//------------------------------// // Waking Up // Story: Cycle: With Wings as Eagles // by SSky //------------------------------// It was not an experience she'd recommend ponies have. Shahar’s body felt like fire, and with each bump the fire became even more intense. She wanted to scream, but she had no right to. Every muscle in her body cried, but her mind stopped her mouth from following suit. Somehow, she was alive and couldn’t believe that. She tentatively opened her eyes, and at first saw nothing. Dark blurs flashed in her view. But the second she tried to adjust herself, the movement stopped. Shahar tensed, afraid of what would happen. “You know, it’s normally common courtesy to only make someone have to drag your limp form once a week.” Ahh, yes. Philomena, still snarky as ever. Glad to hear she was okay. “Well, this isn’t exactly common.” Philomena grunted, and went around to Shahar’s side. The pony could easily make out her golden armor, dented and torn. Shahar stirred and looked at her face. “Did Livana make it out?” “Nopony is here.” Philomena said with a hint of relief. “I had the emergency removal spell activated. We’re the only ones I’ve found that were still around.” Shahar felt relieved. The ponies--and most importantly Livana--had made it out. Philomena didn’t end there, sadly. “Anyone not emitting a magic signal at the time--read: unconscious--at the time of activation would still be around. So we need to think of this as search and rescue. Find anypony still around and get them out.” Stiffly, the daykeeper tried to restore life to her extremities. “Wouldn’t it be best just to get out?” “No.” Philomena firmly stated. “You have a duty to your subjects as queen during wartime.” “Ugh, yeah, forgot. Sorry, just woke up after being dragged across rubble.” Shahar tried to rise to her knees. “Forgive me for thinking my first day would be a bit more ‘ceremonies’ and ‘mourning.’ Not ‘passing out and being briefed by a talking bird.’” The roc huffed. The daykeeper opened her eyes again, but couldn’t see much. Philomena took a moment to read the queen’s expression but began to glow after a bit. “Yeah well, I don’t think there’s much of a place to be ceremonious AT.” The glow off Philomena’s body illuminated the sheer wreckage that now was Everfree’s palace. It looked like it had been destroyed for ages, trees crushing the stones beneath them and ivy crawling up the caved-in structure. Then, the rest of the area came into view. Where there once were gardens and beauty, there were now trees and thorns. It had become a forest of danger with all varieties of poison. It was heartbreaking. “Did you find Hestia?” Philomena became very somber. “Hestia is dead. Discord killed her, pouring out her blood in some evil ritual.” She gestured around her. “Discord’s chaos powers grew, letting him do all this. She died as was foreseen.” Shahar clenched her teeth in anger. “Then we need to find another way of stopping him. We can use... the elements of harmony a different way!” “That’s unlikely.” Philomena sighed softly. “Again, we only know two spirits.” “Then take me to them. Two is better than NO hope.” “We can kill him.” Philomena raised her eyebrow. “An unexpected, mortal shot could-” “Philomena, realize that if that were possible somepony would have done it long ago.” Shahar snapped, finally injecting sense into Philomena’s “facts.” She rose to her hooves, feeling her cut side ache as she did. “Take me to the elements.” Philomena looked like she wanted to disobey that order, but glanced away. “One is hundreds of miles away: Golden Spire. The other...” She cut off and began to walk where her gaze led. “The other what?” Shahar asked, turning alongside Philomena. The daykeeper trotted alongside the cryptic roc. “The other WHAT, Philomena?” She didn’t answer. Again, the question was asked. Again, and again, Shahar demanded to know, but Philomena kept walking around the ruins of the palace. She stepped over a titanium plate that lay on the ground, rusted and cracked. The floor squished as rubber pieces padded their hoofsteps. Shahar felt something solid, yet not all there in front of her. Somehow, the air tower was less intriguing when it was in pieces. At the end of the tower parade stood crushed marble intermingling with the palace’s marble and gold. Shahar demanded one last time: “Where is the other element?” Philomena gestured at the rubble. “His tombstone.” The queen didn’t quite understand for a bit. “He and his cousin moved here: into the hospital because he was very