//------------------------------// // 8) Troubling Events in Ponyville // Story: Heart's Flame // by ChaosSlayer //------------------------------// The Mayor's face grew ever more tense with worry at each passing minute of Twilight's story. As she trotted around her room in thought her hooves made a monotonous slow tone of focus and worry. She stopped as Twilight finished speaking and looked outside of her window. The usual happy sunlit streets of Ponyville now seemed a lot more grim than usual. An image of fire and destruction flashed before her eyes, an image which she could not bear to watch. She closed her eyes and turned back to the six. "This definitely isn't looking good for us... Twilight Sparkle, can you contact the Princesses and inform them of our problem?" "Sorry Mayor but... Spike is still hospitalised, and without his already oddly weak fire I can't send anything to Princess Celestia..." Sighing, the Mayor looked dramatically into the empty space behind the ponies before looking back to them. "We have no choice but to take the matter in our own hooves. Rainbow Dash, fly out and inform everypony that there'll be an extra-important emergency meeting in the town square in 2 hours. Fluttershy, please go to the Everfree Forest and inform Zecora that we could use her help. Also, please try and find any creatures that are willing to help in battle because we'll need everypony and creature when fighting." The cyan pony complied immediately, dragging her yellow friend out of the office. "Applejack, I need you to inform the farms around Ponyville and tell them that we need their help. Also, tell Big Macintosh to loosen his harness. He may need to drop it for the next few days. Pinkie Pie, you're in charge of storing us food in case of a siege." Both ran their respective ways. "Rarity, get all the possible gemstones you can find in your boutique and bring them to the Town Hall. Twilight Sparkle, please try and find all unicorns capable of enchanting gemstones and get them to the Town Hall as well. We'll need Heat Gems, Light Gems, Fire Gems, Electricity Gems and Explosion Gems. Make sure nopony overdoes themselves, we'll need magic in battle." Once again, both left instantly to take care of Mayor's orders. The Mayor herself buried her head in her hooves, the old images of devastation appearing to her once again. She lived through that hell when she was a filly and she wasn't going to allow something like that again. The room has appeared the very moment that Spike felt his sense of reality fading, the last drop of his energy disappearing. He lay curled on the floor until he felt strong enough to look up. Once again there was the diamond wall. Once again there was 'the other room'. Once again there was the chained Spike. This time, however, the chained Spike was awake and staring right at the free Spike. The free one got back to his feet and walked up to the wall. "Awake, huh?" asked the chained Spike, reaching for a gemstone to eat. "Wow, how did you guess?" said the free Spike, looking away. The chained himself gave a short laugh, "Yeah, sarcasm...large part of our life, ain't it Me?" Free Spike growled, "I'm not in the mood for talking with you. You're not real. Besides, talking with myself isn't exactly sane." "Trust me Spike, I'm as much of a Spike as you. To be honest, we're both real. In a way." ". . ." "Yeah, I know how ridiculous that sounds, but I have no other explanation. I've been here only for a few days, so I know little about what's going on here. What I know, however, I can tell you." The free Spike examined his room, then the chained Spike's room. Then he sighed. He didn't know how to get out of here anyway. "Hit me with it." The chained Spike grinned as a cup full of punch materialised in his claw, "You might wanna imagine yourself a chair. I might blow your mind, and we wouldn't like a large earthquake here, now would we?" "Ponies!" exclaimed the Mayor through the louder-than-usual meeting chatter. It wasn't always that meetings were happening so fast, thus an aura of worry held the crowd in the town square to hear out their Mayor. As the Mayor spoke, all other conversations ended abruptly and everypony focused on the mare. "Everypony, I ask you to remain calm as I explain why I've gathered you all here. Our investigation of the mysterious shocks has revealed a group of miners who call themselves Diamond Dogs. They have shown violence towards our investigation team and intentions on launching an assault at Ponyville." Gasps of fear have begun in the audience, but the Mayor still had a few things to say. "Under those circumstances I must declare a state of emergency, code red. Everypony below adult age will stay in the Schoolhouse under the supervision or an adult and must remain if the battle happens and until it's over. Unicorns which have been earlier approached by Twilight Sparkle are to appear in the Town Hall at the end of this meeting. Pegasi will be briefed on their job by Weather Team Captain Rainbow Dash at the end of this meeting. Everypony else will go to a separate meeting to the Park where I'll explain your roles. Ms. Cheerilee will now escort the youth to