It was amazing to watch the look on Don Burrasca's face as it shifted. It had been a long time since somepony had left him speechless. Truly and utterly speechless. Even Copper had to admit it was the most beautiful music he had ever heard. But it was not the music that had his attention. It was not the look on Don Burrasca's face. Not even the fact that even Lyra was immensely impressed and stunned into silence. It was Octavia. The look of bliss.
He breathed deep; the atmosphere felt good. There was no doubt in his mind that things would be better for them and he couldn't help but feel a bit...good. “Kinda leaves you speechless, hm?” he said, looking at Don Burrasca.
The words seemed to break whatever trance he was under and he shook himself, clearing his throat. “Ah. Yes.” He brushed off a bit of imaginary dust. “I'm afraid next time, I shall take your judgment. They are better than anything I have ever heard.”
“Glad you are enjoying them,” he said, watching Octavia. There was some sort of feeling that felt almost his own, but not quite. This old Copper must have truly wanted to do everything possible to help Octavia. “Of course...they have had it quite rough. But you are used to,” he paused and looked at Burrasca out of the corner of his eye, “Helping people. Isn't that right?”
“Yes,” he said simply, straightening up. “And this is a group of talent that obviously needs my help.”
It was interesting to see him floundering. Copper had kept control, but Burrasca had shown weakness and lost this battle with Copper. Still, he had to respect him. “Yes. My first suggestion is something to eat. I'm not sure of the others, but I don't think Octavia has had much to eat in the past few days, if anything...”
“And which one is that, might I ask?” He had completely regained his composure now.
“Octavia is the one in the center, playing her sort of...I believe it is a type of cello. Though she could play practically any instrument you put into her hands. Symphony is the one on violin. She is quite protective of Octavia. And Frederick...well...Frederick is Frederick.”
“I will keep that in mind,” he said slowly and then turned to Lyra. “What do you think, dear Lyra?”
It took a moment for Lyra to seem to register the fact that someone was talking to her. She probably wouldn't have realized it if Bon Bon hadn't given her a slight nudge. “Ah...uhm.” She looked at Burrasca and then at the group. “They will do perfectly.”
“I'm glad I could meet your standards,” Copper said and then gestured to Scootaloo to come over. “If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask.” He watched Scootaloo and felt he needed to add, “For a price of course. I do have a business to run after all.”
She simply nodded, words seemed to not exactly be working for her at the moment. Tomorrow night would be the most packed night ever, once word got around. Copper was almost surprised to see Burrasca's hand extended towards him. “I'm quite glad that all this went so favorably.”
“As am I,” he said, clasping the griffon's hand. There seemed to be a lot more conveyed in that simple handshake and Copper put his hands, as well as the small piece of paper, into his coat pocket. Sometimes, things are predictable.
But with that, they turned and headed out the door. “That went great!” Scootaloo said, practically shaking with excitement and struggling to keep her voice down.
He nodded, passing though the main doors. “That it did. Better than I could hope. But now, I think it is time to go home.”
A yawn was the answer he got. “Yeah...” The streets were empty and barely lit by street lamps. “It's been a long day...longer for me than you.”
“To be fair,” he said chuckling, “I had not slept for a while beforehand.”
“True. But it took me three tries to get your lazy butt to actually wake up.” She folded her arms in front of her, almost glaring at her.
“My apologies. I was far more tired than-” the grip of fear took him abruptly. It was not easy to scare him, he knew that. But this feeling of dread was overbearing. This was fear on an instinctual level. The source was evident: a cloaked figure moving slowly down the street towards them.
~
“I'm fairly certain you don't have any money, Copper,” Chestnut said, frowning at him. Her brow wrinkled. “Are you all right?”
He had stopped where he was, staring blankly into the distance. What was he going to do? That- no. Keep the worlds separated. “I'll miss things here if I focus there...” he muttered and shook his head. “Yeah. Sorry.” He shook his head again and began walking. Focus here. “I'm afraid I don't have any money. But considering I know the current ruler and she was expecting me a few days ago, I'll have to talk to her first.” He smiled at her; the feeling was already fading. “But I'm sure there's a bar in the center palace castle thing. Crystal Vodka is supposed to be famous.”
