"Turn that Celestial damned thing off!" I yelled, jumping out of my bed and smashing down on the source of the sound: a life support system. A life support system hooked up to me.
"I do believe that my sister never damned that device that is helping thou recover," A familiar voice said.
I looked over at Princess Luna and stared. I had never seen the Princess of the Night before. I had heard stories of the events in ponyville, but her presence was completely new to me. I did hear that her grasp of society was still old, but she seemed to talk okay.
"I'm sorry Princess, I didn't realize you were there." I said apolegetically as I bowed before her. "And I did not mean to reference Princess Celestia. It was just a statement."
"It is of no consequence." She said turning around to face the window. "We simply came to check on you and see if you'll answer my quarry. It appears thou have nearly fully rejuvanated, so do you mind?"
It took me a moment to figure out what she meant by quarry, then once it hit me that she meant "questions" I agreed.
"First, you should know that the individual who attacked you is known as BlightEyes. He has murdered several other ponies as he nearly did to you. The local forces have been trying to catch him, but he has proven to be most difficult to detain. You've saved them the trouble of continuing their search."
"It wasn't on my mind when I did it, but I'm glad to have helped," I said.
Luna glanced back at me, "One of the reasons BlightEyes has been so difficult to detain is because of a particular spell that he created. When somepony simply looks at him, they become assaulted by headaches and loss of balance. You however, suffered none of these effects."
I thought back to the battle, "Actually, I believe I did. Near the end of the battle I was suffering from exactly that."
"You suffered those effects due to natural causes. Or at least as natural as banging your head into a metal disk can be," Luna said.
Luna's remark of humor actually caused me to chuckle a bit, but I quickly thought back to the battle again. "Near the beginning of the fight, right after I disabled one of the disks BlightEyes had asked how I wasn't dizzy..."
Luna picked up for me, "He must have been just as surprised as us that you weren't suffering the effects of the spell. We havn't been able to develop a counter measure for the spell and so we naturally believed you might have that answer."
"We as in who Princess? The police force?" I asked.
"No, me." Doctor Blight Cross walked into the room. "Although Princess Luna does still use that old terminology 'We' every now and then," He chuckled. "Anyhow, I have been trying to find a solution to this spell that BlightEyes created for a while. Not only did the solution show itself to me just yesterday, but that solution also went out of the way and retrieved my son as well as test my theory."
It hit me like a train, that was the reason for my supposed immunity to the spell! I was immune. That whole thing about my body absorbing the magical energy was true! Then another, even larger train hit me right in the face. "Your son?"
Blight Cross looked back at me with a guilty smile on his face. "Yes BlightEyes is my son. BlightEyes Cross. His mother wanted to name him after me, so we went with that. Although if I could I would have-"
"That's enough Dr. Cross," Luna interrupted. "We understand that your demoralized about your son, but now is not the time to be getting off topic."
"Yes, yes your right," Cross said with obvious remorse.
"So I really am immune to magic?" I asked, actually excited about his answer.
"It would appear so," Cross responded. "Your body takes the magical energy and simply breaks it down and turns it into energy. That would normally cause a spike in your energy levels as I said before, but it actually takes the energy and channels it so it actually strengthens the process."
"So in other words..." I said questioningly.
"In other words, the more spells you get hit by and absorb, the stronger your immunity gets. I was wondering why at first that your immunity hadn't worked on the original dream spell that revealed this in the first place, but that is because your body hadn't been in contact with magic of that caliber before."
I ran it all through my head again. It was almost too much to take in right now. Then yet another train hit me. "Doctor? Would this immunity prevent me from Illusions?"
Cross rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully, "No, it shouldn't at least. My research so far indicates that the magic would have to physically touch you to be countered. Why?"
I was thinking of the battle when BlightEyes had nearly tricked me with that illusion of a third blade. I had seen through that, if it wasn't the immunity what was it? "It was during the fight, I-"
My sentence was broken off by a sudden rush of hot air from the window followed by an explosion that surely could have been heard for miles. The three of us rushed to the window to see the commotion, only to be meeted by another explosion of huge magnitude.
"Where is that coming from?!" I yelled over the sound of explosion after explosion.
"From the military station," Luna said. She sounded calm and unsurprised, her eyes undetered from the fires in the distance. "BlightEyes is escaping."
I didn't even think, it simply happened. My wings flared up, my body tensed and I pushed forward. In less than a second the hospital was already in the distance. The station was about a mile away, yet I managed to get there in only about half a minute. Explosions were still ripping apart the station. Throwing hot air and debris everywhere. I barley managed to dodge a chunk of concrete that had been sent up by the last blow.
Peering down through the smoke, I managed to make out a few shapes. I swooped down to investigate a few shapes that looked like ponies lying in the wreckage. I wasn't wrong. Several military ponies as well as a few citizens were lying in the wreckage. Some were quite obviously dead; burned or crushed, some even sliced by what I could only guess was a disk-blade.
"Over...here." I turned at the sound. A blue and black earth-pony was lying under a pile of wood shafts. I rushed over and pushed the wood off of her. She was injured, a sharp piece of wood was sticking out of her side. I went to pull it out, but she stopped me. "No- wheeze- don't...it will only bleed worse." She was out of breath, the wound obviously had already sapped much of her energy.
I pulled her up and rolled her on my back. As I carried her out of the burning building she whispered faintly, but clearly. "So many... so many dead. A monster... a monster."
I got out onto the road where a whole squadron of fireponies and medical doctors with carriages were rushing to put out the fire and get survivors. A few doctors saw me and rushed over with a medical cart.