the schoolhouse. This meeting is over." She stepped down from the podium and watched as ponies split up - groups of earth ponies trotted towards the park, unicorns either left towards the Town Hall or teleported in flashes of light while Pegasi opened their wings and flew about in anticipation. The Mayor gulped and took off towards the park. The fate of Ponyville depended on her decisions and probability of a miracle happening. "Hold up a second, let me get this straight." said the free Spike (who we'll now call Spike 1), cutting off the chained Spike (which shall now be dubbed Spike 2). "You mean to tell me that when you ate the Heart's Flame, your entire personality of caution and cowardice was locked away and I was born as the personality of courage and carelessness. You were chained inside our mind and you slept during the night while I controlled our body during the morning and when I lost consciousness or went asleep I appeared in this room?" Spike 2 nodded, "In a nutshell, yes." Spike 1 laughed, "Yeah, just as I thought. I'm crazy. This makes no sense. For example, why do I remember everything I did before I ate Heart's Flame, or why is your room all decorated while mine is just a prison?" "Well, our personalities aren't connected to our memories, so obviously you would remember what I have done. And about those rooms... I have no idea, really. Maybe it's got something to do with my personality changing as I grew and you just... kinda appeared without no real evolution." "Whatever. Your theory misses a very important aspect, genius." "Oh yeah? What is it?" "If Heart's Flame made me with so much courage then where did all of the 'power' go? I can barely summon a flame!" Spike 2 scratched his chin, which looked ridiculously hilarious because he looked like he was searching for a beard. Finally, he looked around himself. "What if... the light in our rooms represents how much power we have, and all the power from Heart's Flame actually went to me?" "In that case we're in trouble. We have a 'reckless' but brave me with no power and all skill and a 'careful' but cowardly you with all the power but no skill. Either way we'd lose." And then silence. The shocks have been happening for some time, gradually getting stronger. As they intensified, two dark shapes could be seen in the background, getting closer and closer... Rows of earth ponies have created a thick wall, each pony stomping their hooves from nervousness and excitement. They quickly got into a rhythm, louder and clearer than any war drum. Pegasi spun in the air, each one with a bag of Explosive Gems enchanted by the unicorns. The winged scouts were ready to lay waste to the enemy machines with the bombs, their wings at full length from the excitement and flopping in their own beat of battle. Unicorns were behind the front wall, slowly chattering about what spells to use and how to focus them to deal the most damage. This created an ominous hum around the entire 'army'. The Mayor smiled grimly as she looked at this army. This was, in any shape or form, art. She succeeded at creating what her ancestors could not - a defence army for Ponyville. She remembered her childhood - attacks of dark creatures at Ponyville, the panic, horrors of battle... Most ponies who were present back then were either dead or very old and didn't remember. She was just a filly at the time but she remembered it fine. Although the event was erased from the Ponyville Historical archives and was called 'a myth' by the new generation, she remembered. Back then nopony could bring themselves to fight, and if it wasn't for Princess Celestia's last-minute intervention, Ponyville would've disappeared completely. Not even Mayor Claudia, her grandmother and the Mayor of the time could gather anypony to fight. But her? She didn't just gather anypony.ready to battle. She easily created what you could call an army. Maybe it was just this generation, maybe it was just the fact that they got a warning, but she did it, and she wasn't going to let Ponyville burn down without a fight. The enemies were already visible. Two huge machines - a dragon and a miner dog - accompanied by an army of other miner dogs. There was definitely nearly equal number of fighters on both sides, but those robots were ominous. In the end they could've decided on the result of the battle. Both armies eyed each other. In the eyes of the ponies there was anger, fear and excitement. The eyes of the dogs remained expressionless - they either had no emotions or hid them perfectly. The Mayor was looking at Rover - the depicted leader of Diamond Dogs. He was looking at her. Obviously they were both silently waiting for each other's decisions. The music of ponies slowly faded and silence filled the air until one side finally got bored of waiting. Rover barked an attacking command. The Mayor instantly responded with a shout. Both armies clashed. Spike 2 slammed his claw on a gemstone, breaking the silence. "What do you mean by 'either way we'd lose'? I have power! I could just burn their huge robots!" Spike 1 laughed. "You probably have no idea how to use the power other than just blowing fire. I already thought