“Mmm...vodka sounds good right now,” Chestnut said, staring up at the large structure.
Copper had to admit that the buildings were far more impressive to look at up close. There was a lot to their structure that just...couldn't be seen from a great distance. His pace slowed as he examined them in greater detail. Perhaps this is where the Gem Cog originated? His thoughts were buzzing. The Crystal Empire was the only choice he was given, but it looked so promising that everything felt like it would work out. He needed that. He needed more things to just...work. “Quite impressive,” he said as he gazed at the buildings.
“You're drawing quite a lot of attention.” Copper looked back to see Gilda. Apparently she had followed them without him knowing.
That was quite impressive and he had to guess she could easily outpace her father. “Am I?” Now he actually looked around at the ponies, it was true. There were a lot of ponies staring. The majority of them...crystal ponies. This was the first time he had ever seen one. They did not leave the Crystal Empire and having never been here himself, he had never had the chance. They sparkled and glistened as if coated in crystal, but they were slightly translucent. He had almost forgotten such ponies existed. But they all seemed interested in him, which was to be expected. “Yes...well...vanishing and then appearing again, beat up and in a bloody coat, tends to draw attention,” he said slowly, wondering how many of these ponies even knew who he was.
“You have a point,” Gilda said as she moved to take up the spot on the other side of him. It was obvious to him that she found him interesting. The words that Nightmare had spoken came back and he shook his head. Things were not so simple as she put them, though he knew where she was coming from.
“And I don't think any of them have seen a griffon before. Unless you and your father have stopped by here?” He looked at Gilda and the look she gave him made him look away. He cleared his throat. “Or not.”
“No. We didn't stop here,” Chestnut said, looking around as well. Out of their trio, she appeared the most normal.
They had gathered quite a large group of followers now. Dozens of ponies, both crystal and regular. He wondered who would have been at the train station to meet him if things had gone according to plan. Would it have been Cadance? Or would she have delegated somepony to do it... He highly doubted he rated that high on her list of liked ponies. “We are starting our own parade...” Copper said, looking around. He wasn't sure what he was looking for now, but would know it when he saw it. “A parade...a...party.”
Gilda and Chestnut both stared at him. Gilda may not have known Copper that well, but Chestnut knew enough about Copper's style that she had an idea what he was thinking. “Please don't.”
Copper couldn't help but laugh. Sometimes things required stealth, or tact. And sometimes, you needed to make an entrance. He spotted a few crates stacked off to the side. That would do. Chestnut tried to block his path and might have succeeded if Gilda had assisted. He hopped up onto the boxes; now there was even more muttering than there had been. He cleared his throat and smiled. “Good-” He hesitated a moment, as he was unsure of the time, but made a guess. “Afternoon everypony.” There was a large crowd gathering now. “Now, show of hooves real quick. How many of you know who I am?” He was struggling a bit to get out of the coat. When he looked back up, he saw nearly every single hoof in the air. Since he had brought down The False God, tales of his exploits in Equestria had run rampant. No one had known who he was, but after that...stories spread like wildfire. “Ah. Good. Well, just to make sure. My name is Copper Feather.” He couldn't help but smile now. Something about attention was always a thrill. There was silence now as he adjusted his footing and laid the coat down.
“What are you doing?” Gilda hissed from off to the side.
“Setting the ground work,” he whispered and then laughed. “Now, I know there are dozens, if not hundreds of stories about me. Most of them are true. But that's not the point of this,” he said as he waved a hoof vaguely. “I will be here in the Crystal Empire for quite a while. Not sure how long myself. If anypony wants to talk to me, maybe ask a question or two, feel free. But understand that I will be quite busy and will most likely give short answers of either yes, or no. So please attempt to shape questions in that manner. But please give me at least a day or two to get settled in before coming and asking questions. And be expected to answer some questions yourselves.” He would probably need to ask quite a lot of questions of them. “This is my first time in the Crystal Empire and honestly I'm quite happy to be here.”
With that, he stepped off the crates and there was a lot of chatter, but from what he caught of it, it was positive. Everypony seemed in a much better mood. “Quite the speech.”