ill. His cousin became a nurse, and he recently passed into a coma.” Shahar now saw why Philomena kept the information. In the ruins of the giant marble hospital, anypony inside would have been crushed. “Scarlet,” related to the element of laughter. She had heard of him, but not known his cousin. She almost lost hope then and there. But then there was a groan. One glance at Philomena told her that the roc was as stunned as she was. There was somepony ALIVE in that mess, and any chance was good enough. Shahar tried to telekinetically lift the rubble above the groan, but she just couldn’t. Philomena was ahead of her. “Use your hooves. I’ll explain later.” The young queen didn’t waste a second after that, tossing the ruins away from the sound. “Hang on!” she called. “We’re coming!” It felt like an hour, but soon a rock flew away to reveal a red mane with a few pink stripes. Philomena hesitated, but kept digging. Finally, a small slab stood between the body and the rescuers. In a joint effort, the two mares flung the rock away. And there, shifting in the rubble was a white unicorn with a heart cutie mark. Shahar’s and Philomena’s hearts fell, as they both knew who this was. “Redcross.” They both said, dejected. The doctor flipped over onto his hooves like nothing had happened. “Oh, great. I get rescued and it’s not ‘YAY! The doctor is safe!’ or ‘Yay, Redcross, you deserved to live!’ No, I get ‘Redcross.’ Not even ENTHUSIASTICALLY! You two sound like you WANTED me to be killed.” Both mares’ eyes widened. Philomena was the first to speak. “I- I’m sorry, you- I mean- We’re glad you’re safe! But, we expected somepony else.” “Oh? Well, the plot gods gave you me,” Redcross huffed. “Oh, I’m sorry if that confused you. Here: ‘Fate’ and ‘Destiny’ let me live. I survived when whoever you’re looking for is probably dead. I’ve obviously been promoted to important if I survived a building crashing on me from the fifth floor.” He reached into the hole he had been trapped in and pulled out two rocks with the words “Fate” and “Destiny” on them. “Surprisingly cushy!” Shahar glanced back at Philomena, but the roc’s expression was no longer confused, but rather ecstatic. “Highness, I think this is the luckiest we'll ever get.” Livana didn’t exactly know what was happening when she caught a glimpse of Metis. It had happened in a second. She and Luz were waiting for Shahar to give the signal and go alert the camp, then Metis appeared, then the pain started. Ouch, her face. She had blacked out immediately, but when she awoke the pain came back immediately. She yelped, and started coughing. The air was damp and coarse, not like the rich, fresh air she had been breathing before. “Awake.” A voice murmured. It took Livana a while to recognize that the voice belonged to Luz, as it sounded nothing like his firm, solid self. “Ergh...” Livana tried to open her eyes, but they hurt like fire. “Wh- wha?” The sound of hooves approached her, and slowly groomed her mane, “Rest. We were caught by Discord. I am not sure where we are.” Livana was terrified, and began to quiver. “I-I’m-” “Scared. Do not be. It will be alright.” Livana tried to open her eyes again, but they were firmly clamped shut under the pain, so she just lay there. Tenderly, Luz cleaned her mane and coat as if handling a doll. “Rest, Livana, and do not rush getting up.” Livana shivered, and began to feel her legs return to life. “Where is Shahar?” “I do not know.” Luz admitted. “She and the supreme commander never gave the signal. I-” he trailed off, not finishing the sentence. Swiftly, Livana shot to her hooves and instantly regretted it, almost collapsing. “We- we have to find them.” “I doubt they are here.” Luz objected. “Just relax, and we will walk out when you are ready.” “I’m ready!” Livana shouted, not wanting to waste a second. “We have to go!” Reluctantly, Luz answered. “Very well, lead on.” Livana tried to open her eyes again, but squealed in pain as she tried. Inquisitively, the guardspony came close, his breath sweeping Livana’s muzzle. “Open your eyes.” She tried again, but the pain didn’t want to go away. Sucking it up, and bracing herself, she ripped her eyelids open. She saw nothing. It was all black. With that realization came a rush of pain she never knew was possible. “AUUUGH!” Luz‘s hoof touched her mouth. “Shhhh. What do you see?” “AAHHH! Oweugh! I- I can’t see anything!” There was no response from Luz as Livana cried for a while more in pain. Slowly, her wails became quieter and quieter, and he pain softened, but her eyes