"Here quickly! Put her on the cart!" I obliged, but refused their attention to me.
"I don't need your help! She does!"
I followed them as they rushed her to a carriage and quickly started treating her. As they were working I noticed her trying to say something. I leaned in to listen. Her voice came even fainter than before, "more than one. helped... by a demon... death. so much death."
"What do you mean?" I asked, looking her in the eyes. "What do mean more than one?"
She stared back, trying to say something, but she struggled to get anything out.
"What is it?" I prompted.
She tried one last time, but her body tensed up, her eyes glazed over as if staring into space, then she went limp.
"We've lost her," A doctor said. "The wood shrapnel was the least of her problems. Her lungs and organs were crushed, not even magical treatment would have helped her at this point."
I walked out of the carriage slowly. Gazing around I saw other patients, other dead ponies, and in the distance, I saw yet another explosion. It started as a feeling of fear, bubbling inside me, but as the feeling grew I realized it wasn't fear, but anger. Anger that was directed towards the source of that fire, and I knew exaclty what to do.
I launched into the air, rushing towards the east of the city, following the path of destruction. Another explosion. Another death surely. And I dived towards my target. I didn't know where he was exactly among all the smoke, but I was beyond caring anymore, I would find him and I would finish him.
I landed on the ground and peered around, not that I could see anything through the heavy smoke.
"Stop throwing around your ridiculous spells and get over here now!" I whirled towards the voice, desperate to see who it was. I didn't recognize who it was, but they seemed to be talking to someone.
"Oh, come on! I'm having so much fun! The fire! The explosions! The screams of agony! They're so beautifal!"
Now that voice I recognized. That was the voice that I hated so much. BlightEyes Cross.
I started to move forward, but then a hoof grabbed my shoulder. I spun around with a flying kick, only to have it blocked by an expert double-leg hook. I took a good look at the pony who grabbed me and saw that it was Earth Bane.
He let go of my leg and whispered, "You might want these."
I looked at what he had on his back, two balck scabbards with golden etchings, one a dragon, the other a pheonix. My swords.
"Where did you get these? I had them in my apartment." I whispered to him as I took them of his back and strapped them to my sides.
Earth Bane looked at me in all seriousness, "The remains of the dojo and your apartment are about a mile behind me."
That hit me hard, it had all been destroyed?
"It would appear we have visitors," That unfamiliar voice said. With a sudden rush of wind that came from the center of the huge cloud of heavy smoke, the fire's around were all put out, the smoke was pushed away and the enemies revealed themselves.
On the right was a very familiar looking brown unicorn, he seemed slightly different though. Some sort of energy seemed to be bursting from his body, his horn was twice its normal size. An Earth pony stallion was on the left, he had a black coat with silver markings along his body. The markings themselves were in a language other than normal equestrian, and seemed to all begin with one large marking. The stallion's cutie mark.
Even stranger was what was in between the two. A purple vortex of smoke was slowly growing behind them. It started as a small disk and was growing larger and larger until it was big enough to fit a whole pony through it with ease.
"You!" BlightEyes glared at me with pure and utter hate. I stared back just as intensly.
"You know them?" The other stallion asked, his voice was casual, yet absolutely menacing. Even though he sounded completely normal, his voice left a chill running down my spine.
BlightEyes continued to stare at me, "Yes, I know the pegasus, he's the reason I was captured." He sounded insulted, even though he was the one saying the words.
"Well then, lets give them a friendly farewell wave." With his words the strangley marked pony waved his hoof horizontaly out in front of him. I felt a huge wave of pressure coming towards me at tremondous speed and prepared for the worst, but then it seemed to bend around me, leaving me unharmed.
Earth Bane did not fare as well. When the force hit him, he was sent tumbling end over end until he finally landed with a sickening crunch of bones.
The black pony looked at me with an eyebrow raised in surprise. "Interesting, you appear to be immune to the effects of my magic. Is this how he defeated you Blight?"
"Isn't it obvious?" BlightEyes responded, spittle coming out of his mouth due to the pressure he put behind his words.
"Interesting, I wonder how far his immunity goes?" The black one said.
I was done listening, I rushed the earth pony, wings flared, swords drawn. I wasn't going to give him any chances. Not that it mattered apparently. With a simple motion of his front left hoof, a huge invisible force smashed me into the ground.
"So apparently you aren't actually immune to magic, just highly resistant. I am having to put an enormous amount of power into this simply to keep you down."
BlightEyes turned toward the purple vortex, "The portal won't stay open for much longer John. We need to go!" He put a hoof into the vortex and got sucked into its abyss.
The earth pony turned to leave through the vortex, but that unbearable force was still pushing down on me. "It will be most interesting to run into you again pegasus, but until then I must return to my own world and prepare. Eventually we will meet again. When that time comes I will be at full power, the power that only your gods possess. You should spend your time in preparation." With that he stepped through the vortex and disappeared.
The moment he stepped through, I felt the pressure holding me down get removed. I got up and looked at the body of Earth Bane. The sight of his crushed and mangled body angered me, and I would have been the same if I didn't have that ability to resist magic, why couldn't I save him? Why did I have to survive blows that would kill all my friends? I turned back towards the vortex, or portal as BlightEyes called it. It was shrinking, but I could still make it through if I wanted. I flew right next to it, close enough to put my hoof through in one step. John. That was the name of the strange earth pony that seemed to be able to do magic somehow. I had to remember it, it was my only chance to find him, stop whatever it was he was planning, and if possible, avenge Earth Bane and all the other deaths caused by BlightEyes. I took one last look at the destroyed city around me, and stepped through the portal.