Thanks to PiquoPie for proofreading, and for ed2481 for helping me finished this chapter.
“I... can’t believe Celestia did this...” Twilight disorientedly mumbled. Out in front of her was the battlefield her and her friends ran from, corpses of head-less griffons sprawled out on the road. Twilight almost lost what was in her stomach when her eyes first lay upon the sight, and she quickly turned her head away. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes once more to look at the horrific sight hoping it was just some sort of nightmare and Luna would be there to tell her that; but no, the lifeless husks remained.
Twilight continued to stare at the sight even longer, her mind shattering as it fought with itself, unwilling to accept what was in front of her. Her memories raced through her mind, trying to figure out the reason why Celestia, her mentor, could’ve done this. The mentor who told her that magic should never be used to takes a life, and violence is never the answer.
Yet right in front of her was the headless evidence, and the anger in Celestia’s eyes when she... she...
Twilight bowed her head, tears started to flow from her eyes as she tried to contain the sobs forming in her throat. “This can’t be true, this can’t be true...”
“Oh, but it is true Twilight.” A stallion’s voice spoke out.
Twilight recognized the voice and her head instantly snapped up. Her eyes didn’t see anypony standing next to her but she felt as if somepony was close. “Where are you Cadbury?”
“Oh come on Miss. Smarty Pants, can’t you figure that out by yourself?” Cadbury mockingly asked.
Twilight rashly looked around the area, but didn’t see him. Then the thought hit her. “You’re speaking by telepathy.”
“Somepony gives this young mare a prize,” he jested in an unimpressed tone.
“Get out of my head!”
“Why should I do that so soon? There are so many things for us to talk about.”
“There’s nothing for us to talk about,” She bitterly said. “Now get out of my head.”
”Make me.” Cadbury mockingly ordered.
Twilight grit her teeth in anger and focused on her drawing forth her magic. She was about to cast a spell but right at the moment the grasp she had on magic vanished and was replaced by a mind splitting headache. Twilight let out a cry of pain as she placed a hoof to her horn. Her mind got wobbly as well as for the vision of the world. “What’s going on?”
“Your body is trying to resist my magic, and is failing to do so which is resulting in those spasms of pain throughout your body. And I must say you’ve lasted longer than any other unicorn that absorbed this much of my magic. Normally they would be begging for release from the pain with the small amount of breath they could muster.” His voice grew into a menacing mocking tone when he stated, “Like your dear friend Rarity did.”
Another wave of pain rushed through Twilight as she narrowed her eyes down and growled out. “If you harm Rarity in any way I’ll...”
“You’ll do what?” Cadbury interrupted. “Kill me. But isn’t that against your dear mentor’s teaching?” he began to chuckle darkly. “Besides, what hope do you have in defeating me? Celestia herself couldn’t take me down when we faced each other three hundred years ago and there is no way she can do that now. The Elements of Harmony cannot be united as long as Rarity is under my control.” He paused as he let out a small scoff. “Face it, there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“That’s not true!” she declared out loud.
“Still in denial I see, figures, you unicorns never knew when to give up. Always thinking that’s there some magic spell to fix their problems.” He chuckle softly. “Especially with Celestia, always taking down any sort of rebellious thought before any pony truly questioned her.”
Twilight let off a low growl of anger. “How dare you accuse her of such action, she has never done something like that.”
Cadbury chuckled in amusement. “The truth hurts doesn’t it? It stings like salt in an open wound. Face it Twilight, Celestia is not the gentle ruler she makes you believe. She’s a warrior, a ‘Spartan of the Sun’ who takes down anypony who stood against her and her ideals.”
“Liar!” Twilight yelled out in a dazed state as her mind struggled to stay awake.
“Oh, but it’s the honest truth Twilight, I swear. How else do you think she and her sister ascended to being our benevolent rulers? They took out the only competition and no pony since has ever tried to overthrow them.” A maniacal chuckle echo in the mare's mind. "In fact, the only reason she used you and the Elements is because she can. After all, you are no more than an obedient puppet for her, doing things she could had easily done herself."
Twilight’s mind boggled with the info Cadbury was giving her. She almost began to believe him, but she shook her head muttering. “No, that’s not true... that can’t be...”
"Oh but it is, Twilight, you will see it for yourself soon enough."
