//------------------------------//
// 2 - It Takes 2 to Cooperate 
// Story: Saved!!! 
// by ArchoPony 
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He jumped into their general area after making a short climb over some rocks.
He did a little test as he ran up. He made sure he could, in fact, summon lightning by thinking about the results of his mission.
Bright green, chaotic.
But powerful.

All three were here: Twilight, Celestia, and Luna. They noticed the magical outburst, due to their wide stance and glowing horns.
He was going to rush in and fire as close as possible. That should do it.

But why were her eyes not glowing?

No time for that, attack.

But why did none of them look like they had been transformed?

You'll run out of time. Attack.

And why does this feel wrong?

ATTACK.

He fired a short lived burst of green crawlies all over the cavern. He had not gotten closer to his targets, not even a inch. In fact, he had backed away.
Celesta and Luna had used some sort of magic to teleport them backward.

They looked ready to fight, but not Twilight.
Twilight looked hurt. A very compassionate form of hurt.
He stopped. He wasn't capable. Twilight had two horses to back her up, and she was out of range.

Or maybe that wasn't entirely the reason.

He started to lower his head when he felt... stuck. Immobile. He saw a thin pale and dark mist covering him. He felt... It... too. In a way. He was in combat. No mistaking that.
He used those feelings.

He managed to flash such a bolt, that both Celestia and Luna lost their 'grip'. He then fell to the ground, wincing in the process.
Twilight put her hoof in front of Celestia.
“ Stop! “ she said, firmly yet with no hostility.

What?

She wasn't transformed.
She wasn't lost.

She saved the world, and he was going to kill her.

He immediately screamed, but not out of pain from hitting the ground like he was expecting. It came mostly from mental shock, as him screeching “ STOP! “ showed as much.

“ DON'T GET NEAR ME “ He said as tears started to flow.
“ JUST LEAVE ME! “ He screamed, his voice distorted at the end due to what he thought was his magic going out of control.

Twilight knew she had to help. There was a pony in need right in front of her, just like the one she had recently saved. And this one doesn't even need convincing.
Both her heart and mind were certain.
She needed to try.

Twilight put her hoof in front of the two other princesses. “ Don't hurt him! I'll calm him down! “ She stated.
They looked conflicted and unsure. They still used some sort of magic, unknown to PonderBright, of course. But not as invasive as the previous. Must be some sort of defensive maneuver.
He instinctively threw a burst of lightning Twilight's way to stop her progress, but just in her general area, and only in front of her.

It was just to scare her away.

He needed to get away.

Get away to pass away peacefully.

She stopped walking forward while having used a wing to cover her head. She then lowered her wing, gained some sort of … look? In her eyes, and marched forward with a newfound confidence.

“ Let me help. “ She said.

He hung his head head in pain. Pain not of the body, but of the mind.

I felt sleepy.

I trust you.

He woke in a medical bed, chained, of course. Hoof handcuffs? Hoofcuffs? At least he could feel his front right hoof, which had started to get numb towards the end of his first day in Equesteria.
He looked at his general condition. He was looking very bandaged, clean, goldish-yellow, and... green hair? Some familiarity gave him a tiny bit of comfort, even if it is just coloration.
It took awhile before one of the passing nurses realized he was awake.

“Oh. Uh. I'm not really sure to treat an Alicorn.”
Alicorn? That's me?
“I was told to let you know that your going to have a meeting...”
He was very surprised by the lack of the words 'trail, execution' or 'burning'
“With the 3 Ponies you met before they took you here...”

“And... Thats' it!”, “Whew!” the nurse sighed. She put down a note on her cart.
“It's fine.” PonderBright responded. He was surprised to find his voice so raspy.
“More water!” she said, strolling off, more of a statement then an ask.
He realized he had misinterpreted her last statement before putting the note down.
He waited until those three came.

It's all he could do.

The princesses walked up to the seemingly asleep pony, due to how he hung his eyes. He was still sensitive to a lot, light included.
Luna was opposed to Twilight's plan to put him in a regular hospital rather then a prison one, citing how she thought he would react when he woke up and saw them.
“I trust your judgment, Twilight.” he overheard from Celestia.
Huh.

He immediately ended the miscommunication by saying
“ I'm awake.”
Twilight turned towards him with a friendly smile.
She's trying to defuse the tension. She's not very good at it, but it's a glass house. His social skills are worse then the human's world version of Twilight and he knows it.

The others are much more tense.
“I'm ready to talk.” I volunteer.
“Alright.” stated Luna.
“Then we shall begin.”

As they were explaining the situation, all 3 of them noticed PonderBright's expression getting more shameful and sad with each new detail they explained.

3 casualties.
8 with permanent damage.



