Chapter Twenty-Two
For the bell may sometimes fail to sound.
The world was a blur fading in and out around the blue unicorn. He knew his body was shutting down on him, but he had to keep going. His hoofsteps were faint, crunching through the snow and debris field. His chest heaved. His legs were shaky. His breaths came ragged. He was so tired. So very tired...but he could not stop. He did not know what drove him to head in the direction he was heading in, but he knew that he could not stop walking for to do that would surely bring about his passing. Teleporting out of the tower when it started to crumble had drained the power of the Magimus' anchors drastically. He was holding on by a proverbial thread. What little magic the artifacts contained was being depleted very quickly to sustain the blue mage at the brink.
He peered out through narrowed eyes at the swaying, distorted world. He saw shapes rushing towards him and heard the sounds they made. They all blended into one another, a wave of sound which washed over him, sound he could not discern or interpret.
"Have I...only delayed my death?" Steiner thought. Maybe the Magimus' vindication would come to pass after all. The pain Steiner wanted to inflict upon the incorporeal fiend came to fruition in the end. At the very least however, Steiner knew he did all he could. He did not lay down and let doom drag him to the netherworld, whatever that realm may be. Instead he did everything he could until he had exhausted every possibility. He had won. The Magimus was no more, and no longer would anypony who ventured into the city be subjected to his sick games and torment.
The last thing he had to do now was walk. Just...keep walking. Stagger if he must, he would not lay down until his consciousness had departed for good. To join the countless others whose spirits were stripped from their being by necromantic fire.
"Just... keep... moving" he told himself as the darkness crept in from his peripherals.
"I am... sorry... father"
"Whoa, geez!" Falcon Wing exclaimed, rushing to catch Steiner before he could topple into the snow, supporting his friend while he hovered. "He's not in good shape at all, Klaxon," he stated to the bronze stallion who came galloping to the blue unicorn.
"I can see that, Falcon." he replied. Though there were specks of tears still in his eyes he had a look of determination on his face. There was still hope. His friend could make it out of this alive, and Klaxon would make sure he would.
He dipped himself underneath Steiner's body and stood tall with the unicorn slung over his sides. Even now, Steiner held the massive metal hexagons up, so it was a strange sight to see Klaxon holding him up. It made Falcon Wing think that was how the pony the Magimus used to be would have looked before their transformation. How an earth pony or pegasus could use a unicorn's magic was beyond him, though. Quite frankly, he did not want to know. Just as with the Shadow Sweep and their methods, there were some things in the world that were better left to the bliss of ignorance. Knowledge, as Alana eloquently said, was a special kind of power.
"Lead the way Falcon, I've got the heavy lifting covered!"
"Methryl isn't heavy, is he?" Alana asked.
"Nah, but stronger than a dragon, the crazy son of a bitch!"
Falcon Wing was too busy cycling through his Pipeye functions and his thoughts were to hectic to pick out the details of the exchange between the two ponies. Had things been different he might have caught Steiner's actual name being spoken, but as it stood his only care was getting the blue unicorn to some healing potions and get his strength up, or at least keep him alive long enough to go on another herb-hut for a bunch of zebra foals...
On his map, he found that the wagon's position had its own icon without having to be marked, as he had done with Regolit's place. "Must be Klaxon's terminal," he reasoned. "it makes sense that it'd be honing on other Stable-Tec stuff, right?"
With his destination clear, Falcon Wing soared. From his vantage point he was able to pinpoint the most -relatively speaking- clear route to the outskirts of the city where the converted wagon transport was left. Alana and Klaxon kept pace at full gallop on the ground.
One might assume hoofing it across a city after being chased through it with the addition of climbing the winding stairs of a giant tower would have been more than enough activity to leave a stallion exhausted. They would be forgiven for not knowing of a pony the likes of Klaxon. His hooves tore through the snow unrelenting, his eyes locked in a state of constant determination for the time being. Alana, who was unhindered by any extra weight, had a hard time keeping pace with the bronze pony as he thundered on through the Crystal City, following the red streaks left in the sky above.
At this rate, it did not take long at all for Klaxon to close in on the wagon. To his unending irritation, it was surrounded by Snow Devils. "Dear Celestia, you have got to be fucking shitting me!" he muttered beneath his breath. Falcon Wing weaved around in the air, rallying the mutated denizens of the tundra. They followed his every move like rabid dogs, leaping as high as they could and snapping their giant jaws at the pegasus, foam flying from their humungous teeth. After he had gotten their unwavering attention, he flew off toward the heart of the ruins with them in hot pursuit, hoping to shake them from his trail.
Alana seized the opening and crossed the remaining distance to the wagon in seconds. She jumped up over the side and came down hard on the flatbed, going through the crates of supplies which the Snow Devils did not get into, thankfully. Klaxon was not far behind. After all that running, it was amazing that he was able to jump at all, much less make it onto the wagon. He slid Steiner off of his back and onto the floor of wagon, which would have to become a makeshift medical station.