He looked to his left and tried very hard to not glare, or frown. “Shining Armor,” Copper said. He had forgotten that Shining Armor was stationed here now and Corser was managing both the night and day guards.
“Better late than never, eh Copper?” he said, almost glaring. There was some sort of distaste in his tone of voice.
Copper had never gotten along with Shining Armor. That was probably because of the hostility between him and Corser. And Copper was on Corser's side. “Yes, well...when someone blows up the train and holds me hostage for a few days, I'm afraid it quite ruins my schedule.” He did manage to smile.
Shining Armor blinked and stared blankly at him. “I...so that's what happened?”
“Yes. Courtesy of Don Burrasca,” he said and watched as Shining Armor's gaze went past him. “Gilda is with me. She and her father...do not see eye to eye and she has been most helpful in getting me here.”
“Well...there's not much I can do about that...and the rest of your group? I got word that there's quite a few other ponies-”
“They're with me. Minus one. Not entirely sure where his loyalties lie. Chestnut will be able to point him out,” he said, gesturing to Chestnut. She looked quite amazed, partially staring at Shining Armor. In comparison to Shining Armor, Copper was just a beat up pony, with nothing to show for all the work he has done. No rank. No medals. Nothing but rumors and myths. Shining Armor was practically a prince. And yet, Shining Armor feared him. He was afraid of Copper; it was written all over his face, posture and tone. But where Copper had him beat in smarts, Shining Armor sure looked better than him. More like a hero than Copper ever could...that was what Copper thought. He could not help but compare himself to Corser, or Shining Armor. Ponies that looked the part of the job that he did. Something to look up to, not some battered pony. Somepony that it would be expected of to save the world. Not him. This kind of thinking was not terribly good for his self esteem and he knew it.
“All right...now, are you going to tell me why you're here? Neither Princess Celestia or Corser gave any explanation. And the mailpony has no idea what's going on either,” Shining Armor said as he turned around and started to lead the way.
“I do hope he's doing well. Spyglass is a good friend of mine.” He was hoping that he would get a chance to see the pony and talk with him.
“He's completely taken over the delivery of all mail inside and going out of the Crystal Empire.” There was no contempt in his voice; it was almost a tone of admiration.
“Yes...that sounds like him,” he said chuckling. Spyglass was a pony who took mail quite seriously. Copper already felt like he would enjoy being here. But there was a job to do. “I will explain what I can once we are somewhere more private. Information is...delicate and needs to be handled carefully.”
Shining Armor nodded, glancing around. “Right.”
“Also, where can we get something to drink?” He turned and looked back at them. “I promised Chestnut that I'd get her something to drink.” He glanced at Chestnut and then whispered to him, “She's upset with me cus I got her thrown in prison.”
He stared disapprovingly at Copper a moment and then glanced at Chestnut. “There's a bar in the palace. Your group can go there while we...discuss matters.”
Copper nodded and smiled. “Sounds good to me,” Chestnut said, licking her lips. “I need to get drunk.”
Copper laughed, shaking his head. “Goodness, Chestnut...just try and not drink the whole bar...again.”
“I'll drink the whole empire out of booze if I want and you can't stop me,” she said, with such a serious glare that even Shining Armor looked taken aback.
“Uh...how serious is she about that?” he said quietly, leaning towards Copper.
“Quite serious. She is...quite complicated. She'll have one hell of a hang over tomorrow, but she's fairly docile when drunk,” he paused, “as long as you don't try and get her to stop, or stop giving her alcohol.”
~
There could have been better places, Copper had to say, to have a private meeting. A balcony had quite a few flaws, but it was high enough up that their voices would not carry. He stood, staring out over the Crystal Empire. “This is the view he had...” Just inside was the throne room. Or at least, one of them. Apparently there were at least two. One on the lowest floor and then the middle one, which is the one they were on.
Shining Armor came up beside him, a quizzical look on his face. “Who?”
“King Sombra,” he said softly and took a deep breath. “Everything is on a need to know basis. I'll try to tell you everything, though I doubt you'll believe most of it. And you'll probably do something stupid, which would lead to one of us being tossed from this balcony.” He looked at Shining Armor quite intensely. “And I can assure you that you will be unconscious when you do.”
