Pilate trotted through the storm. Slick rivulets of rain cascaded down his striped coat. He teetered dizzily left and right, stretching a hoof forward to feel for any breaks in the platform.
He tripped multiple times, but it wasn't until ten paces forward that he slipped hard enough to fall chest-first against the granite. "Ooof!" He winced, his muzzle grimacing under a dull plate of runes. He bent his aching limbs in an effort to shuffle forward, but collapsed again with an exhausted sigh.
On the verge of tears, the zebra lay there, curling his legs up as his body lingered in the puddle while hurricane winds howled overhead.
On a faraway platform, Bellesmith trotted through heavier winds, bracing Eagle Eye's shield ahead of her in order to force her way through the gales. She struggled up a slanted crevice formed from when the temple collided with another platform.
At last, through trial and error, she forced her way beneath a half-collapsed overhang being supported by cracked columns. Once free of the howling winds, Belle plunged forward, pratfalling onto the floor with a stifled yelp. Eagle Eye's shield clattered, rattling to a stop, echoing in her ears with metallic reverberations.
She winced from the noise. However, as the rattling faded, she heard something softer, gentler taking its place. Curious, she squinted one chestnut eye open, then the other. She blinked, her muzzle hanging agape.
A figure lay in open view several feet away, clinging to the bottom ridges of an ancient marble colum. The sheets of rain beyond gave the tiny thing a shivering silhouette, like a swatted fly dying against a window pane.
Belle blinked, her eyes narrowing. Cautiously she reached over and slid the shield back into the crook of her hoof. She shuffled towards the figure on three legs, approaching with caution.
The closer she got, the more pronounced the sobs became. Belle saw a figure in constant flux, its limbs expanding and contracting every other second. A black exoskeleton gave way to a solid shell. Scales appeared before vanishing once more into a glossy obsidian. In bursts of green flame, dragonfly wings spread and then shrank from sight. All the while, the only constant thing was a deep cut that lingered across the back/shell of the creature, leaking with green slime.
Breathless, Bellesmith stood above the shape-shifting creature, her eyes turning glossy with shock. "...Elma?"
A beak appeared on the mouth of the thing, replaced swiftly by fangs. Tears evaporated into emerald smoke, and all the creature could do was stammer, "My children... my precious children..." She curled up, her reptilian/equine legs fluctuating beneath her. "Home... I-I want to go h-home..." A hissing breath, followed by a moan. "I can't... I-I just can't... oh my little d-darlings..."
Belle's face grimaced. "Oh Spark..." She seethed, her eyes lingering on the grotesque contours of the pained beast. She nevertheless shuffled forward, clenching her jaw tight. Finally, she sat directly beside the creature. Her gaze fell upon a vulnerable spot in its neck. Bellesmith's hooves gripped the shield tighter, angling its blunt end downwards. Sucking her breath in, Belle turned her head away and slowly began raising the bludgeon up... up...
"Mmmmfnngh... b-beloved..." the changeling spat.
Bellesmith froze in place, her eyes widening. She peaked at the monster from around the raised shield.
"I... I love..." It sputtered, sobbed. Its head turned towards the ceiling as stripes formed across its exoskelton. Clear eyes twitched beneath a runic plate. "He loves... he loves you so much..." Fanged teeth appeared beneath the dark muzzle, then vanished again. "That's why... th-that's why I saved him..."
Belle's lips parted. "Saved... h-him...?"
"I could not let him perish..." It a burst of flame, the zebra's face disappeared, replaced by the wretching changeling as it buried its face into its porous forelimbs. "I had to b-be sure... I had to know that somepony's love was real!"
Bellesmith stared, panting in stunned silence. The changeling spoke, and she listened.
"Pilate!" Props screamed, lunging forward.
It was too late. The stallion plummeted from the base of the large building. Blindly, the breathless zebra spun and spiraled. His legs kicked at the air as the wind carried him aloft, flinging him towards the temples exploding throughout the depths of Stratopolis...
Seconds before he could be smashed to a pulp, a pair of black forelimbs gripped his shoulders.
Pilate gasped, sputtering rain water out his muzzle. Above him, a wincing, bleeding changeling flew on intinctive dragonfly wings, carrying the stallion towards the first platform within sight. Dropping him without ceremony, the thing that was once Elma stumbled across the rain-slicked granite, quivered in distress, then took off in a dark blur, leaving the surviving zebra behind.
Belle fell back on her haunches, exhaling with a squeaky tone.