He had a hard time fighting back the tears. He never enjoyed pointless suffering, quite the opposite in fact. He and FlutterShy used to wave at each other at the animal shelter back in the human world.
Twilight was noticing this, and she thought everyone could use a breather.
“ We can take a brake if you need- ”
“ No. “ he dully responded to Twilight's unfinished question.

He slurried together a few words “ I think that this should be resolved as soon as possible, so no one else is hurt. “
Twilight was taken back. This was not what she was expecting. Going from a manic rampage to wanting to fix it in what must be only a few moments for him.
Though this wasn't unusual at all for Twilight's encounters with villains, she still did consider it a major unexpected victory.

“ I'm- Sorry. “ He stated.

“ That's all I have to say. ”

Luna and Celestia's expression softened a bit, Luna more then Celestia.
Celestia still had that famous poker face.
“ We still have some questions. ” 
“ If you would. “ Luna said authoritatively.

The Male Alicorn and the Female Alicorn stared at each other until it became rather awkward.
“ Do you have them ready? “ He asked.
“ Of course. I was waiting for your confirmation. “ She replied.
“ Ah. “ He muttered.
He was waiting for her to ask, but he never communicated this.
“ Yes. I'm ready. “ He finally got around to saying.

“ Very well then. “ Luna replied.
' Here it comes ' He thought.
“ Did you mean to attack the ponies at Ponyville? “
“ No. You mean the village I followed the young pony too? No. “
Luna paused for a moment to make sense of the horribly worded response.
The three princesses were starting to get the picture of  how exactly he fumbled 3 whole 'peaceful' encounters.

“ Did you mean to attack AppleBloom, the 'young pony' you mentioned? “ Her tone was slightly rushed and monotone with this one, as if she knew the answer. Because she did.
“ No. “ The expression in his voice getting ever duller, becoming much like a machine.
“ Did you mean to attack us when you landed nearby us in the cave? “
“ No. Only Twilight. “ He stated in the same monotone as before. He had accidentally moved his gaze to her in that moment. He saw her pupils get small, and she leaned back a little.

He immediately realized his mistake. Celestia had covered Twilight with one of her wings, her head tilted up slightly. Luna had ignited her horn. Her softened expression now hardened again.

“ Maaaybe we should take a break? ” Twilight awkwardly suggested as she popped out from behind Celestia's wing.
“ That was my fault. “ PonderBright apologized.
“ I'm not very good at communicating. “
“I... understand. “ Luna said with a sigh, her posture and words finally loosing their pointed nature.

As they left, PonderBright had finally realized why he had stumbled his words as bad as he did: he had been in hospice for a week and a half. The calendars they use here very closely mimic the human ones, and the one he had atop his wall had 11 days filled in.
Or he hoped. He hoped those were days, not months or years. Was a Equestrian day the same length as a normal day? Probably not. He should stop assuming.

When they came back, Twilight looked nervous about something, but at least the tension in the other two was all but gone. Theirs was replaced with a very sad and somber look, and Ponder was surprised he was picking up on any of this at all.
People usually hid their emotions from him back home, and these WERE horses, not humans. Ponies. Same thing.

“ Explain why you attacked Twilight. “ Luna exclaimed.
“ I thought she was my worlds Twilight, who was corrupted by magic and wanted to destroy my world to get here. “
“ I figured I would remove a threat to Equestria, since I was going to bleed out anyway... ”
Twilight sighed a sighed a relief, but a small one. You don't get used to noticing these things unless you spend a lot of time listening and not talking. PonderBright was for the first time thankful of his past friendships.

Celestia looked at Twilight, and Twilight back to Celestia. Celestia then took a step towards PonderBright and asked:

“ What is your name? “ She said, calmly.
“ PonderBright. “

She smiled. Though Ponder did not know and could not tell, it was only a smile to lift his spirits.

“ PonderBright, we understand that these actions were ultimately not your fault, however- “
“ Yeah. I understand. There still needs to be accountability. “ Ponder replied.
“ However. “ Celestia politely interrupted
“ We can not let such actions pass without first ensuring they will not happen again. “ Celestia stated.
“ Therefor, I, Queen Celestia of Equestria, hereby order the pony PonderBright under the temporary authority of princess Twilight Sparkle, for the purposes of learning the magic of friendship. So he may never repeat these same mistakes again.”

“ Your horn will stay limited for the duration of your visit.” She pointed to the top of his head, which in fact, had a horn. ... Which was covered up by a strange device.
Celestia turned, whispered something to Twilight, and walked away.
Twilight tanked Celestia while walking over to PonderBright.
She released him from his Hoofcuffs with magic, and said with a smile hand a hoof held high:
“ Stay and rest for awhile. We have a crystali- I mean new baby … party to attend to. ”








In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. 

 - Sun Tzu, Art of War