He actually took a step back from Copper, but Copper didn't let the gap get too wide. “Hey, why are you threatening me? We’re on the same side!”
“Partially,” Copper said; Shining Armor was backed into the wall now and he stopped advancing. “You've been extremely far out of the loop and you have no idea what's been going on in Canterlot.”
“I know that Celestia is unwell,” he said defensively and seemed to accept his position.
“You know nothing. You don't know anything and you need to realize that everything that I'm going to say is true and you need to-”
“Copper!” He turned and was almost knocked to the floor. It was hard to describe the feeling Copper had. It was Twilight, with her arms wrapped around him and she looked as though she was on the brink of tears. “Thank Celestia you're all right! When we heard that you disappeared...I thought...” This was something Copper had never experienced. Someone actually cared about what happened to him, on an emotional level. This felt different than what Jeta felt for him.
When had anypony ever been this concerned for him? “It's all right, Twilight. I'm fine.” Had she cried when he died? How many had truly been upset at his passing? What did he leave behind?
“They said you just walked up covered in blood...and...” She took a few deep breaths, regaining herself and finally let him go when she realized who was around. “Sorry...I just...”
He smiled at her. “It's all right, Twilight. Everything is fine. Just hit a bit of a snag is all.” His eyes wandered back behind her. And he saw...her. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Celestia's adopted niece. He wondered who it was that made that call. Something inside him felt like it twisted as he looked at her, dark purple mane with rose and pale gold streaks, pink in color with pale gray purple eyes. He turned his gaze away from her and back to Shining Armor. “This actually works out better. Twilight can confirm my story.”
“Hm?” She looked at Copper and then at Shining Armor and back again. “What story?”
“The story of that night a few weeks ago,” he said and took a deep breath as Twilight's face turned to a frown. “I know Celestia asked you not to tell anyone...especially not Shining Armor or Princess-” he hesitated a moment. “Cadance.” Saying her full name was too much of a mouthful, but being so informal felt odd. “But it doesn't matter anymore if you did and it would actually make things a lot easier on everypony here if you had.”
Twilight shook her head. “No. I didn't tell them.”
He sighed slightly and shook his head. “Oh well...then I suppose I'll start with...” He paused; where was a good place to start? That night would be a good place to start, but it would seem out of context to the bigger picture. “Honestly it was hard to believe...when such a long time ago, aboard The False God...I was told that it was Celestia who had had it built...and had told it to destroy Manehatten...” He was met with a shocked silence and so after another deep breath, he continued. “I didn't believe it at that point. But when I woke up in the Badlands, with Queen Chrysalis to thank as my savior...”
“Her?” The anger in Cadance's voice was intense enough to make Copper lose his train of thought for a moment.
“Yes. Her. Of all the ponies in all the world, she brought me back, with the help of the Doctor.” He had not expected a reaction to that and did not get one. “And thanks to Twilight, we got all of me back, instead of just most of me. The Doctor did a lot of research, got information from only he knows where and we found out that Celestia was being controlled by something. At that time, we didn't know who, or what. But things were going to get worse and we had to stop it.”
“You just blindly followed what this guy had to say?” Shining Armor snapped, glaring at him.
Copper looked at him, not with anger, but with a sort of look that quelled his rage instantly. “No. But when I found out what Celestia had done to the changelings, to drive Chrysalis to such madness... I can say I believed a lot of things, not because he said them, but because I knew they were true.”
Cadance's rage had not been stifled in the least, “What could possibly-”
“Massacre,” Copper interrupted and she went silent. “The slaughter of changelings.” His eyes were locked to Shining Armor. “When was the kill order on all changelings put out, Shining Armor?”
“That day. When she was beaten,” he said, though there was a hint of a question in his tone.
