//------------------------------// // An Adventure in National Holidays (Part 3) // Story: The Midlife Crisis of an Extra-planar Being // by The DM //------------------------------// It all happened so suddenly and so fast. There was no warning, no suspicion, nothing to indicate that someone would attempt an act of terror on what was supposed to be a day of celebration and rejoicing. But no, I’m sitting here looking at the dead body of captain Shining Armor while the entire room devolves into chaos. I can’t help but feel a tad responsible for this. Could I have saved him if I had reacted faster? I’ll never know. Right now, though, is the time for action. I can contemplate my failure later and maybe even reverse some of the damage. To say the room was in total chaos would be an understatement. Everywhere ponies were fleeing out of two side doors while every guard in the room was charging at the four attackers. I quickly made an assessment of the situation and decided the most likely outcome. If the guards were to engage the attackers at this moment, then the likelihood of civilian casualties would be high. If the guards did not intervene, then the possibility of further harm to the princess would be much greater. Neither of those outcomes are favorable, but there is one variable missing; me. With one more quick glance around the room I notice the guards are pushing through the sea of panicked ponies, the assassins are drawing their own weapons, Celestia is charging some spell, Applejack and Rainbow look like they are about to charge at the attackers, Fluttershy is cowering under a bench, while Pinkie Pie and Rarity are behind a wall of guards, and Twilight is staring at the body of her brother. For the best results I would have to intervene. As an earth pony there is little I could do to stop the guards and the assassins, but as a dragon I could easily do both without even touching a single person. I turned to once again face the attackers, bowed my head, closed my eyes, and released the magic that was keeping me shape shifted. When I opened my eyes again, half the room was stopped and staring at me. To get total control of the situation I announced my presence to everyone else with an ear shattering roar. To my surprise there was just enough room for me to extend my wings to their full length without touching the walls, thus adding to my fright inducing appearance. With everyone standing in fear or shock I turned my gaze to the four bipedal figures. No words were spoken; I simply curled my lip up into a snarl, revealing the rows of my teeth. This action seemed to get my point across. All four dropped their weapons one at a time as I slowly began walking toward them. With each step ponies began fleeing out the side doors to avoid being crushed. The guards were unsure of what to do as I made my way toward the four. One of the attackers began shaking as they all had their back to a wall. I stopped only five feet away from them and looked down on them with disgust. “Tell me, why should I spare any of you? You snuck into a government building on a national holiday, attacked a high ranking government official, killed a military captain, and wounded another guard. So I would like to know what justification you had for these acts.” One of the assassins spoke up. “W-w-we were just doing what we were paid to do… please don’t eat us!” I looked at him directly. “What is your name?” “M-marley. Please don’t eat me!” I snorted at the last statement. “Well then Marley, who might your employer be?” Before he could respond, one of the others hit him on the back of the head. “Shut up Marley! Don’t tell him anything. He can’t make us talk.” “Oh? And just what is your name?” I was slightly irritated by this one’s sudden burst of confidence. “Piss off you stupid lizard.” I narrowed my eyes on him, keen on setting an example to the other three. I took a deep breath and exhaled a line of frozen nitrogen gas, freezing and killing the assassin instantly. I then brought a clenched fist down on his frozen body, shattering it into millions of pieces. “Now let that be a warning to the three of you! I could very quickly and easily kill you evil beings, but am taking a chance by not killing you outright.” I looked around the room again. All the civilians had long since left, leaving only the remaining guards who were now standing in a semi-circle behind me, the girls, and the Princess. I then turned my attention to the remaining three. “Now, as much as I would like to conduct an interrogation myself, I will be handing you off to the royal guard. You will divulge any and all information that they ask for.” I then turned to face the circle of guards. “And if any of them are less than cooperative, do not hesitate to come find me.” With that matter settled I turned and walked back toward the stage where Twilight, her friends, and the Princess were all sitting around Shining Armor’s body. Twilight was crying fiercely, while her friends tried to offer comfort. Even the Princess looked to be on the verge of tears but somehow managed to keep her composure. I turned to see the guards taking the remaining assassins out of the town hall, leaving only the ten of us. There was one loose end to tie up. I focused on Shining Armor and began silently casting my next spell. Celestia eyed me curiously for a moment before turning her attention back to the distraught unicorn. “Princess please! There has to be something you can do for him!” Twilight sounded as if she were almost begging. “I’m sorry Twilight. He is beyond my, or anypony’s, help.” “T-t-that’s not true! You’re Princess Celestia! You can raise the sun and lead a nation! You must be able to do something!” “Twilight listen to me; if there was anything I could do, anything at all, I would do it.” Celesita’s head dipped in what looked like shame. “No! I won’t give up on him! I’ll never give up on him!” She then buried her face into her brother’s coat and cried louder. Celestia too shed a tear as she draped her wings over Twilight. The others could only watch. Twilight then shot her head up and looked at Applejack. “AJ, y-you said Zircom healed your brother when he broke his back?” “Yeah… why?” Twilight then glanced at me. “Zircom please… t-there has to be s-s-something you can do!” Celestia now had tears to match Twilight’s as she pulled Twilight into an embrace. “I’m sorry Twilight… I’m so sorry…” That was about the time that the others took notice of my spell. I was beginning to gain a golden glow as my spell reached its apex. Soon Twilight and Celestia were looking at me, trying to figure out what was going on. Before either of them could utter a word I gently pushed them aside as I placed my hand over Shining Armor. With one last deep breath I readied to release the spell. “Alright, this should do it… I think… yeah, I got it mostly right. Shouldn't make that big of a difference.” Damn was I wrong. I released the spell just fine. Every ounce of power I put behind my cast went into his body. For a moment nothing happened. Then his chest heaved as he took a massive breath, his eyes shooting open as life returned. Then it hit me. I was not very familiar with the Resurrection spell as it is still a bit too advanced for me. