//------------------------------// // All Right, Now // Story: Innavedr // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// “You're right,” Bellesmith murmured. Nightshade exhaled, the tension melting from her shoulders as she lowered her taser. Leaning against the wall, Belle shuddered. With a bow of her head, she said, “This world is dying. You don't need sequencing to realize this. You don't even need a piece of the machine realm's flame.” She gnashed her teeth, then continued speaking. “The Ancients knew about this. Axan and her sisters... they had foreseen the end coming. Something older than time, older than dragons is draining the lustre from this world. Sooner than we'd imagine it, maybe in this lifetime, maybe in the next, all flame shall be extinguished. There'll be nothing left to rekindle the Spark of this place. We'll be a adrift like ants clinging to a cold gravestone, floating through infinite chaos.” She looked up with sad eyes. “This world needs a solution, and it needs it now.” With a nod, Nightshade trotted forward and said. “I am glad that we are for once in agreement over—” Belle spun and bucked her upside the chin. The Madame and her taser went flying in opposite directions. After smacking against an instrument panel, Nightshade stood up, winced, and glared in the mare's direction. With two heavy hooves, Belle snapped the taser down the middle. Her face growled into the blue aura of the exposed manafield. “But that solution will never come to pass by the hooves of a demented cretin such as you! Rainbow Dash is the only cure for this world! You?! You're just another sick pony, like Shell, like Queen Ledo! Clouded by your own fever!” Struggling, Nightshade eventually rolled up to her hooves. She leaned against a door behind her, seething at Belle. “You know, for a doctor, you're not very smart.” “And for a mare you're not very pretty.” “You're putting all of your faith in an unpredictable winged pony who's done nothing but bring you unpredictability and unrest!” Nightshade exclaimed, shouting finally. “Do you even know the sheer weight of that faith?! All of the dangers that you are overlooking?! All of the precious things you are giving up?!” “You are obviously a very gifted pony, Madame,” Belle said. “It's a shame that you had to channel that through your personal sorrow. You'll never understand loyalty like Rainbow Dash; you're still stuck in remorse.” “How dare you!” Nightshade stomped her hooves. Veins showed in her temple as she howled, “I love my brother! If I could give up everything to undo what has been done to him, I would! In a heartbeat! What has your precious Austraeoh given up that makes her that much more righteous?!” With a swishing sound, the door to the lit room beyond the glass slid open. Nightshade spun around, and almost immediately the rage in her face left. Catching her breath, she slicked her mane back and murmured, “My foals. You've arrived just in time.” Twelve Xonan fillies and colts stood in the doorway, peering into the tight metal room. They looked at the unconscious stallions, then at Bellesmith, then at Nightshade. “You were yelling, Madame Nightshade...” “This intruder, Bellesmith, almost got control of me,” Nightshade said. “But everything is all right. Now that you are here, I need you to help me keep her from running off—” “You are as ugly outside of the spheres as you are within,” spoke the oldest colt, his mouth hanging open in utter shock. “You are... so angry...” His eyes narrowed around his tattooed face. “And yet weak...” Nightshade blinked, leaning back as if blown by a random wind. Frantically, Belle spoke up. “She's used you! All this time, children, she's used you to get the information that she wants! She's powerless, don't you see that?!” Belle twitched, then blurted, “Didn't you see what I... wh-what Rainbow Dash was capable of doing to her?” “You...” A filly trotted up, gazing across the way at Belle. “You are indeed Eljunbyro.” “Even incomplete, you are still important,” added another. “The Austraeoh knows you,” said a colt. “You are her friend, her ally.” He looked up at Nightshade. “”And you would hurt her?” Nightshade frowned. Dragging her hoof in a threatening manner, she pointed with the other one towards the room behind the youths. “Get back into the sequencing chamber! I want all of you meditating within the spheres! Do I make myself clear?!” “You... are threatening Eljunbyro...” The oldest colt marched forward. The other foals joined him in an icy trot. “You are threatening the world.” He snarled, his face patterns adding to the menace of his ire. “You are threatening us!” Nightshade trotted backwards, her face bouncing between shock and anger “What are you doing?! Stay back! I mean it!” She growled. “I will not tolerate this insubordination! Do you understand?! I found you. I gave you a home. I gave you a life—” “We never asked to be found!” a filly's voice cracked. “You took our parents away!” sobbed another. “We hate you!” “Why did you do this?!” “You're a bad, bad mare!” “Give us our families back!” “Give us back our horns!” “We want to go home!” It happened swifter than an avalance; all twelve foals converged on the mare, tripping her to the metal floor and kicking, punching, and bucking her from all sides. Nightshade shrieked and curled up into a fetal position, covering her head with a pair of forelimbs as she shouted in vain to drown out their angry cries. All the while, Bellesmith