"I know now that love is all th-that matters..." The changeling whimpered. "But it's not for me. It's not for an imposter... a monster..." She nuzzled the granite floor of the temple, exhaling vaporous breaths of green smoke. "Geughhh... don't deserve... d-don't deserve to live... to t-take the name and b-body of my children's mother... Elma's children... oh blessed heavens what am I?" She fell into a fit of uncontrollable wailing.
Bellesmith wasn't paying attention to her anymore. Her eyes were elsewhere. Her mind was elsewhere. Her chest rose and fell with increasingly heavy breaths. Her pupils shrank as she ran a hoof over her quivering mouth.
Slowly, with quiet spasms, Pilate tilted his head up. He faced the pelting rain, his ears perking up straight, as if hearing something from beyond the wind.
With an inward groan, he sat up, wiping the moisture off his muzzle as he panted into the constant drizzle.
"Bellesmith..."
He gritted his teeth while his face flexed vulnerably. His blind eyes twitched.
"Doctor Bellesmith...?"
"Shhhh. I'm activating the manasphere now, Pilate."
"How will I know if it's working?"
"Heehee... trust me. You'll know." A slight whining noise. "Okay... and... brace yourself..."
Flash! The choker around the zebra's neck pulsed brightly.
The stallion gasped, sitting up straight in his hospital bed. The runes across his skull flickered one after another. His gray eyes blinked several times and darted around.
"Shhhhh-shhhh..." A yellow hoof graced his shoulder, then his chin. "Not with your eyes, but with your mind."
"My... m-my mind?"
"Yes. No doubt you have a brilliant one."
"But... but how...?"
"We've talked about this. Simply... push your consciousness towards the sound of my voice."
"Push... my consciousness..."
"That's right."
Pilate bit his lip. His face tensed. A few seconds later, the sphere positioned against his choker unhitched itself and floated forward. The ball twirled left and right, flickering a bright beam everywhere. "Enngh..." He winced.
"Slowly... concentrate..."
"It's... it's just so much..."
"My voice, Pilate. Remember?"
"Right..." He took steadier breaths, and in slow order the O.A.S.I.S. sphere drifted towards the side of the bed. It bumped into a mare's chest. "Whoops," he murmured.
"Heehee... It's okay. Now, have a look. Hmmm?"
Pilate sat perfectly still while the runes on his forehead's plate pulsed back and forth. The floating sphere levitated perfectly in place, then proceeded to scan the mare sitting next to his bed.
"I... I'm seeing..." Pilate thought aloud, his face awash in awe. "I'm feeling..."
"Good... good..."
"A fuzzy coat... a chin... a muzzle..." He slowly smiled. "Long, flowing mane. Doctor, it's working!"
"Hmmmmm..." Belle's lips smiled once the light beam crossed over it. "I do believe we have a breakthrough."
"I'll say!" Joyous, Pilate sat up further, twirling the O.A.S.I.S. sphere around with his mind. "I see the bedframe... a cabinet... the lab equipment. Doctor, I sense the whole room!"
"Easy, now." Belle patted his shoulder. "It was only built for close-range. Don't overload the neural connections."
"I-I can even read the medical report on the table here!" Pilate practically giggled like a young colt. "It has today's date and everything! Oh, Doctor, it's a miracle!" He swung the sphere towards her again. "You're a miracle worker—" His muzzle hung open in mid sentence and his ears folded back.
Belle sat still, smiling gently. The manasphere's light had cascaded over her forehead, illuminating the contours of a stubby horn wrapped under tight bandages.
Pilate's lips quivered. "You... you're..." His sphere floated over the empty bed behind her then back to where the mare sat on the stool by his side. "You're a patient here?"
"That I am, Pilate."
"But... but how... why?" He sucked in his breath. The manasphere almost collapsed, forcing Belle to catch it. "The zeppelin crash. At Mountainfall." He grimaced. "You... you were h-hurt, weren't you?"
A warm pair of hooves placed the sphere back into place against his choker, then gently took his forelimbs in hers. "I was blessed, Pilate. I was fortunate enough to utilize my talents in ways I never had the opportunity to do before."
"But... h-how can you say that?!" He shivered, gnashing his teeth. "All th-this time! You were just as hurt as me!"
"I've not been blinded, Pilate—"
"Doctor, your horn! I..." He grimaced. "I'm sorry... I-I'm so sorry! If I had known..."
"Shhhh..." Belle stroked his hooves. "Don't be sorry. You've given me something very special, Pilate."
He gulped. "And what in Spark's name is that?"
"Hope," she said softly, though her voice shook somewhat. A sniffling sound. "And faith that I still had something to accomplish." She chuckled slightly and squeezed his hooves again. "You are that proof, Pilate. My life has plenty of experiments left, thanks to you."