up of some ways in which it could be used. Besides, you think they'd just let you stand here and blow fire all around? You wouldn't even be able to dodge a simple attack! You'd probably run away the second it got too tough." "Well, it'd be a better effort than running into battle hot-headed and just hoping that your little circus tricks would entertain them to death." "If that huge diamond wall wasn't between us I'd punch you." "Like a reckless hot-headed brute." Silence fell again. . . . "Alright, I admit. I can be a little reckless sometimes. I suppose I could use being a bit more careful." said Spike 1. "Well, I have to admit that although I'm careful I am sometimes cowardly. I definitely could use some more courage. That's why I took Heart's Flame in the first place." Like a lightning bolt, realisation struck both of them at the same time. "Wait a second... we're opposites! We're doing it wrong!" said Spike 2, getting up and walking up to the diamond wall with his chains rumbling on the ground. "We're not supposed to argue! We're supposed to co-operate!" exclaimed Spike 1, putting his claw on the wall. The wall was... melting. "If we worked together, we'd negate each other's weaknesses." "My courage would overcome your cowardice." "Exactly, and my carefulness would overshadow your recklessness." Their claws were leaning closer and closer as the wall melted into thin air. "Then you'd have my skill..." "...and you'd have my power..." "...but for that..." "...we'd need to be one dragon." The wall disappeared completely. Both Spikes touched each other's claws and immediately the room of the mind vanished into darkness, forever. Spike awakened, startled. He suddenly felt full of energy, even more than he was before fighting the Diamond Dogs. Was I really in my mind? he thought, but then he looked around himself. There were ponies everywhere. Broken bones, unconsciousness, blood loss... All of the doctors were running around the patients, trying to save them. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Zecora tending to a lime-coloured pegasus. It's happening. The next part must be told from the perspective of one of the doctors who just happened to look at Spike. He saw the dragon look around himself, and he was already on his way to take care of him when something happened, something that you wouldn't have noticed if you weren't looking directly at the dragon. One second he's in his bed. Next, he disappeared. His blanket is in mid air. The doors slams open. Everypony else is startled, but only this doctor is truly amazed. This feat could only be compared to the flight speed of Rainbow Dash, but even then she might've been a tad slower. It was weird. He had no idea where Spike could have had such energy and ability in his little body. But then again, barely anypony knew anything about dragons. She asked them if anypony wished to stay out of this. Nopony spoke up. They didn't even regret it. They gave it their all. The dog army decreased to half its size but there was nearly no ponies. They were knocked out, beat up and in the hospital. As she thought, those robots were the greatest force in this battle. The only ponies still on the battlefield were the Elements of Harmony and her. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity fired their magic at the enemies. Applejack bucked through the enemies. Pinkie Pie's rage caused by the hospitalisation of a lot of her friends also caused great damage to the army. Rainbow Dash flew around them and tossed Explosive Gems at them. Fluttershy didn't fight, but she had two manticores willing to battle for her kindness, and they also tore through the army. Even so, the robots were nearly undamaged. The Mayor was behind them, directing what was left of the assault and allowing the hurt ponies to get to hospital. Still, the outcome of the battle was obvious. The only thing that could save them was a very powerful miracle. One which was about to happen. A loud shout of "OUTTA MY WAY!" sounded from the back of Ponyville. The fighting stopped. Everypony and everydog looked back. The voice sounded familiar to both armies... Rainbow Dash flew up and looked in that direction. If she wasn't in the air her jaw would hit the ground. "It's a running fireball!" she shouted, and everypony looked at her like she was crazy. Then the running fireball ran past them, leaving a fiery trail. "...Spike?" asked Rarity as it ran past her, but the fireball stayed silent until it ran up to the dragon robot. "NO FORGIVENESS!" he shouted, jumping. Spike's body, covered in flames, tore right through the torso of the dragon machine and flew into the air before landing behind the army. Then he turned around and punched the air before him, a huge flame flying out of his fist and knocking back the army. He leapt back with his fire and landed between both armies. "Try me, doggies." he said, grinning as he thought his plan through again. The flames around his body disappeared, leaving just a reddish glow on his purple scales and steam coming out from under them. "I'm even faster now that I kicked into Second Gear. If you wanna beat up the rest of my friends, go past me."