//------------------------------//
// Never Too Late 
// Story: Innavedr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	Phoenix squinted his eyes.  He could seem a warm glow emanating through the door to the hallway beyond the adjacent control room.  From the sound of buzzing and hissing manabeams, he guessed that the ponies outside were attempting to torch their way in.

"Hooo boy..."  He gritted his teeth and shuffled backwards towards the sequencing room.  "I think naptime is over—"

"Mister Phoenix!  M-Mister Phoenix!" Kera's voice shouted.  It was uncharacteristically panicky, which is what made him gallop back through the door frame so that he slid to a stop besides Bellesmith on her bench.  "What is it?!"

"Something's wrong!" Kera stammered.  She gulped and pointed at the fitful spasms running through the mare's prone body.  "She's shaking all over and stuff!"

Phoenix blanched, but nonetheless he composed himself in time to utter, "Wake her up!  You remember how to do that, right!"

Trembling, Kera reached up to the instrument dial and turned it back ninety degrees.  She pushed the left lever and then the right.  Sparks shimmered at the end of the wires attached to Belle's horn stub, but nothing happened.  She continued quivering in bed, shaking from muzzle to hoof.

"What's the matter?"  Phoenix stammered.  "Why isn't she waking up?"

"I-I don't know!" Kera gasped.  "I did what she told me to!"  Biting her lip, the foal reached for the wire at the end of the mare's horn.

"Wait, don't—!" Phoenix tried to grab her.

With a jolt of electricity, Kera was knocked back from the coupling.  "Owiee!"  She frowned.  "Who the heck built this thing to be a jerk to ponies?"

"This doesn't make sense..."  Phoenix thought aloud, flashing worried looks back and forth between Belle and the door being torched one room away.  "She made it clear that she was used to doing this sort of thing.  What could possibly keep her in there even when the system's made to wake her up?"

"I dunno.  Maybe there's something inside that doesn't want her to leave?"

Phoenix flashed the twelve slumbering foals a look.  "Could it be them?"  He dashed about the circumference of the round room.  "Help me find the controls to wake them up!"

"It can't be them!" Kera exclaimed, waddling after the stallion.  "It's not them who's in charge of turning on or shutting down the program!"

Phoenix flashed her a scrutinous look.  "How would you know?"

"I was around long enough to be prepped for this crap!" Kera said, pointing at the machine.  "The foals aren't the ones running the show!  Madame Nightshade is!"

Phoenix blinked.  Slowly, he looked towards the brightly lit control room adjacent to the chamber.  "She's... connected to it, somehow.... from the outside..."

"And she's not letting Belle go!" Kera said, her voice cracking with panic.

Phoenix took a deep breath.  He wandered over to Belle's side, planting his hooves on her shoulders.  He hesitated before giving her a shake, his teeth biting his lower lips.  "If I force her out of it... what kind of damage could it do to her mind?"

"It can't be good, that's for sure!"  Kera winced.  "She's gotta wake up on her own and stuff!"

The door from beyond the control room pounded.  The air hissed as heat started to vent through the crack made by the ponies' torch.  Phoenix stood still for a while.  He closed his eyes, finding something to meditate on beyond the thunderous noise of the Nightshade industrialists fighting to break in.

"Mister Phoenix, she's in big trouble!"  Kera squirmed anxiously.  "What are we gonna do?"

Phoenix opened his eyes.  "You're going to wake her up."

"But... b-but I don't know how!"

"Keep trying until you find a way."  Phoenix looked all around.  He found a utility closet and he yanked it open.  With magic, he levitated loose a metal bar and cracked it in half.  Two brittle shards orbited his glowing horn as he marched firmly towards the control room.  "Then, once she's back, tell her to get out of this place."

"Huh?"

"And you see this lever here?" He pointed at a panel besides the door.  "Pull it and twist it to the right.  I know you've got strong enough magic to do it without touching the thing, kid.  Make sure this door is good and locked once I've closed it."

"Wait a second..."

"Whatever you do, don't waste a single second after she's awake."

"Where are you going to be, huh?!"  She scampered up to the doorframe, gazing up at him with sparkling green eyes.  "Aren't you coming too?"

"It's cute that you pretend to be worried about me, scamp," Phoenix said, shoving several pieces of furniture against the pounding door on the far side.  "But keep your concerns fixated on Belle.  She's a resourceful mare.  She won't slow you down... not too much..."

"Pfft!  Worried, smorried!"  Kera nevertheless trembled as she said, "If you try to take on Nightshade's guards, you're dead!"

Phoenix turned.  He smiled at her.  "I was dead long before I met you, kid."  He gestured towards Belle on the other side.  "Makes sure she lives to see her friend again.  It was my promise to her.  Now its yours too."

"But... I... I..."

"Can you keep that promise, Kera?!" he snapped.

She stumbled back from how sharply he said his name.  Her lips trembled as she said, "Yes... I-I promise to keep it..."

"It's never too late to make something of yourself," the stallion said, and slammed the door shut between them.

Kera immediately locked it with a twist of the lever.  She shivered even more, feeling every jolt of the door pounding through the foundation of the adjacent room.  Pivoting about the dark chamber, she stared forlornly at Belle's twitching form.