The stallion shuddered, tilting his head towards the bed as he focused on the feel of their hooves touching.
"Now... think you're up for some more testing?" Belle smiled. "Soon, I should be able to teach you how to sense even the tiniest fractures in a solid surface."
"Uhm... sure..." He nodded, all the while bearing a crooked grin. "Though, to be honest, your gorgeous face is a hard act to follow..."
Belle blinked, then snickered. "Why, thank you. Y'know, you're not too shabby yourself, handsome."
"Heheh..." The stallion's stripes turned a little rosy. "Much oblidged, Doctor."
"Please..." She patted his hooves lightly. "Call me 'Belle.'"
A tear rolled down her face. She hunched over, clutching a pair of hooves over her quivering muzzle. After several dry heaves, she mewled into the misty air. "Pilate... my beloved..." She gritted her teeth hard. At last, she looked up, staring at the changeling through blurred vision.
The shapeshifter was standing up on wobbly hooves. Its turtle shell disappeared long enough for it to spread its dragon wings into the random gusts of wind. Suddenly, a pair of yellow forelimbs wrapped around its petite shell. The changeling gasped and struggled, falling back into Belle's embrace. "Guhhh! Don't... d-don't! Let me go!" It shrieked in and out of multiple voices, its eyes flickering with emerald flame. "I'm a monster!"
"No." Belle held on tight.
"Stop it! I'll only... only h-hurt—"
"I'm not going to leave you, Elma," Belle said, anchoring the creature in place. She nuzzled the back of its skull. "I'm going to get us out of here. Do you hear me?"
"But..."
"The two of us!"
"I'm nothing!" the thing shrieked, fighting to slither out of the mare's grasp. "They tr-tricked me! I'm not Elma Boreal—"
"Yes you are!"
"The mother from Alafreo is dead—!"
"All I know is that the friend I made on the Noble Jury... the soul who reached out to me and saved my beloved from death is right here in my hooves." Belle nuzzled her again, sniffling. "And she is real, and I am not about to abandon her when she needs me! I'm going to get you out of here, Elma. And you're going to live your own life... a life where you get to be who you want to be and enjoy what you deserve to enjoy."
"Don't..." The changeling wept, laying limp in the mare's embrace. "Please, don't..." With flashes of green energy, stripes appeared and disappeared across her body. "You have n-no idea. The love. It hurts. I'm so confused and all the love does is hurt."
"I know," Belle said. She sniffled and clenched her tear-stained jaw. "And I'm sorry. But I'm not going to let you die out here. I'm not going to let you give up." She turned the limp creature around and stared into its face. "We must never give up. Do you understand me?"
The creature stared at her, its eyes round and its shell rattling. "Do you?"
"I'm starting to..." Belle gave a bittersweet smile. "Thanks to you."
The shape-shifter blinked. Its body stayed the same, but its eyes formed soft reptilian slits.
Belle took a deep breath. "Can you walk?"
"I..." Elma gulped, trembling. "I c-can fly, but the rest of me feels... f-feels so weak... I... I c-can't even stay in one shape..."
"Then don't try," Bellesmith said. "And rest your wings." She heaved the shapeshifter onto her backside with a slight grunt. "Can you grab ahold?"
"Y-yes..."
"Good. Stick close to me." Belle picked up the shield and used it as a crutch as she carried the two of them towards a careening granite staircase, ascending to the next level. "One way or another, we're going to find our way to the rest of the Jurists."
"And th-then what?"
"Let me worry about that. I'm good at thinking on my hooves."
"Really...?"
Belle smirked devilishly into the wind and rain. "You haven't seen me when I'm stupid."
Pilate stared blankly into the chaotic depths of Stratopolis. His breaths grew longer, fuller. His nostrils flared and flared again. At last, he stood straight up, impervious to the pelting rain.
"This is nothing..." He trudged fearlessly forward, grunting in anger more than discomfort. "All of this is nothing!"
He marched with heavy hooves. As soon as he felt a break in the rain, he galloped forward a few steps, relishing in having discovered an interior portion of the floating temple he was on.
"We will find each other," he snarled, he roared. "Blindness be damned. I've fallen from greater heights and lived." He felt his way forward, finding a hallway that he swiftly navigated, shuffling across the fractured granite wall leaking with precipitous moisture. "The Noble Jury has no hope of finding me... because—by Spark—I'm going to find it first."
As Pilate shuffled bravely on, he was oblivious to the sheets of rain cascading outside... along with the dark shadow positioned against the waterfall, standing dead-still, watching him silently from afar.