He sighed, shaking his head. “The order has been in place years before that. But they had to be discreet about it. There were thousands of changelings living peacefully in Equestria. But it was slowly weeding them out. Ponies would go missing from time to time, vanishing completely... Why do you think when the order went out, you got papers on hundreds and hundreds of changelings? It knew all about them and it was antagonizing Chrysalis into retaliation, so that it would have an excuse.” He raised a hoof to silence Cadance before she could speak. “No,” he continued, “it doesn't absolve what Chrysalis did. But I'll ask you. How many ponies died during her invasion?”
“I...” Shining Armor hesitated, trying to think. “I don't know...”
Again he sighed. “None. Not a single pony died. Yes, countless were injured, but none died. But there were no injured changelings. Just a lot of dead ones.”
There were a few seconds of silence and everyone looked at Twilight, who sighed. “Celestia told me something...the real Celestia. Before she sent me up here...she said, Copper seems to be the only pony who knows what's actually going on...and that we need to trust him.”
“Real Celestia?” Shining Armor said, both he and Cadance were puzzled.
“Which brings me more to the point. With Chrysalis and the Doctor's help, along with several others...it came to light that it was King Sombra controlling Celestia.” He was met with a gasp from Cadence and watched as they both stared at Twilight as she nodded. “We beat him, but it left Celestia extremely weakened...to the point she could not walk.”
“So you-” Copper raised a hoof to silence Cadance, who seemed a lot quicker than Shining Armor.
“Yes. We're having Chrysalis pose as Celestia while she recovers,” Copper said and immediately set his hooves apart and glared at Shining Armor. “This is the part where you either stay right there, or I follow through with my threat.” Shining Armor had made a move towards him and lowered his head, but stopped when Copper spoke. He had a look that Copper had seen before. The kind of look you give somepony you plan to beat to death.
But Cadance moved to comfort him. “No. It was the right decision. If ponies had found that Celestia was in that bad of shape, they would have asked too many questions and everypony would have panicked.”
That seemed to alleviate the tension rather abruptly. “Exactly. Which is why I had to do it. I was not sure Celestia would even survive...let alone be able to do anything. But...that is the current state of affairs. King Sombra survived, not terribly surprising and I had to come here, because it's the only lead I have in even finding out what to do.” He took a deep breath and sat down. “He has more allies than we know and we have no idea what they're doing now.”
“So that's why there was such secrecy with you coming here,” Cadance said, as it looked like Shining Armor was still trying to calm down. Copper could hardly blame him for being angry, after what she had done.
“Honestly, too much secrecy. I would rather have been attacked and have somepony that we could get some information out of,” he said, wiping his brow.
“You can't use yourself as bait.” He looked up to see Cadance. She was taking all of this surprisingly well. If she had not been there...he might have actually had to fight Shining Armor.
But he straightened up a bit, squaring his shoulders. “Wouldn't be the first time. Wouldn't be the last.” The look she gave him made him sag slightly and sigh. “We're running out of options. Running out of leads. And probably running out of time...we don't know who his allies are, if they can help him regain power, if they even know of his defeat, or if they're going to reorganize into something worse.”
“What could be worse than The False God?” Twilight said, staring at him.
“Thankfully the plans were aboard the ship. And they-” he stopped and took a deep breath. “I'm certain they've silenced the builders...they wouldn't be able to get me to build it, either, but they'll-”
“You could build it?” Shining Armor said and Copper couldn't decide if it was anger, excitement, or something else in his voice.
But Copper just looked at him a moment and then sighed. “It was based off of my flight wing design. I sent a copy of my plans to Horsh. I'm not sure if he was one of the builders, or if they took the plans off of him...but-”
“Then it was your fault!”
“Shining Armor!” Twilight and Cadance both snapped, glaring at him.
Shining Armor ground his hooves into the ground as he glared at Copper. And Copper stood up. “Yes. It was my fault,” Copper said. “It got off the ground because of me.”
Twilight looked at him. “Copper...you couldn't have known.”
“Doesn't change the fact it was my fault. It was my designs that allowed the damnable thing to fly. And it got thousands killed. Including Horsh and myself...” He turned away from them, which in his head seemed a bit over dramatic, but he didn't want to look at them anymore. “And I will regret it my entire life. But like everything I regret, I've learned to live with it.”