and face still hurt. Softly, a humming noise emanated from a few inches in front of the nightkeeper. The pain dulled more and more, but didn’t completely go away. “When Metis came, he dispatched you first, and I saw how he did.” Livana felt Luz’s hoof run up her face to between her eyes. There, the pain became worse as he touched, and Livana felt like he was ficking a flap of skin. Then she got it, it was a scratch. A scratch that ran to... Oh Aquila... “He- went over both my eyes...” Luz sighed heavily. “Yes, he did. I am sorry I have to tell you this soon.” Strangely, Livana took it better than she would have expected herself to. Simply more screaming, and kicking, and wailing. Luz didn't react outside gently moving her from time to time. Probably because I almost ran into something because I'VE LOST MY BIGGEST SENSE! Luz seemed to read her mind. "Feeling is your most vital sense. Without feeling, you die of hunger or infection. It could be worse.” Livana couldn’t believe the nerve of Luz. “I’M BLIND AND IN A DANGEROUS AREA! TELL ME HOW THIS COULD BE WORSE!” There was no response. The silence was able to convey the corporal’s message: You could be alone. Still sobbing, Livana felt her horn activate. She was angry, sad, confused, and she was about to vent it. “Ahh...” Luz said with mild concern, “what are you doing?” Livana didn’t feel like listening. “Private Livana, Stop!” He commanded, switching from his gentler, kinder tone to a much more authoritative one. Livana thought she heard one last “STOP” before she blacked out. Philomena could say she probably had better days... no, weeks... no, MONTHS. Like that one month where she was about to regenerate but simply couldn’t, ending up like a pathetic featherless chicken or an ailing old coot for an entire month. Yeah, that rocked. This had been her second lucky break in the past four weeks. First it was getting a friggin DAYKEEPER as her apprentice, and then it was finding out that the paraplegic laughter element had kicked the bucket, and they got a smarter, younger version. Okay, despite the fact that he was ONE of SIX was irrelevant. She would take any freaking good fortune she could get. Well, at least she was going to until Redcross kept on talking. “Dear HESTIA, what are you two STILL gawking at? Don’t you have some masterful quest? You have had no problems going about your tasks like everything going on is NOTHING before! You’ve had an entire ACT to gawk and react to absurd situations, you can’t start NOW. And that’s ano-” *Clunk* Philomena wasn’t exactly sure what happened. One second she was listening to Redcross yammer, and the next he was on the floor with her legs implanted into his face. Shahar was dumbstruck, what else was new? “Help me carry him.” Philomena ordered, hoisting the front half of the unconscious doctor onto her back. “Was that necessary?” Shahar cried out. “No,” Philomena grunted, “but I would have kicked harder later.” Philomena tossed the doctor’s hindquarters on the young queen, sliding his front onto her own back, finding it uneven with the slight size advantage Shahar had. “I’d prefer to keep THIS one alive until we can figure out any others.” “Figure out?” Shahar groaned under the pressure of the full-grown stallion on her back, but kept up her half, trying not to drop the doctor. “The other spirits.” The roc glanced over to Shahar. “I left out one or two things in your lessons because I couldn’t fully trust you with it, but you need it now.” The mare took a long breath, finding her nerve to explain. “The elements are never far from each other for extended periods of time. They all have to be around the same place, and whenever they are around, they stay together. Forces make them stick around each other. So, it would be reasonable to say that all four others were in Everfree, and not unlikely that they are still here. That’s who we are rescuing.” “What.” Shahar punctuated. “So you’re saying we may already KNOW the other four? Why didn’t you tell me? And for that matter, why don’t you know who’s who if you’re oh-so prepared?” “Call me a lot of things, queen, but approachable is far from one.” Shahar gingerly led Shahar down a ruined wall and into the forest proper. “I can’t really get to know ponies if they are always putting on masks in front of me.” Shahr grunted, about to reply when both heard a fierce explosion, and just through the treetops in the distance, they could see a black-and-green mass writhe against the moonlight. There weren’t any more words exchanged as they ran to it.