“TWILIGHT!” Applejack’s voice pierced the air. Twilight snapped out of her current frame of mind and turned her head to look towards the direction from which Applejack’s voice came. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were racing up to her, all of their faces bearing a form of worried expression.
They were all gathered around her, each of them took a small quick glance at the battle scene, but quickly turned their gaze back to Twilight. “It’s nice to see that you’re safe Twi,” Applejack said comfortingly.
Twilight beamed a weak smile at her friends and started to straighten her posed, but her body didn’t want to cooperate and she soon found how hard the ground really was. “Twilight!” her friends all yelled out. Twilight could feel somepony’s hooves wrapping around her waist and pulling her up from the ground.
With what little strength Twilight had left she used in lifting up her head. Her eyes met with a worried Applejack along with an equally worried Fluttershy. Fluttershy put a hoof on Twilight’s forehead. “She’s burning up! Oh dear, we need to get her to Celestia right away!”
Applejack nodded in argument. “Dash can you give me a hoof carrying Twi?” Dash nodded her head as she made her way and grabbed hold of Twilight’s rear legs. Applejack shifted her body to move Twilight’s front half across her back. Together the earth and pegasus ponies carried the nearly passed out unicorn carefully back to Celestia.
The smell of ash and smoke struck Strongheart’s nose as she got closer to the town. Many of the fires were put out throughout the town, but a few stray ember coals still clung on to life as they exhausted faint stains of black smoke into the murky sky.
As Strongheart, Alpha and the little filly walked into the half dead town, the little filly nearly wanting to run into it, but fear was nipping at her heart so she keep close to Strongheart. The buffalo was looking at the damage done by the attackers.
For a battle that only last for about half of an hour, the town was significantly damaged and fire touched nearly every building. Strongheart’s heart filled with sorrow as she also saw some ponies’ corpses trapped in collapsed buildings. Alpha bared little to no emotions as he carried the knocked out changeling on his back and Scarlet’s duffle bag and sniper in the air with his magic, destined to head back to Celestia.
“You... you knew this was happening didn’t you.” Strongheart asked bluntly.
“I knew Cadbury was going to attack the town, I didn’t know when.” The pegasus replied.
Strongheart’s eyes narrowed as she growled out, “Then why didn’t you warn them!? These deaths could’ve been avoided!”
“Only by a fraction, in the long run they will die if we don’t act quickly,” Alpha replied. “Of course if Cadbury carries out his plan, the life we know will come to an end and one of fire will be born.”
Strongheart frowned. “How do you know all of this?”
“Let’s just say... I was very immersed with Cadbury’s inner works.” Alpha replied hesitantly.
“You worked for this fiend?” the buffalo asked in disbelief.
“I really didn’t have much choice in the beginning, but now I do, and I’m doing my best in trying to stop him,” Alpha stated with a hard tone. “One way that I’m doing so is to make sure he won’t get his hooves on Scarlet.”
“Why... why is he trying to capture her?” Strongheart asked.
“She’s the final key he needs in order to complete his plan. With her, the secrets of how to counteract the ill effects of tainted magic and to create a new breed of pony will be in his grasp,” the stallion replied darkly.
Strongheart’s eyebrows rose. “What... do you mean by ‘create a new breed of ponies’?”
Alpha glanced back at the buffalo. “A race of ponies who can use tainted magic and are immune to its effects it has on a pony or any other living creature. Normally they would need to continue to use it, slowly rotting the brain and body, and would lose all sense of self and be lost to their own insanity,” he told her before turning his head away.
“I see... that is... troubling,” Strongheart stated with a disturbed tone of voice.
“Which is why time is of the essence,” Alpha said with a steady voice. “He’s already moving ahead with his plan... he wasn’t going to try to bring Scarlet till next month...” he said in a low voice. “But that must’ve change when he was able to kidnap Rarity... being a bearer of the Elements makes her a greater foci than any normal unicorn.”
Strongheart’s ears perked up as her eyes widen with surprise. “Wait, what do you mean he kidnapped Rarity?!”
Alpha sighed and open his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the loud sound of galloping hooves. The two turned their heads to see Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed by, with a passed out Twilight being carried by the farmpony and the stunt pegasus. The pegasus and the buffalo exchanged looks and together they ran after the group, the little filly doing her best to not to get left behind and the bound challenging bouncing up and down on Alpha’s back.