Something caught his eye and he stared to try and figure out what it was. “Copper...you couldn't have known,” Cadance said, but Copper wasn't listening. “Just because you make something, doesn't mean you can control what others use it for.”
“Sometimes I don't feel what I do and what I need to do are the same. Yet I keep pushing forward,” he said as he took a few steps forward, trying to get a better look at what it was he was looking at. He shuddered and closed his eyes. It had to be his imagination. “But it doesn't matter.” He stretched his wing as the other three remained silent. “There is work to be done,” he said as he turned, to see them all staring at him. There was a moment of hesitation, as he felt he should say more, but he wanted to drop the subject. “Where is the Crystal Heart?”
~
He was quite honestly surprised that he had missed it. A large heart shaped crystal sitting out in the open was hard to miss. And they had walked right passed it on the way inside. It was immediately apparent that it had a vast amount of power. It looked almost...dangerous. He had only heard of it from Celestia, when the King Sombra events had occurred. He was not in Canterlot at that time...what was he doing at that point? Was he in Griflon? Or was he in Aquis? It was so hard to tell which days things happened. It was difficult for him to even remember when certain things happened to himself.
Somepony was talking and he brought his attention back, looking at Cadance, who had moved beside the Crystal Heart and was talking about something that quite frankly Copper had no interest in. “But do you know how it works?” he said, staring at it.
“It...” she hesitated and Copper guessed she was reminding herself who she was talking to. “No. It just...does.”
“No way to activate it? Or...deactivate it?” Copper was circling it now. He never thought it odd that small things had immense power. It seemed to be the way of the world. Power had nothing to do with size. Big or small didn't matter.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cadance shake her head. “No...not that we know.”
This...tingling feeling was starting to get on his nerve. What exactly was it? What did he see earlier that set this feeling off and why was this making it worse? And why in Equestria did he have the urge to touch it? “So you've just been sitting and hoping that it continues working...”
“Hasn't failed yet,” Shining Armor said, glaring at him. Copper stopped and stared at him. He had forgotten that he was there. Oh, and so was Twilight. “So we can rely on it.”
“For now,” he said as he moved closer, the feeling growing the closer he got. “Do not forget that it would have had to have failed in order for Sombra to take control the first time.” There was a few seconds of silence and Copper ground his hoof into the ground. “He is no longer a king. Therefore undeserving of the title. Honestly, you ponies and your titles...”
“Once a king, always a king,” Twilight said, though he could hear the slight uncertainty in her voice. “As a princess, is always a princess.”
“Princess of what...” he muttered, he could see his reflection in the crystal now, it looked...far away...distant. Or perhaps it was simply smaller than it should be?
Again somepony said something that he didn't catch. He turned and stared at Cadance a moment trying to figure it out. Apparently she decided to repeat herself, “So you really think he survived?”
He nodded and turned back to the crystal; the longer he looked, the odder his reflection looked. “I'm quite sure. And Celestia is sure, which is enough proof for any of us.” He really wanted to touch it, though immediately regretted it the instant he placed his hoof upon it.
~
What had he heard a long time ago? Power corrupts and something about...ah yes, and absolute power, corrupts absolutely. Where had he read that? He shook himself mentally, trying to get back to what he was doing. What was he doing? Oh right. Nothing. He wasn't doing anything. Everything had been done. Done as much as he could. Done it all. He could do it all. But what was this? What was before him? Oh yes. The Crystal Empire. His Empire. Everything was his. No one could stop him. Not now. Not with power. Not with this corruption. Not with this absolute corruption. Why would anyone stop him? Why would they try? What would be the point in defying him? Were the ponies unhappy? What is happy? What happened when you removed every ounce of freedom? Does that not mean that you are happy? What was happy? Yes, was. Was is proper. There is no is. Only was. There is only what there is left, which is what I left.
What of the Crystal Heart?
Yes, what of the Crystal Heart? Could that stop me? But it is mine and nopony knows where it is but me and nopony but me can get to it.
Are you sure?
What is sure? Sure. Yes, I am sure. Why do you question me?
I do not want you to fail.
What is to fail? I cannot fail. I am absolute corruption. Nothing stands before me. Everything falls. If I desire it, everything falls. Everything falls in front of me. Not the Crystal heart. And not her.