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Twilight quickly went from tears of sadness to tears of joy. Even Celestia and the others were crying by this point. Shining Armor just looked confused. “Wha…what happened to me?” Twilight wrapped her forelegs around her brother’s neck. “I thought I had lost you! I’m never letting go of you ever ever ever again!” “I’m happy to see you to Twily, but I still want to know what happened.” “You… you died… you died right in front of me. But Zircom here brought you back!” She then turned to look at me. She then saw I was no longer sitting but rather collapsed on my side breathing heavily. Applejack was the first to run up to me with Twilight, Celestia, and Shining close behind. “Zir! Ya feelin okay?” “Yeah… I’m fine… just a little winded…” I said between panting breaths. “I might not have… cast that spell… perfectly…” “Zir, how many times ah gotta tell ya, yer a horrible liar. Ya might even be worse than me.” She said with a chuckle. I too laughed and winced at the pain that came with it. “Zircom, you must have known how dangerous it would have been to cast such a powerful spell without the proper training. Why would you have attempted something so brash? You could have killed yourself.” Celestia asked. She sounded genuinely worried about me. It was odd, we had never met and yet she cared about my wellbeing as though I were her child. “Yeah… well… I figured… I could take the hit…” Applejack then interjected again with a chuckle, “Again, horrible liar.” “Guilty as… charged…” Darkness was beginning to form around the borders of my vision. It wouldn't be long before I slipped into unconsciousness. The princess then placed a hoof against my cheek before speaking softly. “Rest now. You've done admirably today” I didn't have the strength to muster a reply. I let my eyes close and allowed myself to drift into an unconscious state. “He’s gonna be alright… right?” Applejack was the first to break the resulting silence. “Yes Applejack, he will be well cared for. I will see to it that he receives the proper medical attention back in Canterlot.” Celestia then turned back to me before turning to Shining and Twilight. “Shining Armor, I want you to take some time off to make sure you are fully recovered from this ordeal.” “Of course. I feel like I could really use a nap.” He let out a half-hearted chuckle. “I wonder how I’m going to explain this to Cadance. ‘Hi honey, how was work?’ ‘Terrible. I got shot and died. I got better though.’ Yup, that’s going to be a fun talk.” Twilight and the others couldn't help but laugh. “Well, at least you’re okay.” Twilight hugged her brother. Shining sighed and looked over at my unconscious body. “I’m okay, but is he going to be okay… now I feel bad about how I treated him before.” Shining’s ears went flat against his head and his expression dropped to one of regret and guilt. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. I’m sure he didn’t take it personally.” “Yeah… but he nearly died for me. He didn’t have to do that; especially after how I treated him.” “Everything is going to be fine. The Princess said she would make sure he got better.” Twilight turned to Celestia who gave an affirmative nod. “I know… it’s just that… if the roles were reversed, I’m not sure I would have made the same decision…” “Shining realx. You can’t just sit here and think of all the ‘What if’ situations. You’ll go mad. Trust me, I do it weekly. You can ask Spike.” Twilight and Shining both broke into laughter. “Well, since everything here seems to be taken care of I will return to Canterlot with Zircom. I will send a letter when his condition improves.” With that said, Celestia lit up her horn and disappeared with me in a flash of light. “Well then… now what…” Rainbow had started to grow bored. “Let’s just all go home. Today has been stressful enough.” Twilight added. “Agreed. I think I shall go work on my latest order. That should get my mind off of today’s horrible events.” Rarity said as she trotted out of the town hall with the others. ~~~ I’m not sure how long I was out. It could have been a few hours, a day, a few days, maybe even a week. I felt decent. Definitely not my best, but well enough considering what I remember doing. What was a pleasant surprise was what I was currently feeling. Even with my eyes closed I could tell I was somewhere new. The smells were different, the floor felt… smoother. Without looking at it I would guess it was some sort of polished stone. Even nicer was that it seemed to be heated. Whoever thought of heating the floor is a mad genius deserving of all the money in the world. There was a slight aroma in the room. It was a slight hint of perfume coming from a single direction. Soon enough I began to hear footsteps approaching. I guess you could call them hoofsteps is you wanted to use the local lingo. Seeing as how I had gathered as much as possible from three of my five senses I finally opened my eyes to survey my surroundings. Sure enough, I was lying on a floor of polished black obsidian. The walls were adorned with tapestries and other exquisite paintings. There was even a water feature with a waterfall in the corner of the room. Bookshelves ran along the length of the back wall. Above was a large glass dome providing plenty natural sunlight. All in all my accommodations were extravagant, but not overly so. They were perfect for me. Eventually the sound of hoofsteps revealed someone. In the doorway stood a pony who I easily recognized. She stood just a little shorter than Celestia, with a name that billowed much like her sister’s. She slowly walked forward, noticing that I had spotted her. A smile crept onto her face as she got closer before sitting a few feet from my face. “Hello Zircom. I hear you’ve been having quite the adventure”