"And you said we weren't here for treasure hunting. Look at you, holding on to the Magimus' things like they are your souvenirs!" Klaxon said half-jokingly.
"I'm sure he has his reasons!" said Alana. She buried her hooves into the crate and pulled out two potions, which she gave to Klaxon. The bronze stallion tore off the cover, held Steiner's head up and opened his mouth. He poured in the purple elixir.
"Reaping the spoils, once a scavenger, always a scavenger," Klaxon mumbled, masking his uncertainty. "Come on buddy, wake up. We've still got our mission to do and everything!"
Steiner's ember eyes opened slowly, but his revival was not an especially dramatic affair. He looked at Klaxon and Alana, somewhat confused because of his lapse of awareness. The last he remembered was hobbling through snow and rubble, now he was on the wagon with Klaxon holding him and Alana rummaging through their healing aids. The snow crunched when the metal plates that served as his lifeline were dropped into it, the hexagons standing upright like monoliths around the transport.
"Yes, well," Steiner started to say, immediately starting to get to his hooves and succeeding well enough doing so save for a tremble in his legs or two. "That's enough of that, I think --"
He had just gotten righted when Alana knocked him back onto his side, her forelegs wrapped around him.
"... Ow. Thank you for the sentiment, but you appear to be crushing me, Alana," he said flatly.
"Suck it up and let the girl give you a hug, you blue bastard. We all thought you were dead!" Klaxon said with a snort. Steiner would never know the bronze stallion cried over him if Klaxon could help it.
"All...where's Falcon Wing? He didn --"
"Falcon's off playing with the Snowy Bite-y things!" Alana answered before Steiner could finish the question. Almost on cue, several gunshots rang out in the distance followed by pained, dying yelps.
Klaxon raised a brow. That did not sound like his 10 millimeter pistol...
And it wasn't indeed. Floated out beside him in a minty green glow was a slender sub-machine gun, light gray with purple and pink accents. The barrel of the gun had a long yet slim, perforated cylinder which was supposed to be a silencer but did nothing to that end. The report of the weapon was loud and the muzzle flash being filtered through the extension of the barrel was impressive.
Regolit popped out the side chamber and loaded a full magazine into the gun. From the corner of his mouth extended a recently lit cigarette. It, combined with his shades and coat made him look like a bonafied badass.
"... Nice timing," Falcon Wing said to the mysterious stranger, hovering over the bodies of the Snow Devils. Their blood seeped into the snow below him.
"Don't mention it, Shadow Bane," Rego replied. He raised his shades up and winked a light green eye at the red pegasus. He added "Just keep doing what you do, Falcon Bro!"
Rego turned, seconds from walking away.
"Wait! Your book..!" Falcon Wing shouted. Rego waved a hoof and yelled: "Keep it! There's a lot more books where that came from, something tells me you'll appreciate more than I!"
"How did he know I liked reading...?" Falcon Wing wondered as he watched the pony walk away. It was very much possible that Regolit found him by the light he left when he flew. With he Magimus' death marked by the collapse of the crystal spire, the pony and the others like him could now venture out into the frozen city without fear. Relatively. That did not explain how the pony seemed so well informed about matters he really should have no clue about...
"It was nice to meet you!" Falcon Wing yelled to the departing Regolit. The white pony flicked their tail and turned the corner of a ruined, buried street. With that, Falcon Wing removed the marker from his map, but the location had an icon denoting its presence in its place.
"... Fucking Stable-Tec equipment. How does it work?" Falcon Wing mumbled.
The red pony could have done loops in the sky and wrote a message with the clouds, how happy he was! When he flew back to the wagon and saw Steiner up and about a giant weight had been removed from his chest and lifted his heart with its absence.
"You're alive!" Falcon Wing exclaimed, hurtling from the sky in a dive, forelegs stretched forward to give the unicorn a hug. He was promptly stopped, an aura of scarlet enveloping him.
"As if there was any doubt of my survival. I did say I would handle any obstacle to our mission did I not?" Steiner said matter of factually, setting Falcon Wing down on the flatbed.
"... You passed out. You passed out!" Falcon Wing responded. "Hell yeah there was doubt for your survival!"
"I had just endured a trial unlike any other. I was tired and I needed rest," Steiner said dismissively.
"Like hell you were!" Falcon Wing said hotly, fur bristling. Alana began snickering from behind him.
"Hmm. Whatever the case, now that the distraction that was the Magimus has been dealt with, I think its high time we went about getting what we came for," Steiner said punctually. "Are you ready, Klaxon?"
"Yeah, sure," the bronze stallion replied. "Just... give me a minute or... ten. Or thirty, I really fucking need to rest," he said, dropping into a heap on the cold flatbed. Too much running. Pedaling could wait, especially now that the ordeal had passed.