“Well, that’s going to be tricky to fix,” Scarlet muttered as she looked at her crushed ranger helmet. The front of the helmet was barely recognizable, the mask was totally destroyed, and the helm was crumpled. “That bull had one strong punch... I’m lucky the helmet took most of blow.” She said as she put the helmet to her side with one arm while rubbing her nose with other arm’s hand. “I doubt I would’ve survived that.”
“And I doubt my magic could’ve helped you,” Celestia said. “I would suggest you avoid fighting any more minotaurs in the near future.”
“Heh, you don’t have to tell me twice,” Scarlet said as she discarded the ranger helm with her gear. “I’ll just use my 50. Cal. Sniper Rifle with explosive ammo next time... haven’t seen anyone live after a bullet hits and explodes in their face.” She stated with a smirk. “Also, they’re called minotaures? Huh... sound familiar just can’t remember where I’ve heard it from.” She added with a shrug.
“You’re not seriously thinking about still fighting? We’re not dealing with simple raiders or bandits here. This is a madpony with a tremendous amount of power, power the likes of which you’ve never seen.”
Scarlet shrugged his shoulders again. “People thought it was impossible for one person to take over New Vegas, yet I’m in charge while the former leader is dead and two nations who tried to take it ran away with the tails tucked between their legs. Cadbury wants to fight me, I won’t back down”
Celestia sighed. “You humans always fight don’t you? Rarely backing down or even avoiding them, even if you know you’re outnumbered and outclassed.”
“Hey, the last few times I tried to ‘avoid’ the conflict circling around New Vegas, I ended up in the Sierra Madre and getting caught in the middle of a tribal war,” Scarlet said with a scoff. “Since then I took the hint that it’s pointless to try to walk away from a brewing storm. You’ve got to take it head on, or let it consume you and choke you to death. And since I rather like breathing, I’ll keep on fighting until someone stops my lungs from functioning,” the woman declared.
“And exactly how will you continue to fight if you can’t-” Celestia was cut off when the doors burst open, propelled by five racing mares.
“Princess Celestia! Twilight is burning up and is passed out! HELP!” Applejack shouted desperately.
Celestia instantly moved towards the group, her horn glowing as her golden veil engulfed the purple mare. She tried to lift Twilight, but her magic slipped off the mare’s coat like water off a duck’s back. The alicorn frowned, knowing what was the problem. “She’s heavily doused with radiation... her body is trying to deal with it as if it were a virus... but it won’t be able to win.” She said slowly with a tensed voice.
Just then the doors opened again with Alpha and Strongheart standing under its frame. Celestia glanced up at them and her eyes focused on the floating duffle bag. Her horn glowed once again and it snatched the bag out of Alpha’s hold with enough power to tear a tree out of the earth, roots and all.
The alicorn brought back up to her and opened it, digging through its contents.
“Hey!” Scarlet protested. Celestia glanced at the woman with narrowed eyes and a fiery glare. “Just... go ahead,” Scarlet said backing off with a wave of her hand.
Celestia continued with her digging until she pulled out a small packet with a short tube that was capped on the end, filled with a faint glowing orange liquid. She uncapped the tube revealing a needle and she quickly injected it into Twilight’s neck before squeezing the bag and sending the glowing juice into the mare’s body.
As she final drops of the juice enter Twilight’s body, Celestia removed the needle from the skin and discarded the bag. She then pulled out another packet and started injecting its contents into Twilight.
The group of mares watched with anxious eyes as the alicorn mended Twilight with anxiety induced speed. Scarlet tapped her fingers on her against the side of her arms, trying to suppress her fidgeting need to just yank her bag away from Celestia. Celestia finished with the second packet and then injected a third. Once it was spent she let out a sigh.
“Now all we can do is pray,” Celestia said with a worried motherly expression as she gazed down at Twilight’s unmoving body.
“She should be fine after you injected three entire bags of Rad-away into her,” Scarlet muttered as she grabbed her bag. “Why not inject three stimpaks too while you're at it?”
Celestia looked up at Scarlet with a frown.
Scarlet shook her head and let out a sigh. “Sorry, it’s just I don’t like other touching my bag... it’s very important to me,” she said. “Anyways, I hope she makes a full recovery, but I think we have another matter to do while we wait,” she stated as she glanced up at Alpha, or more at the changeling strapped across his back. “Like trying to find what our little bug friend knows of our favorite megalomaniac bastard of the week, Cadbury.”