Do not think of her.
Right. Do not think of her. Think of anything but her. I'm not allowed to think of her. Why do my eyes hurt? Why is my face wet now? Why does my chest hurt?
It is because you do not listen.
Right. Listen. I must listen. Listening keeps the pain away. What am I doing? Oh yes. Nothing. Nothing to do but keep my power. I cannot lose. I am power.
You are power.
I am strong.
You are strong.
I am corrupt.
You are corrupt.
What have I done?
~
When Copper came to, he found several ponies around him and he waved a hoof vaguely. He coughed as he got up and with the way everypony looked at him, it was as if they expected him to spit blood. “Right then. No touchy...” He shook himself and coughed again. He was quite a distance from the Crystal Heart now, in the street. Did they move him, or was it trying to get rid of him? “Well then...” He sniffed and looked around again. There was a lot of different ponies around, including several crystal ponies. “That ever happen before?”
Cadance moved forward, shaking her head. “No...”
“Oh goody. I'm special,” he mumbled, as he made his way to the stairs, slowly. But not slow enough to make it look like he was struggling. He felt a tad dizzy and maybe a tad nauseous, but now public appearance was important. Oh Celestia his appearance. How did he look? He couldn't tell from the reflection of the Crystal Heart. Now he needed to find out how he looked. He was sure that the train wreck must have messed him up, especially with the minimum healing he got.
“Are you all right?” Twilight came up beside him, she sounded very worried.
“Fine. Just another day being me. Explosions, assassinations, inanimate objects making me hear some kind of weird conversation.” There was a bit of hesitation as he thought. “I don't think that it's actually the first time that that's happened, so I'm sure I can chalk it up to something that happens often.”
The look on Twilight's face was a mixture of confusion and concern. Copper couldn't help but laugh. “Copper. I'm being serious. Are you all right?”
He smiled at her and nodded. “Yes. I'm fine. That was just...weird. Though weird is pretty normal to me, so I'm not sure if I'm the best judge of that. But, I'd like a clear look at myself right now.”
She smiled a bit, though it seemed a little forced. “I think you need to clean yourself up before you take that good look at yourself.”
Copper chuckled softly as he followed her as she headed up the stairs. They were followed by Shining Armor and Cadance. “That bad, eh?”
“Pretty bad. But, you've looked worse.” There was a smile there, though he couldn't see it; it was in her tone of voice.
“Good to know. Doubt I'll ever look that bad again...” He hesitated and then shrugged. “Well, hopefully.”
She led him to a bathroom and stood outside. “I'll have to talk with them and try and explain things a bit more in detail.”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “All right. Thank you, Twilight... I think I just need a break from ponies for a while...” She simply nodded and closed the door behind him. Again he took a deep breath and then moved to the mirror to look at himself. He had to be honest to himself and admit that he thought it was worse. The scar over his right shoulder looked like it had been the worst wound he got, a couple scratches here and there, three new scars on his face. “Damn it...” he said, leaning in a moment before pulling his goggles off and staring at the cracked lens. He sighed and set them down by the wash basin. How long have I had those? he thought as he moved to the tub and began filling it with fairly hot water. The nick in his ear was annoying, that probably had bled quite a lot. He moved towards the mirror again, staring at the three scars. He must have gone out of the train on his right side, as his left seemed unscathed. His wing wasn't even scratched but it had broken.
Ironic.
But he had looked worse, that was for sure. He moved over to the water and got into the tub; the heat was more of a comfort than he could possibly have imagined. He didn't realize how much he ached. How sore he was. Years of pushing himself past his limit had given him a high tolerance, but this truly felt good. He turned off the water before it got too full, just enough so that he could lay and submerge himself if he wanted. Which he proceeded to do. Aquis was probably his favorite place to go. Partially for Jeta and partially for just the feeling of weightlessness and being submerged. It always made him feel good and-
He stared at the ceiling through the rippling water. He surfaced slowly and what he thought he saw was still there. “What have I done?” he read slowly. Within the ceiling, almost as if from far away, it was written. Over and over again.