stood stock still. Panting, she watched as the foals converged on their mother-turned-oppressor. She winced several times, turning her face to eye the open door that now loomed across the way. Turning her back to Nightshade, she made a path for the table covered in Luna's satchel and Rainbow Dash's various belongings. She froze, however, her limbs twitching with each distressed cry that came from Nightshade's throat. After a few seconds, Belle sighed heavily, turned around, and galloped deep into the thick melee. “Foals! Foals! Stop it! Stop it this instant!” She managed to peel the angry children off of Nightshade. Already, the mare had a few whelts on her face, and she was coughing up blood. Nevertheless, Belle stood above her, facing the bewildered Xonans with a fierce frown. “I know you're angry! And it's okay to be angry! This pony has done horrible, terrible things to you and your family! But you mustn't tear her limb from limb!” “Why not?!” a filly shouted, pointing at her forehead. “She tore enough from us, hasn't she?!” ”Yeah!” several of them chanted at once. Belle said, “Countless ponies in the Confederacy have done horrible things to me, including having ripped off my horn. And you know what? In the end, I only want to save them, just like I want to save this entire world.” “But why?!” the oldest colt grumbled. “This isn't even our world!” “Because I know Austraeoh, and she only hurts other ponies when she needs to protect her friends! She knows she's going to die, she knows she's outmatched by her enemies, and she knows this world isn't hers. But that doesn't stop her from going out of her way to make something better out of it all!” “She said it was our duty to shed light on Austraeoh,” a filly said. She pointed at Nightshade. “She said that we'd all meet her someday!” “The most important thing about Rainbow Dash is learning to be like her,” Belle said. “And that means being courageous, being strong, and being selfless. Once you know in your heart that you've embodied all of these things, then you can count yourself as righteous, but you won't have to, because you'll be too busy doing what is right!” She pointed at Nightshade's bruises as the mare sputtered and wheezed. “Tell me, what's right about treating her like a sack of meat?! Do you endeavor to be like Austraeoh? Or would you want to become like Nightshade?” The foals doubled back on that. They exchanged glances for a few seconds before collectively hanging their heads. “Please...” Bellesmith leaned forward, placing her hoof on the shoulder of the nearest child. “I need to get out of here. I need to find freedom. But I need more than that too; I need to free you as well. You don't belong here, with all of the violence, with all of the suffering.” A colt walked up and tugged on Belle's forelimb. “You'll really do that? For us?” Belle blinked, then smiled gently. “Yes. I will get you all out of here. I promise.” “But, you are Eljunbyro... the ally to Austraeoh,” the oldest colt said. “You're not supposed to know us.” “I don't care,” Belle grunted. “I'm getting you out. Is that understood?” The foals exchanged glances. A few of them collectively smiled as a filly said, “You really do have a piece of her spirit inside you...” Belle leaned back, smiling briefly. “She is rather infectious. Now, we must find a way out of...” She made a face, glancing around. “Where are we, anyway?” “You're going to bring your friend too, right?” Belle flashed the children a look. “Buh?” They pointed towards the sealed door on the other side of the room. “The one they brought you here with when you were unconscious.” A spasm ran through the mare's eyes. Slowly, she swiveled around, stepped over Nightshade's body, and trotted towards the door. Then that trot turned into a canter and finally a gallop as she reached the panel and slapped her hoof over the button beside it. With a loud buzz, the door slid up, revealing a pale filly with dense green hair and an even denser frown. “Finally! Took you friggin' forever, Belle!” Kera grunted. “It smells like manadust and legsweat in here!” “You... You...” Belle stammered, her chestnut eyes flicking between the child and the tiny closet she had been stuck in. “You're alive?!” “Pffft! Of course I am!” Kera grumbled. “Would it have killed ya to have woken up earlier?! I almost had a good mind to break out and kick flank myself!” “You mean...” Belle leaned over, her mouth agape. “Y-you're not afraid... or scared in anyway?” “Hell no! What's gotten all that rot in your plot, girl?! I think you've been sequencing too long—Whoah!” Belle had scooped Kera up into a hug, a very tight, deep, nuzzling sort of hug. She buried her grinning face into the filly's fuzzy chest as her words dripped out as copiously as her tears. “Oh, Kera. I love you. I love you so much.” “Unnnnnnnngh... Belllllllle...” “I don't care if it's sappy!” Belle sniffled and parted the hug only to nuzzle the filly's cheek and say, “You're alive. You're alive and... and...” She choked on a sob, her smile widening even more. “It's okay. Everything is g-going to be okay. I'm going to get us out of here, you hear me? You and all the rest of these children. There's nothing that can stop us anymore.” “Yeah, uh, good luck with that, Belle.” “'Ding Dong.'” “Huh?” Belle could only giggle like a mare possessed. “Can you stop hugging me now?” Kera looked over her shoulder. “Whoah! Look at the beaten bodies!” she gasped. “Cool!”