely,” she mused.
The smile left her face. She turned to the doctor, “Is his horn well enough to place it on him?”
Dr. Cast did a quick scan. Then he shook his head. “No, the bone is still fresh. And even if it was, he would have no feeling from the broken nerves.”
Celestia made it pop away. “Let’s confirm with Bulla that this is his marriage band without letting on her father’s current fate.” Then her jaw dropped. “Wait… do the girls even know what happened to Pinkie?!”
Luna gasped, putting her hoof to her mouth. “Oh no, dear sister…”
~~***~~
“PINKIE!” Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash flew down the hall as Applejack galloped keeping pace. They spotted Rarity standing outside a door. She had no makeup and her curls were limp and flat.
“Is Pinkie in here?” Dash asked, arriving first.
Rarity just nodded and pointed in.
They entered, and to their relief, Pinkie was sitting up propped up on pillows. They quickly turned to uncertainty seeing her dull pink color and straight hair.
“Hey girls,” Pinkie said weekly.
“Pinkie, what in the hay bales happened to you?”
“Pinkie sense told me someone was going to be murdered. That’s never happened before. I panicked and just ran to stop it.,” she teared up and some of her color faded. “I’m sorry. If I had only told you Rainbow Dash, we could have gotten there sooner.”
“A murder?! In Equestria?! That’s not possible!” Twilight shouted.
“Princess, you are still a sweet, sweet summer child.”
“Fancy Pants? Fleur? What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Lady Pinkie knocked to the ground a new companion of ours during a tea party,” Fleur dis Lee explained. “We were quite upset until we saw the blood.”
Rarity started to cry again.
“Rarity, I’m ok, really. It’s just going to hurt when I laugh for a while. Please don’t cry.”
Fleur walked over and hugged Rarity.
“Hey Pinkie. How are you doing?”
“A lot better than I was,” Pinkie smiled. “How are you doing?”
“Absolutely terrified.”
“Bocce? What ya doing here, pal?” Applejack asked.
“I may have fathered a baby with a noble’s daughter and either her parents or her arranged fiancée are trying to kill me.”
“What?!” the four yelled.
“Do you not know of the riot this afternoon?” Fancy Pants glared at Twilight. “There was armed combat in the streets of the capital and one of our rulers has no idea?”
“Princess Celestia put me in charge of Princess Bulla! I’ve been dealing with her all day! She’s a nightmare!”
“Conniving little devil, that one,” Applejack said. “If she was an adult, I’d say get the elements off the tree and shove a rainbow up her tail.”
“Applejack! She’s five years old!” Fluttershy said at a normal volume.
“You’re forgetting she’s not a real pony, AJ!” Pinkie shouted.
“Bad is Bad no matter where or what you are, Pinkie.”
Pinkie went to shout again but clenched her teeth to try and smother a scream. She wrapped her front legs around her barrel.
“Are you not completely healed?” Twilight stripped the blanket off of her before Pinkie could react.
Everyone gasped.
“Pinkie?! Why are you in a medical corset?!” Twilight shouted.
“Bullet went through my entire liver and entered my lung. Almost went right through me but smashed into a rib,” she chuckled awkwardly. “Still in me, but I’m not well enough to get it out yet.”
“What in Celestia is a bullet?!”
“Oh? You don’t know Twilight? Vegeta said they are as common as magic on Earth.”
“No! I never did!”
“Then the assassin came from Prince Vegeta’s nation?” Fancy Pants said.
“No, guns are a very common weapon. Vegeta has fought against them thousands of times. If a race doesn’t have natural magic or his energy ki powers, then projectile weapons become the dominant way to fight. Guns throw an object called a bullet. Blasters throw stored energy mimicking ki.”
“Why did Prince Vegeta talk so much about weapons with the element of laughter?” Fancy Pants demanded.
“I have both ki and magic. One thing we can both do is something he called telepathy. It’s like Princess Luna’s dreamwalking but awake. We were talking with it and he got frustrated and said ‘Will someone please shoot me in the head.’ When I asked what he meant he got quiet. I finally got it out of him and he shared a few pictures. I’m glad he did. My pinkie sense wouldn’t have known anything was wrong.”
“Pinkie, can you identify the pony who used it?” Twilight asked. “You can usually tell the exact pony.”
Pinkie shook her head, “Sorry. I can only do that when there is a connection. But there was no emotion at all. Complete strangers. All I know is that it was a griffon.”
“Well, that solves what family did this,” Fancy Pants said. “But I doubt this ‘Pinkie Sense’ as you keep calling it will even hold up for an arrest, let alone in court.”
“But wouldn’t the fact they tried to kill Bocce in particular show motive?” Pinkie asked. “You said two families wanted him dead.”
“Not when one is a ducal house,” Fancy Pants said. “You might as well be accusing Princess Celestia herself. And Bearer or not, you’re a peasant. And so is Bocce. And that matters more than any stained glass window in court. All judges are high ranking nobles by law. They would rather sentence a peasant to death for jay walking than a duke for murder of even a low ranking noble.”
“That’s not true!” Twilight shouted.
“Princess Twilight,” Fancy Pants said. “With all due respect. You are a sheltered child. Your outbursts are not productive.”
“Wah-What about this Prince Vegeta?” Bocce said, “If he wasn’t familiar with the weapon, she wouldn’t have recognized it. Cause and effect like a bowling ball hitting the pins. A prince is greater than a duke.”
“Prince Vegeta is the dark mage, correct?” Fleur asked.
“Yeah,” Pinkie said.
“Then your testimony is worthless as well,” Fancy Pants said, “You have the same powers as a dark mage? You’d get torn apart in cross examination. A judge could even order your arrest from the stand for conspiracy with a dark wizard.”
“Then Prince Vegeta teaching me his powers is of greater importance than even I predicted.”
“Princess Celestia!”
“Rise, my little ponies,” she said.
Everyone who had bowed stood.
“Well, I’m glad I came to check on you instead of my sister. It would have spoiled her for appeal.”
“Has Vegeta woken up yet?” Pinkie asked.
Celestia shook her head. “No, and poor Luna is beside herself. What happened after I left? You were able to communicate with us during the event.”
“Luna screamed that he was delaminating. I guess that means all his multitasking was pulling his mind apart. Maybe Vegeta is currently in the black room?”
“The black room?”
“Yeah, with the white light with the pentagram over it. I was just sitting there watching the light trying to get past the seal when I heard something behind me and I got yanked backwards. Then I was in Vegeta’s arms and Princess Luna wrapped her magic around me and poof, I was on the bed with Vegeta and Princess Luna cartwheeling into the walls.”
“I see,” Celestia looked at Twilight. “Princess Twilight, you’re the best researcher I know. As morbid of a topic as it is, please find this black room with the white light.”
“Sister! Sister!” Luna slid unceremoniously past the door before scrambling in. “Improvement! The ring is the key! I know you wanted to check with young Bulla first—”
“Luna, Luna. Calm down. You’re talking too fast. And, have a little more dignified presence. We have an audience.” Celestia tilted her head.
Luna looked and immediately straightened herself. “Duke and Duchess, what do we owe the pleasure?”
“The court case I told you to keep away from,” Celestia interjected. She looked at Fancy Pants.
“Well, I say it’s time to take our leave,” he said. “Come on Bocce. Let’s leave the princesses to discuss whatever is so important.”
“Ok,” he answered.
The three left the room.
Celestia sighed, “Now what is this about the ring?”
“I took string and tied the ring to his left pastern so he could feel it, and there was an instant reaction! All his fragments aligned in the same direction. He can be put back together this way.”
Celestia put her wing around Luna, “That is good to hear.”
“I’ll go back and keep an eye out for convergence,” Luna went to turn but Celestia stopped her.
“A watched pot never boils. You need rest just as much as Vegeta does, but good job stealing the ring from my chambers. Who knows what would have happened to him in the interim.”